Missing F1 car

[Petrus1983]

Williams is seeking £1m in the High Court after someone has 'lost' a car that was on loan to him as a garage dispaly. We all need to check our garden sheds!!

https://racingnews365.com/williams-launch-legal-ac...

[Chimune]

Anyone checked round the back of RedBull catering division offices ?

[StevieBee]

Somewhat odd that they lent out an actual F1 car. Normally they're show cars that look like the real thing but aren't.

[Accidentalhero]

This is very odd.

Liquidators will go on to see all assets, surely at some point the liquidator saw the car and made a note of it?! If its a commercial premises they'll look for tools, equipment etc they're not going to miss an F1 car so it was clearly moved before the liquidator was appointed not after as per Williams' claim.

There will be records of what the liquidator found at the premises, that the car hasn't been sold on the open market to fund the creditors means its obvious it's still in hiding.

Williams believe the owner has allegedly told the liquidator it's his and shown some paperwork to prove it. Knowing how liquidators work, they're after every penny they can get for their customers and would have had to be convinced or they were shown paperwork to prove it was Williams' buy the owner of the garage removed it anyway.....but it's Williams claiming the owner told the liquidator it was his personal property and unconnected to the Ltd Company. The liquidator have made no comment and it's clear the asset hasn't been realised.

No one can use it, it's sat in a garage but can never be resold. Odd.

Edited by Accidentalhero on Thursday 8th October 11:28

[Peterpetrole]

StevieBee said:

Somewhat odd that they lent out an actual F1 car. Normally they're show cars that look like the real thing but aren't.

That was my thought, must be a lot more to this.

[Sandpit Steve]

Well this is a weird one.

Unless the guy can somehow get export paperwork for it, the car must be sitting in a garage somewhere. It can’t be anything other than a museum piece without the team’s co-operation, and the knowledge simply doesn’t exist to make it run otherwise.

As someone said upthread, these days they have a contractor build cheap “show cars” for public display, and unlike the real cars you can’t stand two men on the front wing of them! Williams a decade ago barely had the money to make the actual racing cars, let alone any show cars.

[silentbrown]

Even wierder is why they would lend any car (even a show one) to a tiny business on the arse-end of an industrial estate in Telford.

There's no showroom, no indication of it being anything other than a one or two-man "BMW specialist".

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Telford+TF1+7GZ/...

https://web.archive.org/web/20180322054704/http://...

https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...

[Siao]

silentbrown said:

Even wierder is why they would lend any car (even a show one) to a tiny business on the arse-end of an industrial estate in Telford.

There's no showroom, no indication of it being anything other than a one or two-man "BMW specialist".

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Telford+TF1+7GZ/...

https://web.archive.org/web/20180322054704/http://...

https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...

Came here to write exactly the same! I looked it up and it is a tiny garage in an industrial estate, what possessed Williams to give them a car like that? And the excuses and loss of memory by the guy, it all sounds as shifty as it gets.

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

[Collectingbrass]

Siao said:

silentbrown said:

Even wierder is why they would lend any car (even a show one) to a tiny business on the arse-end of an industrial estate in Telford.

There's no showroom, no indication of it being anything other than a one or two-man "BMW specialist".

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Telford+TF1+7GZ/...

https://web.archive.org/web/20180322054704/http://...

https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...

Came here to write exactly the same! I looked it up and it is a tiny garage in an industrial estate, what possessed Williams to give them a car like that? And the excuses and loss of memory by the guy, it all sounds as shifty as it gets.

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

It's not Red 5 though is it? They probably lent it to him in lieu of payment for parts or work.

[Siao]

Collectingbrass said:

Siao said:

silentbrown said:

Even wierder is why they would lend any car (even a show one) to a tiny business on the arse-end of an industrial estate in Telford.

There's no showroom, no indication of it being anything other than a one or two-man "BMW specialist".

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Telford+TF1+7GZ/...

https://web.archive.org/web/20180322054704/http://...

https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...

Came here to write exactly the same! I looked it up and it is a tiny garage in an industrial estate, what possessed Williams to give them a car like that? And the excuses and loss of memory by the guy, it all sounds as shifty as it gets.

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

It's not Red 5 though is it? They probably lent it to him in lieu of payment for parts or work.

It's not, no. It would be interesting to find out how it ended up there

[MadCaptainJack]

It'll probably turn up in the back of someone's garage.

I know an independent that has a >£400k car sat in a corner, under a dust sheet, with a pile of boxes and crap piled around and on top of it...

[richhead]

Siao said:

Came here to write exactly the same! I looked it up and it is a tiny garage in an industrial estate, what possessed Williams to give them a car like that? And the excuses and loss of memory by the guy, it all sounds as shifty as it gets.

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

Old F1 cars are worth alot less than people think.
Its a limited market, and to actually run one is hugely expensive.
see here
https://www.racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/1643...

[Accidentalhero]

The garage owner is disputing the value of the car as published saying it was a non running show car... that probably takes it from 750k to 75k!

[snotrag]

Siao said:

What possessed Williams to give them a car like that?

Remember Williams, not that long ago, were in dire, dire straights and absolutely skint.

Siao said:

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

The more you read various articles on this story, its potentially not even a real one - no engine, not neccesarily one of those awful fibreglass mock ups you see screwed to the ceiling in a Restaurant, but certainly not 'a complete and entire F1 car' rolled straight out of the pit lane.

[Mammasaid]

snotrag said:

Siao said:

What possessed Williams to give them a car like that?

Remember Williams, not that long ago, were in dire, dire straits and absolutely skint.

So money for nothing, and your chicks for free?

[Siao]

snotrag said:

Siao said:

What possessed Williams to give them a car like that?

Remember Williams, not that long ago, were in dire, dire straights and absolutely skint.

Siao said:

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

The more you read various articles on this story, its potentially not even a real one - no engine, not neccesarily one of those awful fibreglass mock ups you see screwed to the ceiling in a Restaurant, but certainly not 'a complete and entire F1 car' rolled straight out of the pit lane.

Fair enough, but it is supposed to be a car that actually raced, Montoya's first car, so definitely not a mock-up replica. Anyway, good luck to Williams

[LivLL]

Article says it’s example of the car driven by Montoya. It doesn’t say this car was actually raced by anyone.

More to this tale no doubt.

Isn’t Frank Williams less popular offspring in sole charge of their heritage cars. If that’s his only job you’d think he’d know he’d lost an F1 car 5 years ago.

Something very fishy going on here.

[NoddyonNitrous]

Collectingbrass said:

Siao said:

silentbrown said:

Even wierder is why they would lend any car (even a show one) to a tiny business on the arse-end of an industrial estate in Telford.

There's no showroom, no indication of it being anything other than a one or two-man "BMW specialist".

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Telford+TF1+7GZ/...

https://web.archive.org/web/20180322054704/http://...

https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...

Came here to write exactly the same! I looked it up and it is a tiny garage in an industrial estate, what possessed Williams to give them a car like that? And the excuses and loss of memory by the guy, it all sounds as shifty as it gets.

Also, £750k for that rare car sounds a bit low, doesn't it?

It's not Red 5 though is it? They probably lent it to him in lieu of payment for parts or work.

Why would Williams be needing to pay a 2-bit garage in the arse end of nowhere's industrial estate for 'parts or work'?

[fooman]

I assumed the garage owner must have been an old mate of someone in the Williams family and it was just a favour.

[SoulGlo]

Maybe should check Valtteri Bottas' garage