Makes me angry...and a bit sad

[RedSparrow]

Got the idea for this from the ebay tat thread.Cars that are unloved generally and are becoming rare being butchered to keep boring crap on the road, even though theres loads of them already.Off the top of my head:MG Metro - engines donated to MinisMarinas/Itals - bits nicked for Morris MinorsMarina TC - engines put in bloody MGBs.In that list I know which Id rather save!Can anyone think of any others?

[Ross_K]

BX 16 valves and Xantia Activas having engines ripped out to go into Pug 205s?Still money talks and bullshit walks, as they say. The same people saying "I'd save that from the Puggers/banger racers/etc" are the same ones who are always skint/have storage problems/a wife who says no when said "desirable" motor is offered to them...

[s2driver]

More historical than current but didn't most of the Austin 3-litres that weren't banger raced have their C-series engines pilfered for Austin-Healey 3000s? (always fancied a 3-litre - would have been an even more pointless buy than the 2200 landcrab I used to have....)

[mk2_craig]

Big RWD Vauxhalls/Opels are probably worth more in terms of the parts they can donate to Chevette engine conversion projects etc than they are as a whole. Shame :(In a similar vein, many's the Austin Princess that has died purely to yield a pair of four-pot calipers to something being souped-up.

[RedSparrow]

In a similar vein, many's the Austin Princess that has died purely to yield a pair of four-pot calipers to something being souped-up.

Hmm, Im sort of guilty here. Brakes on the TR7 are off a Princess. In my defence the bloke I bought it off did it!

[pompei]

Fiat 126s now very rare - most donating their internals to 500s.Supra engines going into Lexarse is200s.Fiat twin cams into Morris Thousands

[stoterstangen90]

I feel guilty too. I put Xantia and XM engines in BXes, and Xantia brakes on bxes too........

[Albert Ross]

Sierras giving up their running gear to suit kit car builders. I've already been offered £100 for the gearbox from my Sapphire................I pointed out it was my daily driver, so it's not for breaking, but the quizzical look and comment of "yeah but it's old, why do you need it" was the end of the conversation.

[Milford Cubicle]

It's got to the point where most 'donor' cars are more interesting than the cars they end up donating their parts to.I wince at all the Subarus and 5-pot Audis donating their engines to shitty VW T25 vans.

[Guest greenvanman]

BX 16 valves and Xantia Activas having engines ripped out to go into Pug 205s?:

And the 405 Mi16 As you say, I know which I'd rather have!

[andrew e]

XM Turbos?

[pogweasel]

Such is life. My mates Manta went off to donate it's gearbox, engine mounts and sump pick up for some XE-power chevette or sommert. Still it was pretty rotten and it made a pretty penny....

[25v6turbo]

Renault 25 v6 turbos being stripped for common as muck GTA,S,less than 6 known in the u.k,my mate has 6 GTAS himself......

[Father Ted]

I feel guilty too. I put Xantia engines in BXes, and Xantia brakes on bxes too........

Thats fine, kill as many Xantias as you can.

Kill them.....

[mk2_craig]

Sierras giving up their running gear to suit kit car builders. I've already been offered £100 for the gearbox from my Sapphire

Isn't it strange how such a once-plentiful and widespread car can suddenly become sought-after, for whatever reason. The Mondeo's likely to go the same way due to the relative ease of slinging a 2.0 Zetec into kit stuff and 1980s FWD Fords.Sometimes it goes the other way and the commonplace donor car itself later becomes the valuable resto project. Top Gear mag built a 1300 Kent-powered "Locost" Caterham look-alike about ten years ago, for which a brown 2-door Escort Ghia died to yield its mechanicals.

[wuvvum]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned the Tagora, and its cousin the 604. How many of those have been murdered for their PRV V6s by the kit car fraternity?

[wuvvum]

I wince at all the Subarus and 5-pot Audis donating their engines to shitty VW T25 vans.

Funny you should say that - I've just this minute won a Legacy estate on the Bay - auction title was "1995 SUBARU LEGACY GLS 4WD GREY / VW CAMPER CONVERSION?". This one's going to stay battered-Legacy-shaped though, at least till the MoT runs out in April...

[Milford Cubicle]

Good save! What variety of Legacy is it? I've heard they're supposed to be quite decent to drive, but perhaps a 1.8GL with part-time 4wd wouldn't be quite so joyous.

[Guest]

This one is a bit of an obscurity, but the later type FWD Levin/Trueno:

 

Smart eh! Not even that old. However, these tend to be gutted in Japan for their powerful and high-revving 20V version of the 4AG engine (often sent over as a front cut), which are crated up and delivered worldwide to be boshed into a variety of RWD Corollas.

