XK120 banger racing!

[uk66fastback]

Good work XKMan. I too find it interesting that it was deemed unroadworthy but having been raced will on day return to the road.

Best of luck with the project. Please post some pics of the car as it is now, as we're all interested. This will make a great resto story.

I'm in for the fiver as well btw ...

[XKman]

Couple of pictures attached of when I bought the car.

[a8hex]

The poor mistreated thing.

One thing that doesn't match Plonker's story was that he said they cut the roof off, but neither this photo nor the ones he posted seemed to show that.

Fortunately the front end doesn't seem to have suffered too badly.

Good luck.

[MX7]

Danesgate said:

I love the juxtaposition that the banger racer argued the car couldn't be put back on the road

Not really.

" to a certain point mate, yes it was resorable, but the way i see it, is that even though it was a waste (and i think that i was driving) all the parts were selling/sold off it are keeping another going"

Good luck with the restoration. I look forward to the build thread.

[jith]

XKman said:

Thanks for the suggestion Andy. In response to Rollcage, when I bought the car I knew none of its history. We had heard within the XK club that a 150 FHC was being used in a banger race, but I have no conscience regarding the original owners wishes regarding the car. It was a bit of selfish wish to scrap it anyway.
Any car can be restored, it is the cost that is the question. I do most of the work myself, as a hobby,( I am in my fifties)' so there are no labour costs. A professional restorer would charge over £100k because of the hours work required and clearly it will never be a concours car. The chassis needs a bit of work, particularly at the rear, the gearbox and back axle appear to be OK, and the suspension should be OK once new bushes are fitted and wire wheel hubs are put back in place of the XJ6 ones. It will need a complete new rear body but I hope the front wings can be salvaged. The engine, as in all restorations will be rebuilt. It is a 3.8 litre so is not the original, and has a 2.4 Head fitted for some reason. I will replace this with a straight port head and triple SU's as in a 150S.
If anybody has a pair of 150 doors from a FHC or DHC, a bonnet and a boot, in any condition, let me know. This restoration will take at least a couple of years.

Hi XK,

the early 2.4 heads had smaller combustion chambers, so by fitting one you had an instant compression ratio boost without having to change the pistons. The later 2.4 heads fitted to the 240 were straight port, so you could retain it if this was the case. The later heads also had better cooling channels and valve stem oil seals giving you a much cleaner engine with far less oil consumption.

J

[Rollcage]

The roof has been tacked back on by the look of some of the photos in other threads. Not really sure why Plonker decided to cut it off in the first place!

My comment about the owner not wishing to see it back on the road may have been from another thread about a different car - can't really remember.

I also saw the above comment in the other threads, where he recognises that the car was saveable. I suspect the desire to race it (and turn down big money offers) will have come from the fact that I reckon he will have paid very little for the car in the first place - it seems that they were asked to collect it as pretty much scrap? I'll bet it was bought for fractions of it's true worth.

[cjgreaves41]

XK Man thats brillaint!

Was only having a quick look at lunch time at the forums and got so engrosed I read the whole thing!

I'm not sure where I stand on racing classics in banger races. On one hand it seems a shame on the other its brilliant that they are out there for people to see. Rather than being locked away!

I used to mechanic a bit in Rallycross races and a few years back there was a Triumph GT6 running in the 'revivals' class! It was a great spectical.

Modern race cars will one day be 'classics' but they are still raced, and still get beat up! This is a shame regardless of age, but no one could argue that they shoudlnt be raced.

[a8hex]

Rollcage said:

The roof has been tacked back on by the look of some of the photos in other threads. Not really sure why Plonker decided to cut it off in the first place!

My comment about the owner not wishing to see it back on the road may have been from another thread about a different car - can't really remember.

I also saw the above comment in the other threads, where he recognises that the car was saveable. I suspect the desire to race it (and turn down big money offers) will have come from the fact that I reckon he will have paid very little for the car in the first place - it seems that they were asked to collect it as pretty much scrap? I'll bet it was bought for fractions of it's true worth.

If I remember rightly once Plonker bravely came here to explain himself (hats off to being prepared to do this).
When he was first asked to scrap the car he offered to buy it whole, including offering more than the original scrap asking price.
The previous owner wanted it scrapped and didn't want it returned to the road. We don't know the story here.
The idea of cutting the roof off was to show the owner it was being scrapped, this was IIRC done before the car was removed from their premises. I'd assume that this would mean cutting through the A pillars fortunately this doesn't appear to have been the case.
Many of the original parts of the car were then removed and sold, they'll now be gracing other XK150s.

After the car's first outing Plonker had a change of heart and decided to sell the car instead of wrecking it.

The car now has a good home.

[lowdrag]

cjgreaves41 said:

Modern race cars will one day be 'classics' but they are still raced, and still get beat up! This is a shame regardless of age, but no one could argue that they shoud'nt be raced.

That's that then. We'll cancel the Goodwood Festival and Revival and the Silverstone Classic.

[Bogracer]

For a while a friend an I brought wrecks from America, E-types, Healey 3000's anything really in the early 90's and sold them on as restoration projects. I think the most crazy thing we brought for a few grand was a banger raced Aston Martin DB5 which has been trashed in the late 70's. It still ran and drove but the hand crafted body work was pretty mashed.

