After the sucess of the westy banger meeting at arlington

[Guest]

Can we stop the rigger boot = pikey comments as I wear them for work Ps - o.p fuck off

[autofive]

i know what this thread needs

 

[scooters]

But FFS we have this argument EVERY SINGLE FUPPING TIME someone posts about banger racing

 

True and I agree with all your points, but it is always going to cause temperatures to rise on an old car fanatics forum, I don't see how it is avoidable to be honest!

 

Anyway nothing wrong with a civilised debate its just that it is not likely to stay civilised for long!

 

 

true - this is a forum for enthusiasts of old cars and though some of us may like banger racing it isn't a forum for that subject.

 

Seems to me that the whole premace of Autoshite as stipulated by our founders (and I stand to be corrected if this is wrong) was the preservation of cars (the kit) which is unloved and at the bottom of the market so that these vehciles don't dissapear completely. It stands to reason therefore that an activity that destroys such vehicles won't find many friends here even if those vehicles are beyond saving.

 

Given the plethora of mondeos and Volvo 900 series around at the moment I always raise an eyebrow when you see a Morris Oxford getting ovaled - you are not going to tell me for a minute that an Oxford is a better banger racer than a 940 Volvo so therefore I question the motivation of the racer who choses one.

 

As far as the death is concerned - yes, tragic, especially for his loved ones. However, it is a very dangerous sport and anyone getting behind the wheel has to take responsibility for his or her actions. In a sport with such little regulation then the danger of death or serious injury is very real indeed. Bottom line is if you accept the risks, good on you but don't be surprised if it all goes horribly wrong. There is a plethora of dangerous activities I used to do before I had a family, now I have responsibility for others I can no longer risk my life insurance not paying out in the event of my death so I sacrifice the adrenaline activites until such time as I no longer have to be responsible.

[morris_ital_lover]

Brushing the dust of my old account... just to a few pence worth of my opinion.

 

The o/p was probably a little unwise to post what he has done as it isn't exactly going to win the world over too him.

 

Anyways, out of some morbid fanscination I signed up to and browse ovalchat and there were three things that struck me.

 

1) ALOT of the members cared deeply about classics, owning and running their own Granadas/Cortinas/Rovers/Oxbridges. The also have "standards" and will speak out in for sale thread when I car is deemed to clean to race and belongs on the roads.

2) Alot of the cars raced are absolute sheds, truly terrible. One person raced an early 1950s super rare jag. In the pictures at the oval it looked presentable and eminently restorable. However the build pictures showed a car that had been neglected for nigh on 40 years and there was little left of it... he'd basically built a jag from the remains, alot of welding wire and whatever was in his yard.

3) There is a significant minority of caaaants on there those that: 1. clear have no real concern for the theft of cars, even from other banger racers "their own" 2. Others, not necessarily related to 1 are either a)spending far too much on cars to race or fleecing grannies sell low mileage minters, since the cars, such as mk1 cavs, maxis etc, are far too clean to have been bought for a fair price (see Jag XK150 case - dishonest little shit buys car for peanuts and races it). 3)There are clearly people who show no respect for heritage and take pride in pointlessly smashing exetremely rare stuff up for giggles. This extends to Rollers, early jap material etc that are used in big name events where they will be recognised (vaguely understandable) but I also came across an Opel Olympia (1938) raced in a micro banger event that meant sweet FA, the car was wasted in the Banger equivilent of the League 1,000 middle f nowhere paint trophy in football - an automotive atrocity.

 

IMHO banger racing isn't such a bad thing since they generally pick off the shite and through the banger network there is a good supply chain that passes some spares through to help restore cars. However there are plenty of dishonest practice that I don't like by a small minority as well as mindless vandalism of our past supported by a majority.

 

A final note is that banger racing is in decline, tracks are shutting down across the board, attendances (raw numbers of people going and cars attending) are down, the money is leaking from the sport and this recent death could well be one nail in the coffin towards the end of the whole saga.

 

m0rris

[theorganist]

Thanks for that Morris Ital Lover that is very interesting and insightful.

 

I suppose like most aspects of society it is a small minority which spoil the reputation of everyone else!

[dollywobbler]

Thanks for that Morris Ital Lover that is very interesting and insightful.

 

I suppose like most aspects of society it is a small minority which spoil the reputation of everyone else!

 

Indeed so. Like the OP in this case. However, I won't shed a tear if this 'sport' disappears. For the record though, how many Mk2 Escorts have been 'ruined' in the name of rallying? Or Chrysler Sunbeams seeing as we have a rather nice pic of one in this thread.

[Pete-M]

However, I won't shed a tear if this 'sport' disappears. For the record though, how many Mk2 Escorts have been 'ruined' in the name of rallying? Or Chrysler Sunbeams seeing as we have a rather nice pic of one in this thread.

