XK120 banger racing!

[Lotus 50]

I guess that's what I'm getting at - it's the owners choice and whilst people might get grumpy at the idea, they should consider whether or not they'd be willing to stump up enough to make them think twice before getting too critical...

[MGB Boy]

plonker751 said:

Nope, i knew full well what the wings were worth, i was offered £1000 each for the wings on the day and turned it down, and i dont regret it in the slightest mate.

£1000, each!?
And you turned it down?

For me that just about sums you up in one action.

I fully understand you don't give a st but maybe one day (just maybe) there will be something you want and are willing to pay for and the owner will turn around and say "I'd rather smash it up for fun".

[Andy 308GTB]

MGB Boy said:

plonker751 said:

Nope, i knew full well what the wings were worth, i was offered £1000 each for the wings on the day and turned it down, and i dont regret it in the slightest mate.

£1000, each!?
And you turned it down?

For me that just about sums you up in one action.

I fully understand you don't give a st but maybe one day (just maybe) there will be something you want and are willing to pay for and the owner will turn around and say "I'd rather smash it up for fun".

I don't see why this 'sums you up' - this patently wasn't a financial exercise.
As far as I can tell the Classic Banger Racing meetings involve a lot of time & expense - in the knowledge that at the end of the afternoon the value of the car is the scrap value.
If these guys were money focused they wouldn't be racing...

[Glen320]

Duffy Collards old escort hot rod was pretty special,but heres my favourite old motor of the weekend,100e historic stock car,

[MGB Boy]

Andy 308GTB said:

MGB Boy said:

plonker751 said:

Nope, i knew full well what the wings were worth, i was offered £1000 each for the wings on the day and turned it down, and i dont regret it in the slightest mate.

£1000, each!?
And you turned it down?

For me that just about sums you up in one action.

I fully understand you don't give a st but maybe one day (just maybe) there will be something you want and are willing to pay for and the owner will turn around and say "I'd rather smash it up for fun".

I don't see why this 'sums you up' - this patently wasn't a financial exercise.
As far as I can tell the Classic Banger Racing meetings involve a lot of time & expense - in the knowledge that at the end of the afternoon the value of the car is the scrap value.
If these guys were money focused they wouldn't be racing...

You clearly don't get my point.
I couldn't give a flying fk about his financial situation.

But the fact that these items were worth so much to someone and he's basically turned around saying "I'd rather smash them up" sums him up for me.

[RetroCosworth]

MGB Boy said:

Andy 308GTB said:

MGB Boy said:

plonker751 said:

Nope, i knew full well what the wings were worth, i was offered £1000 each for the wings on the day and turned it down, and i dont regret it in the slightest mate.

£1000, each!?
And you turned it down?

For me that just about sums you up in one action.

I fully understand you don't give a st but maybe one day (just maybe) there will be something you want and are willing to pay for and the owner will turn around and say "I'd rather smash it up for fun".

I don't see why this 'sums you up' - this patently wasn't a financial exercise.
As far as I can tell the Classic Banger Racing meetings involve a lot of time & expense - in the knowledge that at the end of the afternoon the value of the car is the scrap value.
If these guys were money focused they wouldn't be racing...

You clearly don't get my point.
I couldn't give a flying fk about his financial situation.

But the fact that these items were worth so much to someone and he's basically turned around saying "I'd rather smash them up" sums him up for me.

As they say, what goes around comes around. I'm yet to see a Ford GT40 in banger racing, perhaps a prospect for the next generation to do 'just for fun'. After all, it's 'only a GT40'.

[plonker751]

MGB Boy said:

Andy 308GTB said:

MGB Boy said:

plonker751 said:

Nope, i knew full well what the wings were worth, i was offered £1000 each for the wings on the day and turned it down, and i dont regret it in the slightest mate.

£1000, each!?
And you turned it down?

For me that just about sums you up in one action.

I fully understand you don't give a st but maybe one day (just maybe) there will be something you want and are willing to pay for and the owner will turn around and say "I'd rather smash it up for fun".

I don't see why this 'sums you up' - this patently wasn't a financial exercise.
As far as I can tell the Classic Banger Racing meetings involve a lot of time & expense - in the knowledge that at the end of the afternoon the value of the car is the scrap value.
If these guys were money focused they wouldn't be racing...

You clearly don't get my point.
I couldn't give a flying fk about his financial situation.

