I do agree you see far less modded cars now, when i was young there was a plethora of French clutter - AX Gt's, 5 Turbo's and 205 Gti's, with Astra GTE, Escort xr3i and RS Turbo and then Mk2 Golfs and Sciroccos.
These days you see colour coded Vauxhall Corsas with black wheels which look sporty but are probably slower than a Nova SR with a few mods!
It is simple - people just cant afford the insurance these days to mod or cant afford the actual mods as have been struggling to get work etc.
Every other car is now an Audi or a BMW and furhter more peopel driving a 116d 1 series BELIEVE they are driving a sporty car just cause it has a BMW badege then look shocked when an old slammed MX5 leaves them for dead