Banger racing fun but wrong ???

[dazcapri]

Mar 8, 2017 21:05:52 GMT BT said:

Mar 7, 2017 13:22:40 GMT alecf said:

I saw a jag xk120 being bangered at stoke a few years back, there was uproar. The guy cam on the mic and explained it was running a 1.6 pinto as the engine and box and rear axle even weren't with it. He had literary brought a bare rotten shell. He told everyone who was concerned to come and look at the car in the pits to see how much welding needed doing to get it to even pass scrutinering as a banger. They do it for the talking/wow factor.

Out of pure curiosity I thought I would google XK120 banger and see if anything came up, there is a link to Ovalchat or something but it seems you must be registered to read it. However the following link is free for all and has photos.

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=873833

I read somewhere that the owner he got it off insisted it was for scrap only and was taking parts off it to make sure it couldn't go back on the road,at one point they were trying to take a door off he only got because it was gonna be raced. It happens there was a perfectly good mk1 escort 4dr scrapped just up the road from me and the owner stood and waited till the scrappy crushed the roof with the hiab so it couldn't go back on the road

[alecf]

It was a white one.
Seen the article on the green one previously but that wasn't the one.

[PandaSelecta]

Mar 8, 2017 22:02:41 GMT alecf said:

It was a white one.
Seen the article on the green one previously but that wasn't the one.

The green one started off being white.

And I'll just chuck my two pence in while I'm here - yes it was a shame the car was wrecked, but the guy bought it fair and square. What he does with it, is up to him. What I don't agree on, is that collectors were asking to buy the rare parts off the car (wings, engine, diff, etc) and the racer said - NO! even when the offers were in the thousands of pounds.

Personally, if I was going to banger race a car and and I knew the rarity of the bits, I'd be selling the parts to help keep other cars on the road, rather than just smash those bits up for a bit of "fun".

[dodgerover]

Wasn't it the one that was only sold on the condition it was 100% going to be raced and destroyed completely?

[nomad]

^ I had a quick look at the pistonheads link above, the banger racer who got it says the previous owner insisted they cut the roof off (so it couldn't be put back together) before they were allowed to put it on the truck.
There are always 2 sides to every story but I think there's more to it than "Restorable ultra-rare classic wrecked by banger racer"

[davethepieman]

It was an XK150 that got raced and it was at Ipswich - the previous owner had insisted that the shell be destroyed and tried to make the driver cut it up in front of her when he bought it.

The one at Stoke you're thinking of was, I think, a Triumph GT6, which was too rotten to be saved for the road and raced by a different driver, and I've still no idea how he managed to get a banger-spec roll cage in there.

(edit) doh, didn't see there were two pages to this thread.

[skkylinedave]

A 60s Mustang was raced at Standlake in Oxfordshire. Even when its very rusty thats still going o be £1000 to someone . Very odd


You also regulary see old classic with there chrome bumpers still on racing  , sometimes irriplacable parts  on old Chevys , Cadilacs etc . 

[fad]

I get the same sort of stick about my Volksrod from purists. "Such a shame", "ruined a beetle" (or "ruined 5 beetles" when they found out how many, including a very rare oval, were sliced up to build mine), why didn't you restore it? Why are you building that thing? My answer is always the same... "They were for sale, there was nowt stopping you buying them and spending the thousands to restore them". The fact is that the base car was so rotten it should have been scrapped to the point I wish I had binned it, never mind the ones which were cut up to build mine. A shame, perhaps, but look at it from the other side. Imagine if "we" had all the old cars piled up totting stripped of parts. Someone with a different mind would think "look at all those old curse word rotten cars piled up rusting away. They are scrap anyway, why cant we have a bit of fun with them?"

One last point. Every rare car killed makes yours a bit rarer and more valuable.

[LowStandards]

I have no issues at all with banger racing, you pays your money, you can do what you like with the car...


I do believe all tracks should have a system in place where the v5 needs to be shown to be allowed to race (or something along these lines) to cut down on the stolen cars you hear about...

[fad]

Mar 9, 2017 8:23:47 GMT LowStandards said:

I have no issues at all with banger racing, you pays your money, you can do what you like with the car...


I do believe all tracks should have a system in place where the v5 needs to be shown to be allowed to race (or something along these lines) to cut down on the stolen cars you hear about...

Nah V5 is easy to sort out. You just buy one legitimately then nick the same make n model car after. It wouldnt solve a thing. Neither would checking chassis numbers, all too easy to cut n weld a chassis number when you are prepping the car for a track death.

[LowStandards]

Chassis number has to be intact? As should the area around it?

There must be some way to deter it?

It can't be that simple can it, else we'd still be getting loads of ringed cars on the road, and i'm not sure that's a thing anymore is it?

