Rapport

[andrew e]

Er I'm not usually found browsing Pistonheads forum, but a bloke I work with is... so I was gutted when I opened this link

 

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topi ... 22622&nmt=

[Lord Sterling]

First time I've ever heard of the Rapport Fort. Just read the AROnline link about it seems that only a handful were built. Wouldnt blatting around in one of those just for the WTF is that? factor.

[scooters]

In the case of a car like this I do not believe the "don't blame the banger racers - they did it cos no one wanted it" for a minute. Yes - this is an explainiation for many but when somthing uber rare comes up like this I can gaurantee you that no mention of it has been made on the jag site and it has been found, bought and broken with no one but the banger racer and the vendor's knowledge....

 

fucking disgrace -

[Wilko220]

YEH BUT YOU ENFUSIASTS SHUD BE GR8FUL COZ ITLL MAKE DA ONES LEFT MOAR VALUBUL...

 

I really do wish a slow death to the fucking scumbags.

[Shep Shepherd]

I am of the understanding that the Forte estate was a one-off, which makes bangering it a criminal offence in my book

[barrett]

How strange. I thought this was tucked up safe and sound with an enthusiast owner. I think this was Chris Humberstone's most successful design (stylistically if not financially).

A total disgrace that someone would willfully destroy something unique and culturally valuable such as this. Yet another thing future generations will not be able to see outside of a book.

 

To be honest though, the comments on that pistonheads link are even more shocking; This guy clearly hasn't left his house since about 1978 (or has never heard of banger racing until now)

If it were desirable then it would have had a decent price tag on it, do you honestly think that banger racers would spend loads of money just to smash up a rare car?

 

Nope they buy cheap st and smash it up, I guess nobody wanted to take it on.

 

[barefoot]

The coupe/convertible (in the AR online link) appeared to be the first of that breed that is now everywhere.

[Guest]

I am of the understanding that the Forte estate was a one-off, which makes bangering it a criminal offence in my book

 

*Devil's Advocate* Then again the JOC may have offered the owner buttons for it, and it might have been in a complete state - he \ she \ it might have lost their storage and needed to shift it quickly and wouldn't have necessarily had the time to trawl the leagues of 'enthusiasts' who might have been interested\*Devil's Advocate.

 

Sorry. FUCKING BANGER RACERS TWATS SHOULD BE DROWNED AT BIRTH GRR WIBBLE WAFFLE.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

When was it raced? That looks like a pretty old picture.

[Guest]

Did you hear of the Ferrari 400i that's been bought to race? It was on RR for about a tenth of a second before it all kicked off and got locked.

 

OMG STP CHATTN SHIT AT DA BANGAZ U TURD etc.

[trigger]

I dare someone to post this on RR then! That is a real shame though, I remember reading about the car before as Rapport also made a Honda Accord based model as well.

 

The photos do look old though, maybe there was a destruction order on it for some reason?

[Shep Shepherd]

I am of the understanding that the Forte estate was a one-off, which makes bangering it a criminal offence in my book

 

*Devil's Advocate* Then again the JOC may have offered the owner buttons for it, and it might have been in a complete state - he \ she \ it might have lost their storage and needed to shift it quickly and wouldn't have necessarily had the time to trawl the leagues of 'enthusiasts' who might have been interested\*Devil's Advocate.

 

Quite possibly, as in the past I've heard of some quite desirable and historically-important cars actually being offered to owners clubs and their members by banger racers which have ended up being raced because said clubs/members had no interest in them or baulked at paying a small amount of money (often scrap value) to save them.

[andrew e]

A 400 is fair game, even Fezza fans break them for engines. Many moons ago I even sent a rusty W123 to the oval, as the only serious party drove a hiab... but I digress. Even so this an odd one, because what glory would there be in racing a car weaker than a Jag with no obvious SHOCK LOOK AT THAT factor on the oval. I guess this might have been a outstanding debt cashed?

[Guest]

I am of the understanding that the Forte estate was a one-off, which makes bangering it a criminal offence in my book

 

*Devil's Advocate* Then again the JOC may have offered the owner buttons for it, and it might have been in a complete state - he \ she \ it might have lost their storage and needed to shift it quickly and wouldn't have necessarily had the time to trawl the leagues of 'enthusiasts' who might have been interested\*Devil's Advocate.

 

Quite possibly, as in the past I've heard of some quite desirable and historically-important cars actually being offered to owners clubs and their members by banger racers which have ended up being raced because said clubs/members had no interest in them or baulked at paying a small amount of money (often scrap value) to save them.

 

Yeah, in the sake of balance it isn't just the banger racers who can behave like spoilt kids. In fact, from what I've heard some owner's clubs are so up themselves and picky about who they choose to deal with I'd probably end up racing a car out of spite. I'd probably break something up for spares before resorting to the oval though - someone would have to really piss me off to provoke such an extreme reaction.

