Ford timelord

[quicksilver]

Someone suggested 'Who killed Ford Timelord?' would make a great blog article, so I went ahead and did exactly that as a Christmas present to my readers. Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread and finally solved a 30-year old mystery. It really is a ripping yarn so enjoy!

https://rustyoldrubbish.blogspot.com/2019/12/who-killed-ford-timelord.html

[LightBulbFun]

14 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Someone suggested 'Who killed Ford Timelord?' would make a great blog article, so I went ahead and did exactly that as a Christmas present to my readers. Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread and finally solved a 30-year old mystery. It really is a ripping yarn so enjoy!

https://rustyoldrubbish.blogspot.com/2019/12/who-killed-ford-timelord.html

very cool blog post!

I enjoyed reading it very much  

[Pieman]

Oh that is fantastic - thankyou very much for publishing our research in such a great piece!

I must say a very big thankyou to everyone else who has helped with researching the history of this car - the members of this forum involved, plus Paul Bickers, Daz Owen for putting me in touch with Paul, Shawn Mason of the banger racing world, Paul Toward for compiling the original Banger listing I found the car on, and Phil and Brendan who both own beautiful Timelord replicas.  Thankyou all for your assistance.

Most of all, thankyou Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond plus everyone else involved with the kooky KLF over the years for making such a fascinating and amusing story - I am still thinking of having a bash at making a model Timelord as a final tribute to this car and to the KLF.

Yours in rust, Dave Goddard aka Pieman - motorsport commentator, journo and dedicated Bangerack!

[quicksilver]

You're very welcome Dave. This has to be the thread of the year and I've gone from literally knowing nothing at all about the KLF this time last year to immersing myself in their history in the search for answers, of course discovering some great music and mind-blowing stories along the way. 

Thank you for contacting all those people to help with our quest, and also to @Bren for asking the question that kicked all this off, @Datsuncog for so much diligent research, @LightBulbFun for getting the DVLA information, and everyone else who contributed to this thread. Ford Timelord may be gone but its legend is alive and well.

[Bren]

25 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

You're very welcome Dave. This has to be the thread of the year and I've gone from literally knowing nothing at all about the KLF this time last year to immersing myself in their history in the search for answers, of course discovering some great music and mind-blowing stories along the way. 

Thank you for contacting all those people to help with our quest, and also to @Bren for asking the question that kicked all this off, @Datsuncog for so much diligent research, @LightBulbFun for getting the DVLA information, and everyone else who contributed to this thread. Ford Timelord may be gone but its legend is alive and well.

Or the thread of 2018? The blog is very good.

When I see the rear end of the car in the photograph it looks like it has suffered a prolapse - it must have been as rotten as a pair.

[Philmanns]

On 12/19/2019 at 6:13 PM, flat4alfa said:

NINE Models to build then

 

#TL4 - '79 Chevrolet Caprice 4-door sedan

( BOF 575T, Tax and MOT expired May 2011 )

And here's a 1/25 paper model.  DO PAINT

I’m a bit late to the party on this one! I did discover a link to this thread a short while back but obviously couldn’t see it until it was moved. It seems there has been a parallel investigation going on for sometime. Mainly with myself, Darren Tyler (Ford Timelord blog) and Ben Charli Safari Wilson in NZ. We have been sharing our investigations on messenger, unaware of this thread! I spoke to Paul Bickers early this year and he’d told me the story of racing Ford Timelord, and also prepping the Chevy Nova for Wimbledon. Although he’d forgotten about racing FT until I showed him the photo and he said “oh, that’s me and that’s my number, 284”. Be great if Paul felt like joining in.

I own WGU18E. The Caprice above was also mine. I’ve had a thing for U.S. cop cars since I was a kid (there’s a photo of me next to one in 1977] and I bought this Caprice in 1990. In 97 I took it on Gimpo’s M25 spin and this is when this picture was taken at Thurrock Services.

