Rocking Horse Shit Rare things that have been scrapped

[sierraman]

59 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

That has no appeal as a restored car to anyone, it’s an uglier version of a car that’s not that desirable to most people anyway. I like 3-Litres but I wouldn’t want to spend more than a couple of grand on one, an up and running nice one. Going out in a blaze of glory on the oval has got to be better than festering in a yard somewhere.

The same with all the old hearses and stretch limo funeral cars, the few people that actually like them have got one, unless something is rare enough to cut up and make back into a normal car, race em all.

A hearse is the square root of fucking useless to anyone but an undertaker or a builder with understanding neighbours. Once they get old it just looks bad for business carrying Edna off for a paupers funeral in an F reg Volvo, there is no market for them despite them being bloody useful to a joiner to fit 8ft lengths of timber in. Obviously though people are reluctant to run about in a hearse as it will likely just piss the neighbours off. 

I’d like to see the 3 litre restored but as you say when it’s done it’s got such a limited market to sell it on that I can’t see someone spaffing money on restoring it. Nobody restores cars for profit but the moneyed side of it now means a sad majority see it in the same way as investing with SV, they’re not necessarily the type to have the knowledge or ability to do the job themselves it’s a case of pull the cheque book out. 

[egg]

you've always got the manufacturer recalls like Citroen bi-rotor and GM EV1. 'It's was just a test, a silly idea, let's forget it ever happened'

[Christine]

8 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

The Velar we cut up for spares...

You are not alone ...

[DodgeRover]

14 minutes ago, Christine said:

You are not alone ...

Oh well it was just an old 2 for without even power steering at the time....

[Spottedlaurel]

3-door Bluebird, one of I believe two that Nissan UK had for the Type Approval process:

 

One or two European markets got them (Norway for one), and as the UK importers got the job of getting them all certified they ended up with some oddities.

In the late '90s I saw this very car in Bury St Edmunds:

I know it's the same one from the chassis number given on the Type Approval certificate.

It was very strange seeing the back end of a Bluebird poking out, then realising the side window was getting longer and longer as we approached it. Why didn't I leave a note?!

It seemed to change hands in 2002 and hasn't been taxed since. I have more recently seen it in the background of photos of a place out in the forest where the guy had all sorts of stuff. Sadly very little escaped for there to see the road again, and I think this is one that got scrapped (or raced?).

[Christine]

5 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

Oh well it was just an old 2 for without even power steering at the time....

Not even a heated rear screen either !  That and  the lower tailgate were mint  and i got 100 quid for both ! Result eh? 

[motorpunk]

I wrote this about the scrappage scheme;

A recent freedom of information request has prodded the Government into publishing a list of all the cars scrapped under the 2009 scrappage scheme. You know, the scheme whereby pensioners part-exchanged their Metros in return for a UK tax payer funded discount on a new hatchback. This misguided scheme did wonders for the Korean economy and they couldn’t churn out enough DogEater diesels quick enough. This scheme also ‘ethnically cleansed’ our highways of home-made motors. If my MS Excel adding is correct then an incredible 25279 Rover and MG cars went to the crusher in 2009. This included 9 Rover 75s, cars that would have been no more than 10 years old. We rather like the 75 but if this many were scrap less than 7 years after their warranty expired then no wonder MGR went under. Lots of Metros, Maestros and Montegos got the chop too. 