 

The thought of autocrossing \ bangering the white spares 480 did occur actually, but the former was a no go due to the engine \ weight classification, the latter because I'm a mard and the prospect of the weigh in price put paid to any potential trip across the dog track.

 

I wonder how many Volvos have been bangered after people became infuriated with the VOC though? Can't see how that could be an isolated incident.....

[Guest]

A 400 is fair game, even Fezza fans break them for engines. Many moons ago I even sent a rusty W123 to the oval, as the only serious party drove a hiab... but I digress. Even so this an odd one, because what glory would there be in racing a car weaker than a Jag with no obvious SHOCK LOOK AT THAT factor on the oval. I guess this might have been a outstanding debt cashed?

 

I think you might have touched upon something there. Presuming there's several of these in existence (but not more than that), perhaps this one was the victim of a museum clearance or unexpected vicissitudes for a previous owner? Like that XK150 that ended up track side, there's probably more to this story than we know.

[andrew e]

Odd things happen, the William Towns styled (bodied is a fairer word...) Guyson became an E type again a while back.

 

(The other one..)

[andrew e]

http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?blogs200706f.htm

 

Goto June 23rd...

[dollywobbler]

Tricky one. While that Towns thing is certainly rare, it is fuggin hideous. I know an E-Type V12 is no oil painting, but that looks like it could have been designed by Banham.

[flat4alfa]

click

 

In 2009 it was Auctioned by Brightwells for £9900 inc premium

 

Chassis no. 2K-2893BW

Engine no. 37610

 

DVLA still have it listed as: DAIMLER 5.3 DOUBLE SIX AUTO

Date of Liability: 01 05 1990 / Vehicle Status: Unlicensed

 

So there is no scrap marker so therefore not part of Scrappage.

Registration 2888 AP has also therefore not been placed on retention either...

 

But. Was there really just the one? Was there a development rolling shell tucked somewhere, missing its front end?? That photo looks like a scan from a film print. It also smells a bit like sometime in the late nineties...

[andrew e]

The plot thickens!

[Alexg]

Hang on...

 

[flat4alfa]

can anyone tell me the one off jag steve raced at swaffham in the mid 90's?

i got the car from wisbech, the man i got it from said it came from peterborugh, he had 2 one with no doors and tailgate and both had no running gear or wings , so i had to buy a doner jag

 

 

Thought as much.

 

A Pistonheads wind-up.

[Pete-M]

I sold two nice Mk2 Granada 2.8is to a banger racer as he was the only person who turned up and didn't want to haggle extreme amounts of money off for stupidly minor faults.

 

Selling them both to him nearly broke my heart, but I was utterly pissed off by a stream of anoraks who turned up and whined about the most lame things imaginable. One of them complained that the car had (mint, and correct for an injected Granny) TRX wheels and tyres. Another one wanted me to fix the aircon on a car I was asking £200 for and whined because the electric sunroof didn't move very smoothly because he'd need it open in the sub-Saharan November Burnley heat. It must have been nearly 10°C outside on the day. I told him to piss off, sharpish. Which he did.

 

Another 'enthusiast' wanted to mix and match bits from the two cars to make a really nice one, but only wanted to pay buttons and didn't want to pay me to break the other one or for the parts off it. His idea was for me to do all the work, break the Ghia X, and fit the parts (electric rear windows, trip computer and convert the sunroof to electric...) to the injection for free, because he didn't have anywhere to do it or the money to fund it and he swore blind that those bits should have been on the injection... He was wrong, I showed him the original brochure and informed him he could cough up for both, or buy one, or fuck off.

 

The banger lad took both cars, without haggling, for the advertised price, on the same day the next ad was out and paid cash. I was gutted, but I'd spent about £80 on advertisements trying to sell the cars to 'enthusiasts' who in the end had just pissed me about.

 

It's galling when one-offs and rare cars are wrecked on banger tracks, but the banger lads do have a point when they say that the 'classic' fraternity often tend to prevaricate about the bush when it comes to actually pulling their respective fingers out and saving stuff. I've lost track of the number of old cars I've seen that have ended up going over the Bridge of Doom because nobody could be bothered / had space / could afford to save 'em.

 

A lot of people want perfection for a penny when it comes to old cars. My XJR is a prime example. £56k new, full service history, pretty bloody good nick inside and out, all the toys, yet all I hear from people is "Must have your own oil well to run that". Hmm, I don't, and it's not much worse on fuel than a lot of stuff out there. It's better on fuel than the Jeep and the 604 and not much worse than something like an automatic Mondeo V6, but it's the excuse that everyone gives for not buying it.

