Spinning , Johannesburg, South Africa, Car subcultures

Around the world, communities have used cars in different and creative ways to express their own individual and group identities. Spinning involves performing dangerous stunts, whilst a car ideally a BMW 325i is spun around in circles at high speed. The drivers lock the car into a spin and then, in clouds of smoke and squealing tyres, climbs out of the car or even hangs backwards out of the window with their head almost brushing the ground. Spinning has its roots in the early 1980s in Soweto, Johannesburg, where gangsters and criminals would steal cars to spin at the funerals of dead friends. It is now the fastest growing motor sport in South Africa with a new generation pushing to make it mainstream. Staceylee May, AKA Queen of Smoke, is a 23yearold law student and one of South Africans top female motorsport sensations. Her introduction to spinning came from being bullied in High School, and at the age of 16, her father decided to teach her how to spin in order to boost her confidence. I j