Really enjoyed reading through all this, it’s taken most of this evening!

 

[Pieman]

Welcome Phil!

Great to see you on here and thanks again for your help with our research, looking forward to any more stories you have!

[Split_Pin]

Great to see you have joined up Phil. You may be interested to know that there is also another new member with a wonderful patinated 66 Galaxie 4 door hardtop!

[LightBulbFun]

very cool to have the owner of WGU18E on this thread  

 

as with others, until this thread I knew nothing of the KLF or the Ford timelord, but the whole story of the Ford timelord was very fascinating and interesting, and im very happy that iv been able to help/have been involved with it!, I still haven't (knowingly) listened to any of the KLFs music! LOL

[sdkrc]

6 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

very cool to have the owner of WGU18E on this thread  

I still haven't (knowingly) listened to any of the KLFs music! LOL

Small world for me 'cause I used to live in this part of Spain. Also, great tune & gratuitous shots of the Galaxie

[Pieman]

From the sublime...

To the ridiculous.

 

[Pieman]

12 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

Small world for me 'cause I used to live in this part of Spain. Also, great tune & gratuitous shots of the Galaxie

That's.....beautiful.  That could almost be seen to be a final goodbye to Timelord, cos as we know the Spanish odyssey is pretty much what finally finished her off - yes she appeared again in 3AM Eternal but was no longer roadworthy.  That video and song make for a decidedly moving epitaph.

[LightBulbFun]

very cool to see the Timelord in action

but have to admit the music is not for me!, although I liked the doctorin' the tardis one the most

probably because im a Doctor who fan in general, and i like the Dr who theme tune! 

its interesting to see that The timelord has a Yellow rear plate, I noticed WGU18E has a white rear plate so assumed the Timelord had one too

(which In itself I found odd, being the law here is for white front yellow rear, but i didn't expect the KLF to really care about that so never gave it much thought otherwise!)

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Ive never seen or heard that 'build a fire' before. Fantastic!!!!

[Rod/b]

5 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Ive never seen or heard that 'build a fire' before. Fantastic!!!!

Look up the White Room movie on Youtube bol, it’s uses the original versions of all the White Room album tracks. And if you can find it on a torrent site you can still get hold of the original soundtrack album. 

[Philmanns]

9 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Great to see you have joined up Phil. You may be interested to know that there is also another new member with a wonderful patinated 66 Galaxie 4 door hardtop!

Yes I saw that, very cool.

10 hours ago, Pieman said:

Welcome Phil!

Great to see you on here and thanks again for your help with our research, looking forward to any more stories you have!

Cheers. One thing to add is I was at the Wimbledon banger race. Cauty crashed the Nova into the barrier right in front of me. This was back in the days of 35mm cameras (pre digital) and the camera jammed on me whilst snapping away, it would have been a great shot. He hit it so hard the steering was fooked so it was out of the race from then. They later pushed it around the track with the armoured car, then wedged the throttle open leaving it doing a massive burnout filling the stadium with smoke. I think the expectation was that it would blow up but IIRC a Marshall put a stop to it before that happened. I met them afterwards and got my program signed. 
 

A few years later I spoke to Cauty at a Brighton Orb gig and asked him what became of Ford Timelord. He told me they banger raced it at Wimbledon, I knew this wasn’t true as I was there! My taxi driver mate Mark, ended up giving Jimmy & Gimpo a lift back that night. Gimpo was wired which made for an entertaining short journey!

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

very cool to see the Timelord in action

but have to admit the music is not for me!, although I liked the doctorin' the tardis one the most

probably because im a Doctor who fan in general, and i like the Dr who theme tune! 

its interesting to see that The timelord has a Yellow rear plate, I noticed WGU18E has a white rear plate so assumed the Timelord had one too

(which In itself I found odd, being the law here is for white front yellow rear, but i didn't expect the KLF to really care about that so never gave it much thought otherwise!)

