Pirates, Cowboys and Jokers is the opening chapter of Jon Nicholson's long-term project on the United Kingdom's banger racing scene, its community and its creativity. Every weekend, and on many weekdays from January to November, racers across Britain bring out their 'bangers'—old cars destined for the track, lovingly customised and then dramatically smashed up. These are grassroots, passionate people who delight in the colour and drama of their custom paint jobs as much as in watching them battered on the oval; it is a family affair, with children growing up around the cars, learning about them and at times taking over the wheel. The race meetings are great gatherings, with barbecues on the back of flatbed trucks heightening a prevailing and welcome sense of camaraderie. In an increasingly divided Britain, where economic and social frustrations are playing out in the newspapers and on the streets, banger racing represents something like freedom: a place where people often pushed to the peripheries of society can make, destroy and remake on their own terms, expressing their expertise and aesthetic without permission.