 

Not that many. I've done both, but I also go nuts when I see 'standard' examples that have all the wrong bits on.

 

Dammit. I wish I'd got into retro-fridges or summat instead of cars sometimes.

[Father Ted]

Dammit. I wish I'd got into retro-fridges or summat instead of cars sometimes.

 

 

 

Oh Noes - its has teh wrong door handle on it

[warren t claim]

with out going into details of the crash too much . the safety gear in the car would have done its job .

 

dave was killed getting out of his car during a race in a tragic accident that the other 2 drivers involved couldn't have avoided.

something that the orci need to stop imo.

 

Banning the "following in?" of stalled/crashed cars at meeting would be a good start to aid safety.

 

If my employer hadn't totally screwed up my wages a couple of weeks ago I'd of been at that fateful meeting with my 4 year old son. I'm so glad I couldn't attend.

[Guest]

the rarest cars that seem to end up on track are normally driven by blokes that are classic car restorers for a living

 

I also know of an alvis tc21 bought off ebay that had 200+ hours spent on it just to get it fit for the track let alone an mot . 1.6 pinto powered

 

 

or what about this car that was given to the driver 13 pewee by the original owner free, for the sole purpose of racing .

[garethj]

Fuck off, troll. Really

[outlaw118]

Mr Morris-Ital, thanks, I've been trying to formulate a post for this thread, but you've pretty much summed it up.

 

I'm an ex-racer - hence the username - but also a lover of CARS. Old ones, new ones, rusty, shiny whatever. I'm nearly 42 years old and according to my folks, I've been obsessed for over 40 of them.

Banger racing unfortunately attracts a percentage of "wrong 'uns". I saw it when i was racing, and obviously it still happens now, and tracks have done little to stop stolen stuff appearing on the track. A couple of times Da Poliz turned up at Arena and checked VIN numbers, and a couple of arrests were made. I presume this has happened at random times at other tracks, if not, why not?

I was once SOLD a car to race, and the previous owner declared it stolen a few weeks later, and i got arrested, as i was carting a van-load of bits to the tip. I got tugged for a defective light or somesuch, they found the numberplate in the back, that was that. Neither myself or the rest of the team would have contemplated nicking something to race, and after this incident it made us more careful.

I used to strip the cars sympathetically, and sold a lot of stuff to enthusiasdts - although not as much as I'd hoped, there was a kind of taboo to dealing with banger racers, or that the owners of the stuff we were racing didn't seem to think they should have to pay for stuff to keep their own cars going. Why not? We had rent to pay, goddammit!!

 

Question: If you had something that the bangerboys would like, and was going to send it over the bridge, why not sell it to them, let the old car go out in a blaze of glory? While scrapping something a good few years ago, a bloke towed a Triumph 2000 in, and rolled it onto the weighbridge. Myself and bro' offered him more money, in cash, there and then for the car - it was a bit of a basket case, but he refused. He said "I couldn't bear to see it raced". But he was fully prepared to see it beong crushed? Whats the difference?

 

Re: Westy and pre-68 meetings. I don't go to those, it's too painful to watch. I'm in agreement with most on here because theres too many decent cars going through, and even if they're 99% rot, there must be something that can be saved? Just strip it for the good bits and weigh the rest in. I certainly wouldn't trust my life to my welding skillz, if i'd got hold of something with no floor or sills, then theresd no way i'd race it.

 

Re Scooter's (I think) comment about the lack of governance in Banger Racing. It has got a lot better, the changes have been for the better - no fully welded cars, (drivers door only), door plates must be fitted, no acro's/scaffolding for rollover bars, and each track has it's own rules regarding what is permissible - eg some tracks allow head-ons, some allow following in. None will tolerate attacking a drivers door, or taking a run up directly from the centre safety area. The recent death at Hednesford was a tragic ACCIDENT, however, realistically it could have been avoided if Dave had stayed in his car. Obviously, I wasn't there, however, from what I can gather, he wasn't drivers door up, and not in a particularly dangerous place - which is probably why he decided to dismount in the first place. The safest place is to stay in the car, especially if the marshals are doing their job, and have flagged this fact. This is why attacking a stationary vehicle is frowned upon, and in some cases, punishable by a ban ( !I was young and foolish).

 

In closing bangerfan101, dude, you were asking for what you've had - up to a point. But you've got to realise that banger racing is never going to be flavour of the month on here, and your original post was probably unwise, unless you actually wanted to provoke a reaction.

WE're never going to change banger racing, and banning it altogether would just mean that any tom, dick or harry can have a one off race in a field, cars won't be prepped and scrutineered, and more people will get hurt.

Deaths are uncommon, certainly when you take into account the amount of people who take part week in week out, but one is too many.