[fad]

Its not a thing cos the effort aint worth it any more. Old cars arent worth much, newer cars are too much hassle, easier to just stick them in a container and ship abroad. Still goes on in the classic car circles but usually for more legitimate reasons during restorations and such. Its frowned upon and usually done quietly. I almost did it with mine, but ended up replacing framehead, floors, tunnel bottom and framehead bottom around my existing number rather than just moving my number to the donor chassis. Crazy amount of welding and work to arrive at the same place with the same parts just to avoid raised eyebrows LOL

Making an invisible chassis number swap is a piece of peepee if you are handy with a welder and savvy about where you cut.

[LowStandards]

True i guess,

Would stop a fair few though surely? Hell even if it stopped one or 2 it would be worth it.

[fad]

Mar 9, 2017 9:22:12 GMT LowStandards said:

True i guess,

Would stop a fair few though surely? Hell even if it stopped one or 2 it would be worth it.

I suspect it would stop more legitimate cars than stolen ones... And imagine the uproar? People like to beat their chests at being victimised. This would set people off no end lol!

[Zotez]

Mar 9, 2017 8:31:09 GMT LowStandards said:

Chassis number has to be intact? As should the area around it?

There must be some way to deter it?

It can't be that simple can it, else we'd still be getting loads of ringed cars on the road, and i'm not sure that's a thing anymore is it?

Very rare that I post here but this is an argument that's been around for a long time.

The thing you have to consider is who's interest is it in to police whether a car is legit or not? The fact of the matter is the promoter has nothing to gain from checking the legitimacy of a vehicle - if the car shows up as stolen then they lose a car on the track, are they really going to run checks on 100 cars at a meeting? Not saying it's right, just saying it's not in the promoter's interest to do so.

Not trying to start the bangers vs classics argument, just putting a different point of view across. If you go to a classic banger meeting you'll see more Farinas, Triumph 2000s, Rover p5s etc than you'll ever see at a classic car show but a lot of these cars aren't coming from enthusiasts or being taken off the road - they're either purchased for scrap or purchased from a racer who has bought it for scrap.

Of course you're going to get a few bad apples but I genuinely believe that's the same in any Motorsport - not to mention the VW and Ford scenes. And as for it being a waste, how many 2 door escorts are taken off the road to be rally cars; only to be shoved into a tree at the first available opportunity? Maybe accidental but an Escort is a much more desirable car than a Hillman Minx or old Rover to most.

And as for parts, all I can say is - ask! I don't race bangers myself but I've kept my car on the road thanks to the racers. I bought the front bumper & most of the interior for my road car from a banger lad who even removed them for me and charged me next to nothing. Seriously if you're willing to put a bit of research in to find out who has a certain car they are very likely to sell you the parts you need. And if you ever want to get rid of a car beyond resto, a banger driver will likely turn up with cash and pay an agreed price. Never had a problem buying or selling from banger racers!

[fad]

Good and bad apples in every bushel... Plenty of thieves steal classic cars and strip them / renumber them. C*nts are c*nts and are around in every circle.

[alecf]

Mar 8, 2017 22:45:21 GMT PandaSelecta said:

Mar 8, 2017 22:02:41 GMT alecf said:

It was a white one.
Seen the article on the green one previously but that wasn't the one.

The green one started off being white.

And I'll just chuck my two pence in while I'm here - yes it was a shame the car was wrecked, but the guy bought it fair and square. What he does with it, is up to him. What I don't agree on, is that collectors were asking to buy the rare parts off the car (wings, engine, diff, etc) and the racer said - NO! even when the offers were in the thousands of pounds.

Personally, if I was going to banger race a car and and I knew the rarity of the bits, I'd be selling the parts to help keep other cars on the road, rather than just smash those bits up for a bit of "fun".

It defiantly wasn't this one is was in about 2015 the green one was in 2011

[comfortablynumb]

Talking of cars 'having' to be destroyed reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago which might have been connected to that Jag, the Husband had been playing away, and when the Wife found out she wanted his prized classic destroyed as publicly as possible.
Not sure if theres any truth to that one, or just an urban myth? I can't remember what car was involved, but I'm sure it was along those lines.

[dazcapri]

I had to destroy a mk4 Escort once his son had died in a car accident,not in the escort,he didnt want to see his sons first car back on the road.To be fair I can understand a situation like that but the mk1 Escort I mentioned before and a restorable Volvo amazon that was in the local scrappy were because the previous owners wanted them crushed,in cases like that I think I'd prefer to see them race first but it's up to them I suppose

[rapidyellow]

I work for an oval racing promotion and I can tell you that there is NO WAY we could ever check the validity of any car being raced on the track.

For track insurance purposes the cars are scrutineered for safety items that they need to be prepared to, to keep the driver safe.

Now, all these cars come and go on vans, trucks, trailers, and no doubt the police stop their fair share of them from time to time as well as vosa, I am pretty sure they would check for vin numbers etc if they ever suspected anything about the banger on the back, it is the driver/racers responsibility.