I should have changed it for a yellow one, but it would look too shiny and not in keeping so decided to leave it as is ?.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Tell you what, rural Spain looks dismal in that video doesnt it. I've been round those Sierra Nevada mountains and it was beautiful, but that was 25 years after these boys.

At the time it was only about 10 years after the end of Franco's era right? I bet it was friggin poverty stricken.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Hey @Philmanns

How did you clean off the gloss paint after they slathered it all over your Timelord? (oo-er missus etc)

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I searched for a half-decent Ford Timelord T-shirt last night. I didnt really find any outstanding efforts, this is the best one I found:

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/p/12073801.UIIS2.cluey-kookaburra?rbs=7dd5c966-a6e0-4802-89d6-1205d4806e2b#&gid=1&pid=1

 

[flat4alfa]

I think we’ve enough material on this thread and the two blogs to make a run of clothing on our own!

[Philmanns]

2 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Hey @Philmanns

How did you clean off the gloss paint after they slathered it all over your Timelord? (oo-er missus etc)

Copious amounts of white spirit and tissues! ?

[bunglebus]

I use these guys for custom shirts

 

https://www.streetshirts.co.uk/design-your-own-t-shirts

[Rod/b]

11 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Hey @Philmanns

How did you clean off the gloss paint after they slathered it all over your Timelord? (oo-er missus etc)

There’s a vid i’ve seen somewhere which i cant find now. It’s shot out of someone’s top window,  and shows Phil cleaning it up in a scouse side street, with blue workshop roll and white spirit. 

[J-T]

Hands down, this is one of the best ever bloody threads on here! I’ve just read it start to finish over 2-3hrs! I really like the KLF and I’d never even considered what happened to the car.

To anyone who’s interested I remember being consumed in a YouTube rabbit hole a while ago and found an interview they did shortly after burning the £1 million where they try to offer an explanation, which pretty much centred around ‘have a think why it makes you so outraged - that’s why’.

I had no idea about the gloss paint incident with the replica! @Philmanns how did that go down on the day? You literally park it up then return to it in its new livery? What happened then?

After all these years I still haven’t got round to reading any of the books. I’m gonna track them down now. And that’s The White Room on again in the car tomorrow!

Great stuff!!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

18 hours ago, Rod/b said:

Look up the White Room movie on Youtube bol, it’s uses the original versions of all the White Room album tracks. And if you can find it on a torrent site you can still get hold of the original soundtrack album. 

I watched this today. Its flipping fantastic!!!!

When I read about this film in the John Higgs book it sounded like a right half arsed caper ("We had this idea about going to Spain, we had a feeling that something would happen, of course absolutley nothing happened and we just burned up loads of time and the last of our money") but the film is great, so many beautifully framed shots, its a total treat for the eyes man. They must have done some serious work to produce that, only to then do fuck all with it.

Someone in the comments opines that the Daft punk film 'Electroma' is a rip-off of this. I would certainly be ready to bet £20 that DP must have seen this before making their film!!!

So many shots in there that could be rendered in flat colours and made into some fantastic T-shirts (seem to be a bit obsessed with T shirts lately!!!)

[cort16]

It's mentioned earlier in this thread but this podcast  the BBC made on the KLF is quite good. It's a dramatised and a bit out there take on what happened but enjoyable.

Their story is so wrapped up in lies, and legend mostly spun by them it's hard to get a handle on what really happened with anything. Was he really going to chop his arm off before the brits?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06x35s5/episodes/downloads

[chaseracer]

7 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

I watched this today. Its flipping fantastic!!!!

Looks like the LTD hiding in the Trancentral foliage at 4:28...

[bunglebus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq6XJl9xw80e

[Rod/b]

7 hours ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

I watched this today. Its flipping fantastic

Soundtrack is on YT too:

 

[Rod/b]

Have a look at how rotten the back end of FT is at around 33.40