I wish I had held onto that one!

[MX7]

cjgreaves41 said:

XModern race cars will one day be 'classics' but they are still raced, and still get beat up! This is a shame regardless of age, but no one could argue that they shoudlnt be raced.

'Raced' isn't the same as destroyed, which is the aim of banger racing.

[lowdrag]

Hmmm

Revival 2007:-



Looks somewhat dishevelled to me.

[XKman]

Had a very useful weekend. Won an original XK150 radiator for £180 On eBay and when I went to collect it bought s/h bonnet, with some damage, two doors for a DHC which are the same as on FHC and a boot lid. So all missing panels now found, much quicker than I thought.
I believe the roof has been cut off and believe the lady who sold it to the scrap man insisted on this happening in front of her! However, it has been welded back on quite nicely. Thanks for the explanation re the 2.4 cylinder head.

[a8hex]

XKman said:

Had a very useful weekend. Won an original XK150 radiator for £180 On eBay and when I went to collect it bought s/h bonnet, with some damage, two doors for a DHC which are the same as on FHC and a boot lid. So all missing panels now found, much quicker than I thought.
I believe the roof has been cut off and believe the lady who sold it to the scrap man insisted on this happening in front of her! However, it has been welded back on quite nicely. Thanks for the explanation re the 2.4 cylinder head.

Sounds like a good week, all that and the ID too.
Well done.

[XKman]

Thanks Ken. I forgot to mention that with the help of some experts in the XK club we have discovered the chassis number of the car which matches in the Jaguar records with the body number and gearbox number. The car was made in February 1958 and was originally grey with blue trim.
For some reason one of the pictures, showing the rear end damage, didn't attach the other day so hopefully it does this time.

[JB!]

Best of luck!

i'm in for £5

[cjgreaves41]

MX7 said:

cjgreaves41 said:

XModern race cars will one day be 'classics' but they are still raced, and still get beat up! This is a shame regardless of age, but no one could argue that they shoudlnt be raced.

'Raced' isn't the same as destroyed, which is the aim of banger racing.

I wasnt arguing the case for or against banger racaing..... the point was car are damaged in any type of racing, thats just what happens. They are still raced. See pic above.......

[MX7]

cjgreaves41 said:

MX7 said:

cjgreaves41 said:

XModern race cars will one day be 'classics' but they are still raced, and still get beat up! This is a shame regardless of age, but no one could argue that they shoudlnt be raced.

'Raced' isn't the same as destroyed, which is the aim of banger racing.

I wasnt arguing the case for or against banger racaing..... the point was car are damaged in any type of racing, thats just what happens. They are still raced. See pic above.......

The sole intention of banger racing is to destroy the cars. It's not the same as racing, and it's a bit if a silly comparison.

[Camaro91]

The owner of the XK150 is under no obligation whatsoever to sell any of the parts - no matter what people offer him, because it is his property - exercising this right does not make him some kind of criminal.

If this was the last XK150 on the planet I'm sure it would be a shame but there will be plenty of examples gleaming away in people's garages waiting for the next dry day to be driven, at least this one is getting some semblance of use.

Some of the snobbery on here is amazing.

[a8hex]

Camaro91 said:

The owner of the XK150 is under no obligation whatsoever to sell any of the parts - no matter what people offer him, because it is his property - exercising this right does not make him some kind of criminal.

If this was the last XK150 on the planet I'm sure it would be a shame but there will be plenty of examples gleaming away in people's garages waiting for the next dry day to be driven, at least this one is getting some semblance of use.

Some of the snobbery on here is amazing.

While it may be up to the owner to do what they like with their property if it happens to be a car, the law is not always so willing to allow those with possession free reign. It has long be held that "an Englishman's home is his castle", well if your home is a castle and you decide to start throwing large lumps of rock at it (which is after all the intended purpose of a castle) then the law would soon be down on you like a ton of bricks. It doesn't even need to a castle, not many miles of here is a 70s school which many would regard as an eye sore and prime example of everything that went wrong with architecture and possibility a perfect example of why concrete pox isn't all bad, but it is still covered by a preservation order.

So the law accepts that the right to destroy your possessions is a limited right.
There are other cases where rights of disposal are limited, if you collect fine arts, you may not be allowed to export pieces that you own. You may find it difficult to sell them into foreign hands.
We do not always allow owners to do just as they wish.

Currently cars aren't included in any of these schemes.

But many may ask why vandalism should be allowed merely because you own something.

Now, my personal view of banner racing classic cars is that some safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that the cars being owned are legitimately owned by those wishing to race them. I'm not imply that Plonker was involved in anything improper, but there have been cases where people have had their much loved classics stolen and subsequently destroyed in the ring.
Perhaps checks are need before a car can be entered, its ID should need to be checked, cars with no ID should raise suspicion. If you are the registered keeper of a car I thought you were legally obliged to tell the DVLA if the car was sold or scrapped. Can there be a legitimate reason to deliberately remove all traces of the ID from a car?