OVERVIEW:
Max Power was published in the United Kingdom (U.K.) in Petersborough, England. Started in May, 1993
by East Midland Allied Press (EMAP) with content and style developed by Graeme Steed and Andy Tipping, it featured modified cars (i.e., tuners) and lifestyle
content targeted to young men. Customizations, often performed on lower priced cars, were extensive even outrageous, with
car stereos, body kits, and engine and suspension performance upgrades. The builds were impressive, with costs often
exceeding the worth of the cars themselves.
(Editor's note: This is our first foray into car magazines printed in the U.K. We have historically hesitated to expand beyond U.S. titles given the difficulty to find and document magazine copies. However, Max Power intrigued us since it perfectly captures the early culture in the U.K. around the "lads" lifestyle and modified cars. Recognizing our birthplace doesn't keep us attuned to British culture and subleties, we offer to present the facts and avoid the surrounding controversies of the title.)
Max Power rode the wave of "lads mags" that had a rowdy, fun style and featured irreverent humor, scantily clad women, sports, cars, movies and tech gadgets. Starting with Loaded in 1994, these magazines changed the publishing world as men became the main buyers of these glossy lifestyle magazines. They played to the "beer and football" culture for male readers. Max Power came to define the modified car culture in the U.K. and out-performed competitors Redline and Fast Car.
The magazine started primarily with features on modified cars, but by 1996 or 1997 the content embraced the "lads mag" formula. Important highlights include:
- 1998 - Max Power funded Kazuhiko "Smokey" Nagata to bring his highly modified Toyota Supra to the U.K. He drove it 194 miles per hour on the A1(M). This led to his arrest, a night in jail, a £155 fine, and a 10-year ban from the UK.
- 1999 - The brand began sponsoring "live" events with up to 50,000 attendees at each one. These events were rated on the beauty of the women present, the police presence, the quality of burnouts, and the "barryness", i.e., the state or quality of having tacky, cheap, or poorly executed modifications made to a car. The magazine title was licensed for the United States and printed under EMAP-Petersen from 1999 through 2001.
- 2000 - The editors rebranded the C3 Racing game as Max Power Racing.
- 2001 - The Cruise Anthem CD with 51 tracks was published. The title was also licensed to EMAP-France and was published as ADDX.
- 2003 - Sales peaked at 250,000 monthly issues, knocking off Top Gear magazine for the number one spot.
- 2005 - The team created its own political party, Max Power Party, and put forward Dan Anslow to run in the Southend West district in Essex. He needed 40,000 votes to win but only garnered 106 votes.
- 2006 - As pressures built and sales began to falter, they launched the Max Driver campaign to promote safe driving.
- 2007 - Sales continued to decline. There is an effort to tone down the "soft porn" image and refocus on the builds. But that didn't last long as the glamour shots came back fairly soon thereafter.
- 2008 - Bauer Media purchases the title from EMAP.
- 2009 - Sales had plummeted by 90% from the peak in 2003, down to 20,000 issues per month.
- 2010 - Bauer Media announces the closure of the title in November. The last issue comes out in January 2011 with a February date.
We believe Max Power had a strong influence on the evolution of tuner magazines in the U.S. Titles such as Import Tuner (started 1998), Drag Sport (started 2002) and HighBeams (started 2003) followed much of the same formula.
The table of contents, if available, can be seen by clicking on the 
icon.
PUBLICATION DATA
Based on content in the YouTube video,
The Rise, Rise and Fall of Max Power,
monthly print production started with 150,000 issues in 1993 and climbed rapidly to over 250,000 monthly issues by 2003. It
then began falling
due to several factors (as noted below) and lost 90% of its readership by 2009. The closing was announced with the November, 2010 issue, and
the last one printed was the February, 2011 issue.
The drop in print production was consistent with broader print industry trends across the world. Key factors include the aging readership, the internet and social media as an alternative way to get information, the financial crises of 2008, and the shift of men's titles to health and fitness.
CONTENT COMPLETENESS:
An estimated 219 issues was printed from May, 1993 through February, 2011. Issues are only complete through 1999 at this time, but additional
images will be added as we address hard-to-find issues from the later years of production.
INTERNET:
An internet presence was created and links referenced on the front covers starting in 2000. The site is now defunct:
www.maxpower.co.uk.