 

Ah buggrit. Rant over. I'm going to bed.

[outlaw118]

Once again, perfect nail-on-the-head comment Pete, I know the "banger Racer=scum" debate will rage on ad nauseum, but the facts are:

1) You can't keep everything

2) Some banger racers do actually pay the required money, and don't just hiab stuff off driveways

3) Classic car clubs and their members are the biggest bunch of tossers going. As I've said before, when myself and bro were racing, I used to take great care in stripping whatever car was next in the firing line, and spent £££ advertising in specialist mags. How much did I "make" back? To the best of my memory I sold a set of TRX alloys with good tyres for £100, a small read quarterlight glass from an Orion for £5, and er.... thats it. All the while getting phone calls from owners club people saying that we were "pikeys", "c**ts" and all the rest. I seem to remember the VW Golf mk2 and the Passatt caused the biggest ruckus for some reason.

 

Whatever.

For the record, I wouldn't have raced that, for two reasons, it's rarity, and to be honest, it doesn't look strong enough!

[Rhythm Thief]

I don't mind banger racers, for three reasons:

 

1) I'm not one to tell people what they can and can't do with their own property

2) There's actually bugger - all practical difference between something being off the road because it's been used to death and something being off the road because it's too shiny to take out of the heated dehumidified garage

3) Banger racing looks like tremendous fun

 

I don't condone them nicking stuff off people's driveways, but then neither do the majority of banger racers I wouldn't have thought.

[outlaw118]

It is fun....but if you're Mr Unlucky - like me, it hurts when you smash your elbow to bits in a "freak" incident...

 

To add, the anti-banger thing isn't new, when we had only just started, circa 1995 we were weighing in a Cortina, (by this time shorter than a Fiesta), a bloke came in with a Triumph 2000. At that point, scrap was £40 per tonne, they weighed it, offered £45. It was an Mot fail, (in quite a big way) and we offered him £100 on the spot. He refused as he "couldn't bear the thought of it".

He then stood there and watched as the Trumpet was relieved of it's engine with a grabber thingy then had its roof stoved in, and was flung on the pile.

 

Why wouldn't anyone sane double their money, and be spared the vision of their "pride and joy" getting crushed?

[garethj]

Why wouldn't anyone sane double their money, and be spared the vision of their "pride and joy" getting crushed?

Because even if a family pet is going to die, you don’t necessarily want to see someone rip its legs off, set fire to its tail and dance on the remains, cheering?

 

I’m sure this has been said before, once a car is sold you can’t force the new owner to do what you want. But while you still own it you do have the choice.

[barefoot]

Because even if a family pet is going to die, you don’t necessarily want to see someone rip its legs off, set fire to its tail and dance on the remains,

 

Nice analogy.

[scooters]

i totally understand theargument between banger racers and sanctimonious pillocks as often found on the VOC for example or the Morris Minor site...however, we are not talking about a 400 or a granny here - this is a one off and a rare and unique car. Had, it's requirement for rescue been broadcast then one of us would probably have heard about it even if the owner wanted silly money. Had it appeared in Classic and Sports Car then surely an international readership would have picjed up on it and the rare collector community and picked up by the auction houses. We all of us have our contacts and trawl the forums and web continuously and there was nothing on this vehicle. This is where the historic vehicle associations should come in by engaging with the banger community to make them realise when they have a rare car on their hands or offered to them. This may have happened in ignorance but I doubt it. Just as there are unscrupulous dickheads in the clubs there are also unscrupulous dickheads in the banger fraternity. I know of two banger racers who were appauled to hear this story...they rightly said that this takes their cause back years.

 

Just as rare andhistoric buldings are protected there is an argument for vehicles to also be protected in this way - I'm not talking about common or garden ones but those that are important or very rare ...this being a Bitish car makes it all the more sad.

[HillmanImp]

If this was in the mid 90's then there was not so much of a network to make people realise these things were there. It was probably advertised and bought locally without anyone knowing really what it was etc.

 

I dont think this is too bad. He had a shell that was pretty worthless and incomplete and he put it back together and raced it. Probably did not have a great deal of knowlege of how rare it was. Hope he did well in it. Probably generated a lot of interest in the pits.

 

Obviously some people will seek out rare cars to race and thats up to them (this chap might, I dont know). Just because we dont like it is irrelevant and wont change owt, its personal preference. I am sure there are people up in arms that we keep our pedestrian unfriendly old cars on the road etc on another forum every other week.

 

Whilst it is a shame it was raced, its not really hurting anyone as they are just material objects.

 

But to get this back onto the normal 'banger racer thread' tone, I heard ALL banger racers are anti semetic and drown kittens for fun.