Ford timelord

[quicksilver]

I'm leaning towards the same conclusion TBH, The only evidence that doesn't fit the timeline is the date of the Trancentral photos, so if we assume that's wrong and they were taken before June 1991 then Swaffham is the last verified sighting. What was left of it after the race might have hung around for a while, but as a functional vehicle the one and only Ford Timelord almost certainly met its end at the hands of Paul Bickers in June 1991.

The two cars claim was probably either made up on the spur of the moment by Drummond to throw us off the scent, or refers to the LTD. Picking holes in the two Galaxies theory:

1. What are the chances of finding another almost identical '68 Galaxie in the late eighties? They were never exactly common this side of the pond.

2. What purpose would be served by having two cars masquerading as one? It's not as if they needed a stunt double for their videos.

[mk2_craig]

47 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

What purpose would be served by having two cars masquerading as one? It's not as if they needed a stunt double for their videos.

Apart from perhaps the original one got so thrashed that it became unreliable or unusable, requiring a twin to be on standby?

 

I don’t know (and I couldn’t say how easy it would have been to source them back in the day) but hey! I want to believe that this car just might have survived!  
 

even if the chances of an Autoshite group rescue and restoration are as slim as Boris Johnson getting his cock out at a press conference and taking a slash over a Guardian reporter. 

[bunglebus]

If it is found, I think it should stay in its current state. Resto would just lose all its history

[Lord Sterling]

Sadly, my theory isn't far off those above.

Through this great thread, reading this fascinating story of KLF and the Ford Timelord concludes me to think that the KLF lads of whom are unhinged/mad/out-there enough to pull a stunt like sending a rented car off a cliff and burning £1 million, wouldn't be overly bithered to send the Timelord off on a final banger race would 'fit' along with thier wild ideas.

When Justified and Ancient came out, thier official vehicle became the Pink ice cream van as so sung by Tammy Wynette in MuMu Land thus cutting complete (?) ties with the Timelord, almost as if theu wanted to reinvent themselves.

A couple of other things spring to my mind that make me think the Timelord is no longer around;

1. The Ford Timelord looked too much like the Blues Brothers mobile. Not original enough for artists who seem to want to be taken seriously and look original yet "experimental"/eccentric at the same time.

2. The Timelord looked too far gone in the moody black 'n' white pics on the driveway oitside Trancentral. I can't see the KLF lads wanting to put any effort into restoration/storage.

3. By 1991, KLF seemed to want to reinvent themselves by taking a different direction after years of experimental music/sounds etc.... in a way, jettisoning the Timelord from thier pile was just another excuse/way to reinvent themselves. 3am Eternal looked the final way to say goodbye to the Timelord.

4. The Pink Ice cream van was much more "out there" and original as a vehicle for them than something that looked like a badly run down left-over prop from the Blues Brothers film.

5. Between 1991 and now, the KLF lads would've surely have made quite a bit of money, certainly enough to get the Timelord almost completely restored so surely at some point between then and now it'd have been brought out/spotted? Certainly with the rat/fake patina scene being around. 

I honestly hope that the Timelord is still around and I applaud and enjoy this (it is, by a massively long chalk, the most interesting thread on Autoshite for a long time and long may it continue) I hope your investigation into finding out what has happened to it continues because there seems to be a wall of silence from those who knew the car then.

Again, all the above are my own simple theories.

[Pieman]

It will almost certainly have been scrapped after Paul Bickers banger raced it.  I am just waiting for him to reply to me so I can confirm it.

[Lord Sterling]

Pieman, hope you don't mind me putting this here:

[Pieman]

Keep up at the back, I posted that myself on page 6

[Lord Sterling]

Doesn't help, but....

[Pieman]

So they really did interview the car as if it was a member of the band, excellent!  Thankyou for that

[Dan_ZTT]

Amazing. 

 

The Gary Glitter connection has not aged well. 

[Lord Sterling]

We all love the Ford Timelord but I was interested to see what the Timelord would have looked like as a newish police car;

The Timelord looks cooler though with its patina.

[bunglebus]

On 11/27/2019 at 10:58 PM, Lord Sterling said:

By 1991, KLF seemed to want to reinvent themselves by taking a different direction after years of experimental music/sounds etc.... in a way, jettisoning the Timelord from thier pile was just another excuse/way to reinvent themselves. 3am Eternal looked the final way to say goodbye to the Timelord.

Only thing I find odd is that they didn't use it getting raced as a publicity stunt, they seemed to like a bit of wanton destruction i.e. the million quid up in flames etc. 

