Fast Car Magazine

Fast Car was the pioneering British magazine of modified car culture — the first UK magazine devoted to the modified car scene, covering tuned and styled cars, the people who build them and the culture that surrounds them. Launched in April 1987 in Orpington, Kent, it chronicled the rise of Britain's modified car movement from its earliest days through to the digital era. Owned in its later years by Kelsey Media and based in Westerham, the magazine published 438 print issues before ceasing print publication with its Winter 2021 issue, continuing thereafter as an online-only brand at fastcar.co.uk.

The First Magazine of Modified Car Culture

When Fast Car launched in April 1987, no British magazine was dedicated to modified cars. Published by Security Publications as an evolution of a short-lived title called Power and Style, it began as a performance car magazine but quickly found its true calling in the emerging world of modified machinery — lowered suspensions, body kits, alloy wheels, engine tuning and custom interiors. In doing so it gave Britain's car modifiers a publication of their own for the first time, and it would define the genre for the next three decades.

The Max Power Rivalry

Fast Car's history is inseparable from that of its great rival, Max Power. In 1993 the magazine's editorial team wanted to develop the title in a more street-racing direction, but the publisher — by then called SPL Publishing — rejected the idea. One of Fast Car's contributing writers, Graham Steed, left the company, joined the rival publishing house EMAP and founded Max Power, which rapidly became Fast Car's biggest and fiercest competitor. In 1994 Fast Car became a computer-designed, full-colour, perfect-bound magazine and, following Max Power's lead, shifted its focus toward street racing and modifying rather than motorsport. By 1997 the title had embraced cruise culture and lifestyle content. Max Power would go on to outsell the entire motoring market before closing in 2011; Fast Car, the older title, outlasted it by a decade.

Ownership Through the Years

Fast Car changed hands several times as the magazine industry consolidated. Security Publications was acquired by Highbury House in 2000, and when Highbury ran into difficulties, Future Publishing — already publishing the rival title Redline in the same market — bought Fast Car from Highbury House in 2005. In 2014 Future sold its motoring magazines, including Fast Car, to the independent Kent publisher Kelsey Media, which was already home to titles such as Car Mechanics. Under Kelsey the magazine was published thirteen times a year from Westerham, with Jules Truss as editor and Phil Weeden as publisher.

What Fast Car Covered

At its heart, Fast Car was always about readers' cars. Its signature content was the feature car — in-depth showcases of modified machines from across the UK, spanning Japanese performance cars, European hot hatches and homegrown British builds, documented with full modification lists and specifications. The magazine's "Reader's Rides" section judged everything from the finest show cars to humble daily drivers, celebrating the creativity of ordinary enthusiasts. Alongside the cars, Fast Car covered the scene's essential elements: the latest tuning parts and styling products, how-to guides, and the models, music and lifestyle that formed the culture around the modified car.

The Shows: SEMA, Wörthersee and TRAX

Fast Car's writers travelled the world to document modified car culture at its biggest gatherings. The magazine reported from SEMA in Las Vegas, the American aftermarket industry's vast annual showcase; from Wörthersee in Austria, the legendary lakeside gathering of Volkswagen and Audi enthusiasts; and from TRAX, the UK's own flagship modified car show at Silverstone. This international coverage gave British readers a window onto the global scene and confirmed the magazine's status as the authoritative chronicler of car culture.

Events: From Ultimate Fast Car to Ultimate Street Car

The magazine was also an event organiser. In 1992 it hosted its first drag-racing "Run What Ya Brung" event, named Ultimate Fast Car, which awarded prizes to the winners of each category. Co-hosted with Retro magazine in 1996, the event ran successfully until 1997, when the meeting descended into chaos — an unauthorised doughnut display, tents driven over by hooligans in the camping area, the security company walking away, and heavy rain washing out the Bank Holiday Monday runs. For the following year the event was replaced by Ultimate Street Car, a more disciplined competition for road-legal modified cars that continues to run to this day and remains one of the pillars of the UK modified scene.

Stickers, Posters and Covermounts

Part of Fast Car's appeal, particularly in its 1990s and 2000s heyday, was the sheer generosity of the package. Issues came stuffed with extras: stickers, posters, CDs and DVDs and other car-related gadgets mounted on the cover. In an era before broadband made such content freely available, a Fast Car covermount DVD of modified car footage was a genuine treasure for a teenage enthusiast. The magazine understood its audience's desires with an instinct few titles could match, and it delivered them with exuberance.

The End of Print: Issue 438

After 34 years on the newsstand, Fast Car ceased print publication following issue 438, the Winter 2021 issue, and became an online-only brand. The decision reflected the realities of the modern magazine market: print circulations across the motoring press had been declining for years, while the modified car community had migrated decisively to social media, YouTube and forums. The magazine's circulation in its final print years stood at around 60,000. The closure of the print edition marked the end of an era for British car culture — the last survivor of the great 1990s modified-magazine wars leaving the newsstand.

Fast Car Online

The Fast Car brand continues at fastcar.co.uk, where the title's coverage of modified cars, car culture, shows and products lives on in digital form. The website serves the same community the print magazine built over three decades, and the brand maintains a presence on social media. For a generation of enthusiasts who grew up with the magazine, the Fast Car name remains synonymous with the modified car scene itself.

Redline and the Wider Modified Press

Fast Car was never entirely alone in the modified-car market, though it was always the genre's defining title. Its most persistent secondary rival was Redline, launched by Future Publishing in April 1988, which competed in the same sector but never approached the readership of Fast Car or Max Power. Other titles came and went — including a short-lived relaunch of Performance Car in 2008–09 — but the modified magazine market was essentially a two-horse race between Fast Car and Max Power through the 1990s and 2000s. When Max Power closed in 2011, Fast Car stood alone as the last representative of the scene's print era, a position it held for another decade until its own print closure in 2021.

Why Fast Car Matters

Fast Car matters because it invented and then defined an entire genre of British motoring publishing. Before Fast Car, Britain's car modifiers had no magazine of their own; after it, modified car culture had a bible, a meeting place and a chronicler. It launched careers, built a community, organised events that still run today and outlasted every rival — including the mighty Max Power that was born from its own rejected ideas. Across 438 issues and 34 years, Fast Car told the story of Britain's love affair with the modified car, and that story remains essential to understanding modern British car culture.