 

What I find a bit frustrating is that they seem like lovely cars and surely have as much right to live as any other sporting Toyota, but because they're FWD few people seem really bothered. I can understand if they were all crash-damaged ones, but with the demand for 20V 4AGs this surely can't be the case for everything and I bet a lot of decent ones have copped it as a result.

[M'coli]

Any Chrysler/Talbot Sunbeam with a sound shell, either to re-shell a rally car or a Lotus Sunbeam.

[Ratdat]

I bet more than a few Cherry Europes and Arnas donated their oily bits to Alfasuds back in the 90's. Ironically, I'm probably going to chop up a pretty nice N12 Cherry to fix my Cherry Europe. Hey, maybe I can get an Alfasud Ti and use it as a donor to redress the balance a little

[Cavcraft]

Good call on the BX16V and I'd add the the C20XE and C20LET engines to that list. can't be many Cav and Calibra turbos left now

[RedSparrow]

Hey, maybe I can get an Alfasud Ti and use it as a donor to redress the balance a little

Do It! :DReminds me of a YouTube video someone posted on here (I think) of some fellas taking an engine out of an MGB to put in a Marina. Maybe we should all start a campaign to redress the balance a little?!

[Ross_K]

This one is a bit of an obscurity, but the later type FWD Levin/Trueno:

Don't cry too much for the Levin BZ-R. If you're ever after one Ireland's full of 'em...

[wuvvum]

Any Chrysler/Talbot Sunbeam with a sound shell, either to re-shell a rally car or a Lotus Sunbeam.

Having had the displeasure of owning a 928cc Sunbeam LS (bought for £10 at an auction ) I can say that this is not necessarily a bad thing.

[mouseflakes]

Renault 25 v6 turbos being stripped for common as muck GTA,S,less than 6 known in the u.k,my mate has 6 GTAS himself.....

I can't believe nobody's mentioned the Tagora, and its cousin the 604. How many of those have been murdered for their PRV V6s by the kit car fraternity?

5 speed R30s (and V6 R25s?) are doubly at peril on account of their desirable he-man gearbox/transaxle.Will the day come when I should I butcher a DeLorean to keep my 30 on the road?

[wuvvum]

Good save! What variety of Legacy is it? I've heard they're supposed to be quite decent to drive, but perhaps a 1.8GL with part-time 4wd wouldn't be quite so joyous.

It's a mk2 (or whatever they're called) estate. 2-litre non-turbo, so unlikely to be a ball of fire, but should have a bit more get up and go than a 1.8. They're a good workhorse, with the bonus of 4WD. I had a turbo one a while back and it was a pain in the arse, but the 2.2 auto I had before that was great.

[vicsmith]

This is a pet-hate of mine, especially when something fantastic in it`s own right is being killed to create something that is probably going to be a bit of a pig. A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a pleasant enough man who had just paid £1000 for an immaculate Granada 24v to put the engine in his 2.8 Capri, which, as the name suggests, already had a perfectly good 2800cc engine of it`s own, so the really, really nice Silver Cossie Granada was becoming no more to give the Capri another 12 valves.More recently I saw a very straight looking Cavalier Cesaro V6 on the back of a trailer that was pulling up outside a place where they put big engines in Corsas and make them look ugly, so there we have an absolutely fantastic motorway cruiser and Q-car giving up it`s life so that an undriveable, dangerous Island of Dr. Moreau style monstrosity can be brought into being. Not only that but the Corsa would have done someone a turn as a little runabout if it had been left alone.]These people make me sick, and they should be made to drink a smoothie made out of their freshly removed face.Either that or they should be sold, for £50, to a Sierra XR4x4 that just wants their eyes, to go on a really fast kit-person that it`s building.

[mk2_craig]

Watched an old episode of the Scrappy Races today, the one where a team had that twin engined Range Rover with the ice cream van body. In one scene a reasonable looking SD1 Vitesse was shown being donutted round a yard, but thankfully the Rangey team decided against buying it to rape its V8 on account of the asking price was too high.Then again I have heard of TVRs sacrificing their engines for transplant into modded SD1s, which I suppose is more the sort of thing we like to hear.

[CortinaDave]

many cortinas over the years have died for the kit car mob too... whats most annoying is when you se the grotesque heaps created for sale on ebay "built from a mk3 cortina" and think how much nicer - and how much more it would have been worth now - had it still been that mk3 cortina.I've had a facy for a v8 SD1 for a couple of years now but every time i see a decent one for sale its huge money, yet i know a bloke who likes to shoehorn V8's into old fords and he's had three bloody nice SD1s for under £500 each in the last 18 months or so, raped the engines and weighed em in