There must be more footage of it at the track, just a matter of finding it. Banger boys also seem to love showing the rare stuff they've smashed up, maybe more pics will emerge 

[bunglebus]

Searching for images of it getting raced did lead me to find some pics of it in its prime. There's a possibility some are of the replica cars but I think most are the real deal

 

7459ce08c901cb4aae952303749a9a1e by RS, on Flickr

BoldStCardoor-720x720 by RS, on Flickr

images (2) by RS, on Flickr

img_3860 by RS, on Flickr

images (1) by RS, on Flickr

img_1102 by RS, on Flickr

images by RS, on Flickr

timelordsdoctorinthetar.3585 by RS, on Flickr

 

DuTWD8WW0AEe8j7 by RS, on Flickr

img_1955 by RS, on Flickr

DfFikZXXkAEgzRU by RS, on Flickr

 

 

[bunglebus]

 

[bunglebus]

I think this is the 1992 charity race replica

 

[Pieman]

Yep, that last pic is Jimmy Cauty at the charity banger race meeting at Wimbledon in 1992, I think the car he is in is a Chevrolet Nova, but I could be wrong as I am not fantastic at ID'ing later Yank tanks.

[bunglebus]

Could be a 1975ish four door Nova. Got the extra panel line on the top of the wing behind the headlight, and the bonnet looks right

 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

images (2) by RS, on Flickr

Love this shot  

must replicate it in REV

[Lord Sterling]

11 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Only thing I find odd is that they didn't use it getting raced as a publicity stunt, they seemed to like a bit of wanton destruction i.e. the million quid up in flames etc. 

There must be more footage of it at the track, just a matter of finding it. Banger boys also seem to love showing the rare stuff they've smashed up, maybe more pics will emerge 

I get the feeling that maybe they deliberatly didn't want the Timelord to go out in a massive flash of publicity but rather "quietly" possibly. It may have suffered irreparable damage to the engine or most probably the chassis prior to any track action and didn't really want to make a big thing out of it.

In "Last Train to Transcentral" they used what looked like a 1/24 scale model of the Timelord to simulate it driving off the end of a road and flying about (as per Blues Brothers) it being a scale model wasn't a hidden fact.

[bunglebus]

Just had an interesting conversation via text with a chap that not only knows Paul Bickers, but apparently has video of the Timelord's final ride at Swaffham...

[Pieman]

Get hold of that video!

(He's not the guy who used to edit the Damage Inc banger fanzine is he?  That's who got me the photo I posted and said he may have a video of the meeting somewhere.)

[bunglebus]

So it seems - I came across his number online where he'd asked for old programmes etc relating to Swaffham. Figured he might have something on the Timelord

[egg]

While we wait anyone want to spend £400 on a model timelord? ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193116307297

Or maybe just £100 on a Jimmy Cauty puzzle?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUPER-RARE-Lord-of-the-Rings-Vintage-Jigsaw-Puzzle-w-Artwork-by-Jimmy-Cauty-KLF/174105860909

[Pieman]

I think we should club together and buy the model, and if the original doesn't exist, pour paint over it and present it to the group

[egg]

Just reading 'the manual' - for some references to Ford Timelord

https://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/

Quote

We originally wanted the record fronted by real Daleks. We could not get permission. It was after that we came up with our car idea. We then wanted to smash the car into Stone Henge or have a helicopter place it on two of the vertical stones whose horizontal was missing. We thought of dragging it to the top of Silbury Hill, digging a hole and tipping the car in, nose first, with about four feet stuck in the ground and the rest stuck in the air, so that it looked like we had just arrived from outer space.

Quote

The “car makes record” thing was all very last minute and we won’t go into what other ideas we had before and how it all came about. Our engineer became the car. He was christened Ford Timelord. It could have been Timmy Timelord or Tyrone Timelord. He did all the interviews, providing a character that was an extension of his own. This left us free to just watch and assess. When it came to Top of the Pops we went through a myriad of mind blowing scenarios for our performance. When we first came up with our car-as-front-man idea we just wanted to have the car sitting there in the Top of the Pops studio, our track playing and nothing else happening – all very Andy Warhol. “Boring,” we were told. So we got a choreographer and four dancing girls and put them on a retainer for a month. That cost two thousand five hundred pounds. Called them the Escorts. Had a stylist make them costumes. That cost one thousand pounds. Then we did a photo session with them. That was another one thousand pounds.

The Escorts were like a latter day Pans People, whs: danced around Ford Timelord’s more laid back cool and somewhat stationary performance. They provided fast fun and frolicsome sexuality. Tongue firmly in cheek for all to see; pure Sunday Sport.

We loved it.

Top of the Pops said: “No way! If we want dancers on our show we’ll provide them.”

[Pieman]

So they must have been...........the Ford Escorts?

*puts coat on and jumps into waiting Timelord Taxi*

[bunglebus]

8 hours ago, egg said:

That cost two thousand five hundred pounds...That cost one thousand pounds....That was another one thousand pounds.

Top of the Pops said: “No way! If we want dancers on our show we’ll provide them.”

 

 

 

Maybe that's where they got the idea of burning money...

[Roobarb]

Every day’s a school day... blah blah blah but, I used to have a ‘Hobbit’ poster on my wall as a kid. A friend had the LOTR version. 

Who knew it was the same maniac! To me, that style of LOTR will always be THE style. Not the modern Peter Jackson stuff. 

Didn’t realize the ORB connection either. I see there is a Ford Galaxie cop car for sale near me. A ‘68 too... 

[egg]

I know it has been discussed before on here. But I still can't believe this actually happened!

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I'd never realised the KLF were completely and utterly mental. 

Nice Galaxie though.