But the fact that these items were worth so much to someone and he's basically turned around saying "I'd rather smash them up" sums him up for me.

sums me up? You dont even no me mate, have no idea in the slightest what went into the xk150 even what ive described so far doesnt even come close to the real work, id still be writing it now if i went right into detail, i can if you want, it would be a very long reply, but if it gives you more of a picture to 'sum me up in' then i will mate. Wings were worth £1000 each, rear wings been quoted £450 each for them, engine and gearbox, offered £700 for the lot, £1000 for the rear axle being a limited slip diff, theres near on £5000 already and i turned it all down, pure and simple, moneys not needed, so we didnt think about selling it, rather race it.
Like i said, id be more than happy to do a complete write up from start too inish on the work we did on it for anyone.

[plonker751]

I fully understand you don't give a st but maybe one day (just maybe) there will be something you want and are willing to pay for and the owner will turn around and say "I'd rather smash it up for fun".
[/quote]

what goes areound comes around?
Dont really no how to take that comment mate, seems like people are kicking up a real fuss over what at the end of the day, in what ever condition is a bit of shaped metal

[MGB Boy]

You really don't get what I'm saying!
It's not about the fact you could have made 'X' amount from the parts. It's the fact that these parts were worth so much to people and they'll essentially be destroyed for fun.
If someone is willing to pay £1000 for one wing it's not about the £1000 it's about the fact its worth that much to who ever offered the price, See it more as a kind of 'sentimental' item (Only way I can think of to describe it).

Edit as I took so long to reply you replied again:
It's not what comes around goes around / karma whatever anyone wants to call it, It's so that you can see it from 'our' point of view.

Edited by MGB Boy on Friday 9th July 21:18

[RetroCosworth]

plonker751 said:

Hi cosworth
Well for one thing, that ex banger racer who went out and stole other cars laid up or not is the sort of person who gives banger racin a bad reputation which the makes you tar us all with the sae brush, I would NEVER EVER think about knicking someoneelse's property for banger racing, EVERY SINGLE ONE of my cars hvave been legally aquired.

I'll agree with you on that point.

plonker751 said:

You cant see the logic in 'ploughing money' into a car im going to smash up, fair enough, your opinion, if i new abit more about you i could probably find somthing i think is abit pointless in your life, not having a go here, just expressing my opinion.

I'm sure you could, but I wouldn't be the one losing money on something I put money into.

plonker751 said:

To your third comment, have you ever even seen a banger getting built, yes, at the track after the 1st race and it dont matter too much about the appearance, yes the hammers do come out, but on initial prep, alot of effort goes into a banger, for instance, the Spedewort Banger World Final, the work that goes into some of them is unreal, better than original on a few occasions, people get cars powder coated, proffesionally sprayed, last year some one had a Mk2 Ford Granada painted completely in Chrome!

I've seen some get built in the US as there was a program about it on Sky a while back where another chap took a perfectly solid wagon and decided to use it as his banger.

I went to a Banger final in London which was pretty run down. Yes, the car were well prepared and probably took months to do. I don't why after spending about £3K on a classic that you would then go and abuse it, banger it to pieces and then send it to the scrappy.

Ahh, the typical suspect the Mk2 Granada. I've always been a fan of those but can't bare to seem being destroyed to pieces along with the Jaguar XJ Series 1 and 2s.

plonker751 said:

Not trying to rude as i dont want this all going tits up and turning into an arguement where i will most likely be out numbered, befre you start telling me what banger racings like, get all the facts, noit just a few of them and drawing conclusions from them, you dont just read the ending of a book and assume what the beginings like, you read it all, exactly the same here mate.

I'll give you that but you've just had the rear end shunted in on the XK

plonker751 said:

Engine wise, there are some that get ragged right up until they s**t there pants and sieze solid, as ive done it many occasion, only last november i siezed up my only 2ltr pinto, im 18 and even i no there getting hard to find, probably reason why i havent got a replacement yet, but alot of the top drivers spend alot of elbow grease and some cases alot of cash on there engines, and when you dont have the money us banger drivers at least give the engine a good service as theres really no point putting all the work into a banger, get to the track, engines only on 2/6 cylinders and it blows up 1st lap.

There probably hard to find as the whole banger racing crowd has used most of them.

plonker751 said:

Lastly, i quote you
I still can't see the logic of 'banger racing' and never intend to. It's just a grown up form of bumper cars for those who don't want to do PROPER RACING.
Banger racing is a proper form of racing, jsut you dont think it is as you dont agree with it, simple question
why isnt it a proper form of racing?

You're taking perfectly decent machinery and smashing it to pieces. It's hardly racing is it?

[RetroCosworth]

plonker751 said:

what goes areound comes around?
Dont really no how to take that comment mate, seems like people are kicking up a real fuss over what at the end of the day, in what ever condition is a bit of shaped metal

My point. Nail and head.