Let’s look at the rest of the list;

Peugeot; 32350 cars scrapped, of those just 2 were worth saving, a 205 Gti and a 309 Gti. The rest were a morass of 206 and other crap with ironic names like ‘life’ and ‘freedom’. There’s plentyof ordinary stuff on the list, Vauxhall’s galore, mostly automotive white goods and good riddance to it. Let’s look at the exotics, then. Lotus; 3 Eclats. These are chronically under-valued, in our opinion, perhaps because they’re chronically unreliable according to everyone else. Alfa Romeo; A 145 Cloverleaf and a 164 Cloverleaf went to the crusher. A BMW 2002 went, an Alpina B7 and a half a dozen 8 series too. There is no record of what the two people who scrapped M3s bought but I hope it causes them a lifetime of misery for even the tattiest four door E36 M3 is surely worth saving. There’s also an M5 on the list. Someone, somewhere, scrapped a Morgan 4/4. VW Corrados and Sciroccos went in, two by two, a bizarre total of 11 Volvo 480 Turbos (I didn’t know they sold that many) and an 850R. 101 Porsches went, mostly 924 and 944s and a single stonking 928 S4. Why?! There’s not a single Maserati which must mean they’re reliable and hold their value well and I still want a BiTurbo.

You can imagine the relief of some owners offloading unreliable complex oddballs like the Lancia Y10 Selectomatic or Citroen XM VSX Turbo on the list. You know that Audi TT kit car that does the rounds on the internet every other month? That’s a Banham X99 and it happily bit the dust along with an example of another kit-car oddity, an Autobarn Gecko (think buggered Mini). 2 Hearses made their final trips, a Ford Grosvenor and a Daimler. Rust in piece. There’s a Datsun Cherry on there too, which is the retro equivalent of what most of these cars will be replaced with; cheap, reliable oriental cars. Will a Hyundai look as interesting in 20 year’s time? We doubt it but we also hope the Government won’t do something as daft as the scrappage scheme again.

The scrappage scheme cars mostly ended up on the old runway of RAF Thurleigh in Bedfordshire, all legally beyond saving, you can see them on Google maps. I can’t see the single Lancia Delta Integrale that was scrapped, which is good, because it would probably make me cry. 

[DodgeRover]

11 minutes ago, Christine said:

Not even a heated rear screen either !  That and  the lower tailgate were mint  and i got 100 quid for both ! Result eh? 

Poxy bonnet was all aluminium too and didn't fit it's intended recipient....

[Christine]

Not sure mine was an actual velar , but it was really early ..  tan rubbery seats , that made your arse sweat.  I off roaded it , and smashed it to bits .. great fun

 

Kax ... or kak 5... or kac 5.....was the number ..

[Schaefft]

Two of maybe a dozen Eunos Cosmos in the UK smashed up on the track in 2016 and 2018. These would be worth a fair bit of money nowadays as only a few thousand were built, most of them didn't survive and everything JDM got much more expensive in recent years. Halo car for Mazda back in 1989 and only production car in the world with a 3 rotor Wankel (20b).

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

That has no appeal as a restored car to anyone, it’s an uglier version of a car that’s not that desirable to most people anyway. I like 3-Litres but I wouldn’t want to spend more than a couple of grand on one, an up and running nice one. Going out in a blaze of glory on the oval has got to be better than festering in a yard somewhere.

The same with all the old hearses and stretch limo funeral cars, the few people that actually like them have got one, unless something is rare enough to cut up and make back into a normal car, race em all.

I completely disagree. I love weird and oddball cars, and I'd really love a hearse. I can't have one because the knuckle draggers have bangered them all

[Garythesnail]

13 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I completely disagree. I love weird and oddball cars, and I'd really love a hearse. I can't have one because the knuckle draggers have bangered them all

Get bidding......

Jaaaaaag

[bunglebus]

Yeah I've got three grand burning a hole in my pocket

[Pieman]

2 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Going out in a blaze of glory on the oval has got to be better than festering in a yard somewhere.

Agreed, but then I used to be a banger racing commentator so I would say that.  I won't get involved in arguments about the sport any further than that, because I'll be here for about ten years if I do. 

To be quite honest, I'm not a huge fan of banger racing even though I've commentated on it for years.

[sierraman]

I can see how some stuff ends up bangered because there’s nobody to restore it, nobody willing to get a plan together and buy it, then the hi-ab turns up and they has cash in his hands. I can also see when someone perhaps carks it and the family being non car folk just want it shifted or someone loses the will or has their storage go. I remember the pre pro PC Rover SD1 restoration ended abruptly when the guy restoring its business folded and the lot went in the bin 75% of the way through the job.

