Postgraduate Lives: Examining the need for speed

Zannagh Hatton, PhD student at Plymouth University

Zannagh Hatton is in her early forties and has been researching boy racers

Zannagh Hatton is in her early forties and has been researching boy racers

My PhD thesis is called "Tarmac Cowboys", and it's an examination of the modern world of boy racers. "Boy racer" is a term used to describe a particular group of young men, aged between 17 and 24, who adopt a similar style in dress, music and cars. They drive sporty hatches which are "modded" - for example with huge exhaust pipes and lowered suspension - so the cars look squat and menacing.

Boy racers are often looked down upon by the police, by mainstream society and by the media. Because they meet in public spaces and drive noisy cars with loud music systems they are regarded as accidents waiting to happen. But I believe many are merely lost boys who use their cars as symbols of status and rebellion.

What I found fascinating is that they are often youngsters who have grown up in a fragmented family environment where the father is a shadowy figure in the background playing an occasional walk-on role. The group they hang out in becomes their family, one they have constructed for themselves.

Some boy racers are practically talented, but not always academically gifted. Many have been excluded from school, have dyslexia, or have dropped out of college. They talk about being invisible. They see themselves as rebels, as protesters against a system which seeks to control them and thwart their ambitions, whether that means being told "you can't drive your car here" or "you can't have this job because you aren't qualified".

My research started at various garages, and then the lads I met would parade friends of theirs. I was a bit of a novelty factor. They got kudos for "going to see the bird who's writing a book about us". However, I was brought up in a car environment - my father raced bikes and cars - so I'm knowledgeable about car performance.

The racers congregate at car-parks, at McDonald's and on industrial estates. They set out to get thrills, but when they meet it's more about showing off and demonstrating skills. Sometimes they strip race, seeing who can drive the fastest between two points, often in multistorey car-parks. But most of it is about parking up and talking; these are the "repair shops" for what's wrong in their lives and for demonstrating driving prowess. They work on a shoestring budget, often building cars from scratch, and there's a lot of swapping and transferring of skills.

I interviewed 250 boy racers and in the past three years many have been killed, in car accidents and by suicide. It's been a privilege to have been a part of their world.

I spent three years on the PhD, while working full time as a research co-ordinator for the university. It's been a bit of a nightmare combining research with a full-time job, and I have two children as well. One had a car accident a year ago as a result of boy-racer activities and was seriously injured. So I don't just research it, I live with it.