You don't give a st what you use as 'in what ever condition is a bit of shaped metal'. It could be worth £1 million, £10K, or £500 you couldn't care what it's value is worth.

[a8hex]

plonker751 said:

... Wings were worth £1000 each, rear wings been quoted £450 each for them, engine and gearbox, offered £700 for the lot, £1000 for the rear axle being a limited slip diff, theres near on £5000 already and i turned it all down, pure and simple, moneys not needed, so we didnt think about selling it, rather race it.
Like i said, id be more than happy to do a complete write up from start too inish on the work we did on it for anyone.

I'm surprised the engine & gearbox was only worth £700, if this was an original XK150 engine then I would have expected it to be worth somewhat more. I paid about £400 for a head a couple of years ago without even knowing if it would run. You've obviously got a fully running engine here.

Limited slip diff? OK, that dates the car rather later than 1957. It would be very rare on a 3.4, so more likely a 3.8 which is going to be worth more. More people are going to be interested in a 3.8. The Power-Lok probably also means a OverDrive which again would push up the value of the gearbox. Sure, you can pick up Moss boxes nice and cheap, but the Mk2 or MkX box doesn't have the right top plate to go in an XK, the gear lever ends up in the wrong place. More importantly the solenoid of the saloon OD box fouls the chassis of the XK. Fitting the wrong OD box means cutting and welding the XK chassis cross members. So again the Moss box from an XK is worth quite a bit more than from other Jaguars.

[williamp]

Any photos of the car after the event?

[RW774]

To be wise after the event is a joke. I`d like a pound for every potential customer who gripped at the cost of any sort of rebuild, parts labour or whatever.This guy built this XK because he wanted to. Banger racing is a serious business and costly.
I can`t see a problem with that. If seen alot of ill prepared cars in the masters series on the track. I`ve seen a hell of a lot better prepared cars in bangers. Its a shame the pompus `Masters` series is so bloody expensive
We would see alot more would be historics out there, as they were back in the JDC days.
If a member of the public had seen fit to restore this car in the first place , it would not have finished up on the track, now would it.
By the way, we have a 420 going into `bangers` soon, unless any one wants to rescue it?

[jagman21]

I'm sure when its financially feasible we'll see this car back on the road where it belongs new chassis and bodies are available pretty much off the shelf, so I don't think we've seen the death of this car, so let enjoy the fact that its being enjoyed and raced, despite the fact that some of us may not approve, rest and assured someone will in 20 years time enter a concours competition with a xk150 with some interesting history.

[a8hex]

While I do not claim to know the whole story here the description sounds like he went to see what was thought to be a Rover P6 and turned out not to be. From what I read into the story here, there did not appear to be a chance for an XK enthusiast rescue the car. That the guy who is banger racing it got his hands on it first and thought he'd like to go banger racing in a rare classic car.
If I'm wrong and that is not what happened then I'm sorry.
If this was a known car, had been advertised and no one was interested in rescuing/restoring/paying to sit on it till someone else could rescue it and so was un-wanted. Then by all means take it banger racing. But as I said, from the little snippet of story here I do not think this is the case.

I would love to know more about the history of the car. If the owner is prepared to post any more details then I'd be happy to try and find if anyone knows any more of its history. All we know is that the ID tag has been removed from the car so easily tracing its history is more difficult.

[jeff666]

Interesting topic, at the end of the day it is his car/money to do with whatever he likes,

i do know of a lad who banger raced a shadow one roller, he still has the wreck.

If this was being discussed back in the seventies nobody would bat an eyelid, just another old jag being raced.

Maybe,,, one day this plonker will look back and realise what he has done, to do this of course you would have to have a love for the way this old motor was put together,(no robots) back in a time when we had a proper car industry.(and bike)

As for the car being reused afterwards,i dont think so, a couple of good wacks front and rear will kiss the chassis goodbye.

18 years old ????? say no more.

[MX7]

I'm confused.

plonker751 said:

roof had been cut off

plonker751 on the other forum said:

" we had to cut the roof off!"

Still seems like an incredibly idiotic thing to do.

[a8hex]

Interesting.
The bonnets was missing too.
I wonder whether the car had suffered the perenial misfortune of XK150s of the bonnet coming open.
The would tend to leave a huge dent in the roof, usually with the imprint of the drivers head sticking out. Tell me about it :-( It bloody hurt.
In my case it popped out easily, I understand they usually do.

[jeff666]

MX7 said:

I'm confused.

plonker751 said:

roof had been cut off

plonker751 on the other forum said:

" we had to cut the roof off!"

Still seems like an incredibly idiotic thing to do.

If i remember corectly you have to cut the roof off to remove the body for restoration. ie chassis repairs.