[barrett]

Yeah let's PLEASE not turn this into another banger racing thread yeah? Topic title does say 'scrapped', and we all know rare things have been raced so, yeah...

Moving on, one that's always rankled with me is the Peter Kirwan-Taylor (of Lotus Elite fame) designed Frazer Nash Continental Le Mans car

Bodied by Williams & Pritchard I think, for a putative private Le Mans entry which was nixed by the authorities who thought the drivers were not experienced enough to race. Was then used as road car for many years, before coming off the road. Went into preservation in the late 1970s, passed around a few hands, but it was never restored.

Now, granted, it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it was totally unique and of some historical importance. Some time in I think the late 90s somebody took the body off and built a sort of ugly pseudo-Le Mans Rep-rep on it, which just looks totally wrong

They also actively cut up the Kirwan-Taylor body and destroyed the remains meaning there is no chance it can ever be returned to its genuine original condition. Absolutely criminal.

Sadly this sort of thing happens all the time - turning 'undesirable' versions of cars into more financially valuable replicas - hence why loads of Ferrari 250 GTEs are now 250 GTO replicas, etc. So depressing.

[D.E]

That story reminds me of the DKW Helder special. Bloke fancied a sports car, couldn't afford one, so he built this using the chassis of a pre war DKW:

The car survived (in the hands of various owners) like this until the 80s, when someone was looking for a chassis to match an original DKW F7 body. The Helder body was, sadly, scrapped. Nowadays NG-11-36 looks like this:

I've got nothing against the original DKW design and the Helder special is obviously built with a mentality of "use whatever you have lying around", but still, it is slightly sad imo that this bit of history eventually didn't survive.

[DodgeRover]

59 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I completely disagree. I love weird and oddball cars, and I'd really love a hearse. I can't have one because the knuckle draggers have bangered them all

Bullshit, put your money where your mouth is and you could have one for a grand or less

[DodgeRover]

1 hour ago, bunglebus said:

I completely disagree. I love weird and oddball cars, and I'd really love a hearse. I can't have one because the knuckle draggers have bangered them all

Here buy this

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1224738185097143/

2k, that's an utter bargain.

Except you won't will you?

[Crackers]

36 minutes ago, barrett said:

totally unique and of some historical importance

Is it really of any more importance than the countless other home-brew one-offs that ever existed though? An ugly car, designed by someone famous for something much prettier, which ultimately never achieved anything of note before being driven like any other car for a while, which then got re-bodied in such a manner that didn't make it any uglier or prettier and still live on to this day. 

39 minutes ago, barrett said:

Topic title does say 'scrapped'

Which it wasn't - just some bits of it were. 

40 minutes ago, barrett said:

Absolutely criminal.

Hardly. 

[DodgeRover]

Here another Hearse £350

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3329237060624694/

Read the full ad.

Not exactly difficult to find..

 

[DodgeRover]

Cosworth powered low mileage limo

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/840136363914540/

£1200

Come back when you have bought one and post up how you have saved it

[goosey]

On the subject of undesirable vehicles being restored, an old work colleague of mine restored an old cash in transit security van (may have been an 60s Austin but this was over 10 years ago so can’t remember) which had escaped the crusher somehow and had sat in a scrapyard for many years, as I understand it ex cash in transit vans have to be destroyed when they come to the end of their work life. 
Apparently He had to come to an Legal agreement with the previous owners who were very much still in business and still owned the Van and we’re very keen to have it crushed that he could carry out the restoration of the Van but would only be a guardian or something like that of the van and it would remain the previous owners property and could never be sold only returned to them for destruction if he ever wanted to get rid of it.

i believe the he said the agreement would have to be renewed every 5 years. 
would love to know what became of it but this would have been about 2004 so god knows 

 

[barrett]

18 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Is it really of any more importance than the countless other home-brew one-offs that ever existed though? An ugly car, designed by someone famous for something much prettier, which ultimately never achieved anything of note before being driven like any other car for a while, which then got re-bodied in such a manner that didn't make it any uglier or prettier and still live on to this day. 