R.I.P. Dave Weare.

[scooters]

Dammit. I wish I'd got into retro-fridges or summat instead of cars sometimes.

 

 

 

Oh Noes - its has teh wrong door handle on it

 

It IS beige though!

[scooters]

with out going into details of the crash too much . the safety gear in the car would have done its job .

 

dave was killed getting out of his car during a race in a tragic accident that the other 2 drivers involved couldn't have avoided.

something that the orci need to stop imo.

 

Banning the "following in?" of stalled/crashed cars at meeting would be a good start to aid safety.

 

If my employer hadn't totally screwed up my wages a couple of weeks ago I'd of been at that fateful meeting with my 4 year old son. I'm so glad I couldn't attend.

 

Blinkng flip! that was a close one eh? Moving in mysterious ways etc....

[Tayne]

ALL MY RETRO FRIDGS R BETTR THAN URS!

 

Vintage Refrigeration by Tayne, on Flickr

[Mash]

I sit on the fence a bit with banger racing, finding it best not to stir up the usual hornet's nest so to speak. I do find it a shame when really rare cars are raced for the kudos especially if they can be saved for restoration but as I've always said a lot of people who would like to restore a particular don't have the means to jump on it straight away ar indeed store it for a long term and so on and so on.

 

I watched some footage of the Farinas at Arlington, possibly from some morbid curiosity - I've never seen banger racing and don't intend to. I was very surprised at how these cars stand up to the ordeal and I can well understand why they have long been the weapon of choice. Going back to an earlier post about modern cars can anyone enlighten me as to the suitablity of them for banger racing given that they have crumple zones unlike a 50s or 60s barge? Our OP states that Mondeos are more robust than Cortinas so it does beg the question why race the older stuff? All I can think is that putting Farinas and the like round the oval is purely for nostalgia, the good old days of the 70s and 80s when these were "bangers".

[RedSparrow]

Me and my friends like to get old fridges and paint them with brightly coloured gloss and put numbers on them.

Then we push them off a cliff and the winner is the one whose fridge hits the ground first.

 

Older fridges are best for this. The other week there was a meeting of 50 of us at Beachy head all with 1950s SMEG fridges.

 

HOW YA LIKE THEM APPLES?

[Alexg]

[theorganist]

 

And now all those people who still own old fridges will be able to sell them for a lot more as they are that much rarer! See, you have done them a favour too!!

[andrew e]

Sure PRESTCOLD is the king of fridges being part of the mighty Leyland? And yep I've sold to Banger boys, purely because they turn up with cash not empty promises.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Me and my friends like to get old fridges and paint them with brightly coloured gloss and put numbers on them.

Then we push them off a cliff and the winner is the one whose fridge hits the ground first.

 

Older fridges are best for this. The other week there was a meeting of 50 of us at Beachy head all with 1950s SMEG fridges.

 

HOW YA LIKE THEM APPLES?

 

That was until one of you bastards paid £640 for a 1958 GEC Frostomatic and wrecked it. Well out of order - I would have had that that if I had the room/money and you weren't so far away.

[RedSparrow]

Yer we have to remove the glass shelves and the egg holders before they are raced, these are sold to enthusiasts to help keep other fridges running.

[Cavcraft]

Fridge racers are bastards. Someone broke into my house the other year, Hiabed the roof and stile my prized Frigidaire AEC Mammoth Minor that I was restoring. Thank Christ they didn't manage to get into the pantry as I had a rare two stroke Detroit Diesel tumble dryer in there.

[trigger]

I came home from work once to find my Hotpoint fridge up on bricks and my freezer door missing, bastards

[RedSparrow]

shut ur faces itmight not have been fridge racers. 99% of us r honest juts a few bad ones lol

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Fridge racers are bastards. Someone broke into my house the other year, Hiabed the roof and stile my prized Frigidaire AEC Mammoth Minor that I was restoring. Thank Christ they didn't manage to get into the pantry as I had a rare two stroke Detroit Diesel tumble dryer in there.

 

 

I feel your pain. Some bastard tried to half-inch my 1983 Hotpoint Frigidrigid with the ultra rare SodaStream option. Thank God I parked a 3 door Cosworth in front to block it in.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

shut ur faces itmight not have been fridge racers. 99% of us r honest juts a few bad ones lol

 

PMSL - nearly ruined a keyboard coughing up Coke!

[andrew e]

I snapped one of them so called "domestic appliance enthusiasts" hitting a creda matic with a mallet!!! And they call us racers scum

 

[theorganist]

Blimey that brings back memories.

 

I can just remember a Rumbelows in Stourbridge.

[M'coli]

I'd better be careful - the microwave went pop last week, it's a rare early-90s Sharp programmable - and it's sitting outside awaiting stripping and caging at the moment.