Event Watch a full size Rover 75 clay model get demolished going off a 10 metre ramp in Cannock Chase - 30-09-2017

[Heidel_Kakao]

Where's the fake Rover?!

I touched it!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Hang on, is that the finished article? That pallet ramp and the mud car? £30k? Shit the bed. 

 

I still want to see a video of it flying though! 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Holy shit this is amazing.

[cort16]

I hope this ends up on YouTube tonight.

[alcyonecorporation]

Seventy-five Rover 75s?

 

Viewed from an Alfa 75 while listening to the The Connells - '74, '75. 

[vulgalour]

Art is a thing that is created to evoke a reaction.  That reaction can range from "isn't that nice?" to "but why?" to "I hate it, I'm gonna throw blue paint on it".  Sometimes there's nothing to 'get'.  This seems more a statement about the local community losing the financial support many relied upon and demonstrating that in one violent act.  That's how it must have felt to those that lost their jobs too, had their futures yanked out from under them.  It's only afterwards you realise it doesn't really matter and that a community will adapt and change and move on, never quite forgetting what had happened but accepting that things are different now.

 

Still feels like a clumsy way to express all that and £30K is a very expensive way to go about this stunt and statement that could have been done differently and no doubt cheaper.  Performance art is generally weird this way, the art itself is probably more the act and the moment of collision than it is the creation or the wreckage that's left afterwards.

 

Bluh.  I'm taking this too seriously, but then this is the field I work in, so I'm probably allowed.  I'm also a little bit grumpy nobody wants to give me £30k to make a car out of clay and then wreck it.

[Bear]

I think that's the same clay they made the XJ40 from.

The kind that allegedly* drooped to make the weird bootline.

[John F]

Tune in next week to see Keith eating a giant lawnmower made from dead bees.

[wuvvum]

IMG_20170930_173858.jpg

 

I am here.

Erm...

 

 

What the rollercoaster structure will look like

 

 

I can't help feeling a little short-changed.  And I'm not even there.

[cort16]

What time is take off?

[wuvvum]

It was supposed to be dusk so probably happened by now.

[cort16]

There's a load of videos here but none of the actual launch

 

https://m.facebook.com/jerwoodjva/

[Heidel_Kakao]

 

Was pretty good, I don't think most people there were car people though. Nice to meet Mr Bo11ox with lady friend and cool dog, thanks again for the coffee!

 

I got a souvenir piece of clay which is in the boot of the XM. No video from me but there was a drone so should be footage later.

[inconsistant]

 I'm also a little bit grumpy nobody wants to give me £30k to make a car out of clay and then wreck it.

 

Who have you asked?

[dollywobbler]

Nope. This still looks fantastically shit. Oh well. If it stops people watching X Factor, then perhaps there is some merit in it.

 

Also, it looks more like a replica of an MG ZT.

[hairnet]

I walked from cannock to orbital twice

 

In the rain

 

Sounds like I got the better deal

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I went to this - it was freakin great. When else do you get to see someone wang a big clay car off a ramp in a forest at night? I can't remember another chance.

 

I tell you if he managed to put this together for £30k the lad should get a mega prize. He's had to get a Rover 75 laser scanned for a start, that can't have been cheap. Then get all the slices of his wooden buck cut to shape as per his laser scan. The car weighed 1.3 tons, most of which must have been clay, how much is a ton of clay? I dont know. Apparently he got some old boy who used to work as a clay modeller for 'the firm' to do most of the clay work and he did it as a labour of love. The scaffold thing under the ramp was made from bits of logs and wood scavenged from round the forest but it was a flippin work of art in itself, lord knows how much work went into building it and the ramp itself looked beautifully made. He's had to hire a big crane, scissor lifts, all the concrete barriers, fencing and all the rest of it, no doubt some insurance policy of some sort and pay himself a wage as well? If he's done all that for 30K its a mega bargain i reckon.

 

The atmosphere at the event was great, a bit of weird droning and bleeping audio being pumped out into the forest, floodlights, lots of people milling about with torches, couple of drones flying about while they craned the Rover up to the top, really surreal. There must have been 2-300 people there easily but it was not packed out, you could get as close as you wanted.

 

A staff member told me they had 500 applicants fo the commission and they whittled it down to 5. The others included a 'poetry trail' in the forest, a project to make radio broadcasts from up high in the trees, something forgettable that generated a book at the end...... I drove home feeling super encouraged that out of all those, the project that 'won' the gig was the one all about making a big clay car and punting it down a rmassive ski jump in the forest at night and smashing it to bits. Completely silly and brilliant. I loved it.

 

 

[Heidel_Kakao]

Mr Bo11ox has summed it up much better than I could I'm glad I went as it's not the kind of thing you can experience everyday of the week.

 

Found some videos on YouTube of the background and behind the scenes preparation.

 

https://youtu.be/Il7OgJ5Ulec

https://youtu.be/Yy9zRk4D1Q8

https://youtu.be/I58ZS-9uJfk

[Skut]

Looks like the RDX60 development programme.

[cort16]

The world is a better place for mental stuff like this

[beko1987]

The world is a better place for mental stuff like this

I agree. Yes it seems alot at £30k,but bollox's breakdown cost does put that into perspective, plus someone could have easily spent 100k doing it with a clay replica of a ford fiesta, at least they chose a more interesting 75!

[SiC]

I'm no 75 expert but that Rover model looks very accurate. So much so, it looks like someone has got a 75 and covered it in clay.

 

Don't forget that the 30k not only has got to pay for all that, but also give the person doing it a living some how. They have to feed themselves while doing all this work.

 

I'd like to hear the conversation they had with insurances companies trying to explain what they were doing.

[cobblers]

This is amazing.

 

Someone more artistic and less autistic than me can probably answer this - if the clay model weighed 1.3 tonnes, why not just wang a real 75 off the ramp instead?

[tooSavvy]

I'd like to hear the conversation they had with insurances companies trying to explain what they were doing.

 

Good morning sir....

 

It is 'gravity powered' you say...

You don't want Windscreen Cover...

Not Thatcham...

You don't want HomeStart...

You won't need Accidental Damage waiver...

 

It's a what?

 

£945.37+£25 for NCB protection

 

You'll give me a call later........

 

 

TS

[cort16]

This is amazing.

 

Someone more artistic and less autistic than me can probably answer this - if the clay model weighed 1.3 tonnes, why not just wang a real 75 off the ramp instead?

I think it was meant to be a tribute to the areas design heritage or something hence the clay model. I presume the launching part was just for lols.

[SiC]

I'd they didn't smash it up, we wouldn't be talking about it now. There is usually a requirement of public engagement that are associated with these sort of grants.

[chaseracer]

There is usually a requirement of public engagement that are associated with these sort of grants.

 

Yes, indeed.  The critical response in the local rag over the last few months has been the best part of the whole venture.

[John F]

[vulgalour]

Fair points, well made, by Mr B there.  In all seriousness, I wouldn't want the responsibility of £30k hanging over me, that's more money than I'm comfortable having, especially if there's the burden of making something with it.  Far too much to worry about.  I'll stick to my little pictures and small beans.

[John F]

Ah yes, but is it art?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/f46a1a5a-2aa2-44ae-a80c-f8eaca5b1035