Which it wasn't - just some bits of it were. 

Hardly. 

I'm not sure if you're just playing devil's advocate or if you really feel that way, but if it's the latter it makes me immesurably sad that somebody could feel like that that.

For what it's worth, it's not a 'home brew' - that's the only form that car ever existed in, and it did so happily for 50 years in a remarkably original, unrestored condition. It was a direct tangible link to all the people who were involved in its creation and use, all of whom are now dead. It was important as one of the last production cars built by one of the most important British motor manufacturers, designed by a stylist with a miniscule output, lovingly hand-crafted by the country's most respected coachbuilders, and had a documented and full history for its entire life. What exists now is a home-brew: a cheap fantasy version of an old car which never really existed, built by people who weren't even alive when it was first constructed, and it has no historical value whatsoever.

Even if that wasn't the case - even if it was some lash-up built in a shed by Joe Bloggs - the very fact it had survived unscathed for so long in such fine condition surely makes it historically valuable, if only as an example of 'crap vernacular British postwar lash-ups'. Why shouldn't exist? I want it to exist, so why is my opinion (the result of which is: a thing is preserved and not destroyed) less valid than yours (which is: a thing is destroyed and not preserved). It's like that cartoon with the guy saying "I don't believe in climate change - we're just making the world a better place for no reason." Surely it's best to err on the side of not fucking something up beyond all recognition just in case somebody else out there can see value in it?

Your reply is the perfect sumnation of why so many incredible cars have been destroyed, lost, ruined, modified beyond recognition or sullied by unneccessary restoration work over the years: 'I don't care, so why should anyone else?'. It's the curse of modern society. Just because you can't see the value in something, why does that mean the thing has to be destroyed? Now nobody can see the value in it, because its value has been eradicated. It's like buying a Picasso drawing and saying 'yeah, I prefer his murals' and setting it on fire. Selfish, dangerous and - yes - criminal.

[andrew e]

Are confessions allowed? I scrappaged a 16v phase2 306 cabriolet in 2010 because scrappage was the highest bidder, a pure fiscal decision. As you were.

[bunglebus]

9 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Bullshit, put your money where your mouth is and you could have one for a grand or less

 

9 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Here buy this

2k, that's an utter bargain.

Except you won't will you?

 

9 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Here another Hearse £350

Not exactly difficult to find..

 

 

9 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Cosworth powered low mileage limo

£1200

Come back when you have bought one and post up how you have saved it

Why are you making this personal?

[inconsistant]

If this unique car hadn't been scrapped years ago the internet would only be half as big.

 

 

 

[DodgeRover]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Why are you making this personal?

I'm not;  you were the one who said you would love one but they were all bought up by rigger booted morons, that's being pretty personal don't you think?

2 of those were being sold by racers..

[bunglebus]

29 minutes ago, DodgeRover said:

I'm not;  you were the one who said you would love one but they were all bought up by rigger booted morons, that's being pretty personal don't you think?

2 of those were being sold by racers..

I don't remember saying anything about you. I said knuckle draggers.

[Bren]

23 hours ago, sierraman said:

I can see how some stuff ends up bangered because there’s nobody to restore it, nobody willing to get a plan together and buy it, then the hi-ab turns up and they has cash in his hands. I can also see when someone perhaps carks it and the family being non car folk just want it shifted or someone loses the will or has their storage go. I remember the pre pro PC Rover SD1 restoration ended abruptly when the guy restoring its business folded and the lot went in the bin 75% of the way through the job.

I often wonder why the project was never finished. I don't think the car has been seen since.