Wall of shite - a midlands meander

[Jon]

I was working on the last couple of weeks of the second series of Survivors, shot this time in and around Birmingham, rather than the north west, as in the first series. I didn't really have much time to spot shite but I drove past this on the way to a location, so went back to investigate during my lunch break.

 

 

I really liked this idea, as it seemed like a relatively affordable solution to building a bloody great wall and an interesting landmark to boot. There's numerous Austin Metros, a mk 3 Escort or possible late mk1 Fieta (Finesse or 1.1 S?), Mk3 Fiesta, Ford pepperpots and maybe some sort of Renault third up on the right hand row. And is that an alloy from an early 80s BMW?

 

 

The usual suspects on this wall also: MK1 Fiesta, possibly MK2 bottom left, MK3 Fieta, Austin Metros again, Mini Metro and possibly some Vauxhalls. Judging by all this I reckoned this wall must have been built around 2000ish, but then the rim on the bottom row one in looks like a Renault Kangoo to me, which seems a bit new. Any other ideas?

 

On to Wolverhampton Halfpenny Airport now. I always like visiting airports (usually larger ones than this though) and see plenty of obscure and outdated commercial shite still plugging away a living. Anyway, we went here to shoot this:

 

 

 

Obviously a DC of some sort but I don't remember which. I called my dad to tell him and from the scant details he was able to tell me that this was a military spec air freight one which had probably seen service with Air Atlantique at some point (which I could then read under the current paint work).

 

 

If Autoshite did airlines...

 

 

On seeing this cockpit most people wanted to steer clear of this but I'd have loved to have had a flight! Sadly BBC insurance doesn't stretch to jollies like this and the line producer was checking that no-one went on when it did go up. It did sound pretty amazing though from outside.

 

Another lunchtime walk round the grounds netted some more shite spotting, including this Red Goddess resting:

 

 

And a Taskmaster in very nice nick and still in daily use, which was nice to see:

 

 

Close by was this Skoda Favorit which had obviously provided pleasure to someone in the past but hadn't been taxed in over a year.

 

 

And lastly, not shite but just baffling. This was on the side of our hire van.

 

 

It seems that this particular hire company thought that a squirrel picking up a box whilst taking a pee epitomises van hire. Why spend so much on such a useless graphic?

[Station]

Is it worrying that identification is possible of those crushed cars?

[VWPowered]

no never i'd only do the same

[Lankytim]

That wall did indeed go up circa 2001, I remember it on the news. Its outside the Custard Factory in Digbeth.

 

Great pic of the DC3 at Wolverhampton halfpenny green international. Up until recently it was possible to go up on a pleasure flight but thanks to the E.U they can no longer take paying passengers. Something to do with no inflatible slides or oxygen masks.

 

You can still get a flight on a De-Havilland Rapide- which is great fun. Im lucky, ive been up in both types fairly recently!

 

http://www.classicflight.com/

[Guest]

Just as you can never judge a book by its cover, you can never judge a crushed Ford by the style of its rims. Though it's a 98% cert that a car's gonna go to the metals yard with its original wheels still attached :)I'd assume that all of these cubes are of burnt-out vehicles, judging by the lack of paint? Therefore, your guess at a Kangoo is entirely plausible - though I reckon that one might actually have been a Rover-facelifted Metro