The Dark Wob

1974. When did anyone ever see a Mark 8/9 Jaguar abandoned?

A Standard Vanguard gets cubed as well.

Can just spot the odd BMC 1100, thousands of those were at the wrong end of the yellow MOT chalk by then.

Watched this a while back but well worth another view (or two).....Almost surreal - watching Les Gray of Mud craning a Ponton to its death accompanied by Bach organ fugue. Fantastic. That Mk IX is flippin' ace too. I was born a little too late to catch those but an old Ted mate of mine a few years older is a massive fund of tales about fetching those out of yards as £15 runners and weighing them back in for £3.10s.0 a few weeks later.

I can imagine one of his having those GT stripes, reflective plates and a bit of two-tone going on.

I can remember scrapyards in the mid 70's. Loads of early Minis, 1100's, Mark II Jags etc.

Mutha Bluejean's first Mini - a very tired 1962 Cooper - was £35 in '72.

Our local yard was ace. Had a bit of a sales area by the gate where you could get something with three weeks MOT still on it, then you went down a clag-encrusted hill to the actual heap. When metal prices were good they used to fire up an old RB crane with a three ton laminated steel plate chained to the headblock. This was luffed out, cranked noisily up to the limit and literally dropped onto the poor old Herald or whatever. They died in one hit but something like that Mk9 or an old Armstrong would take two or three drops.

A tailgate-less six legger Thames Trader would wait idly while they changed the plate back to a hook and the flat cars lifted on to the high-sided body to be weighed in at the fraggers.

Past the heap was where Death Row was - cars lined up by model to be picked for spares before the final appointment with Dr. Plate. These were mainly 100Es, lots of Jags and big Vauxhalls, Fords etc. Anything rare like a crashed Fintail or Yank would be put aside for a while under a crumbling Nissen hut with "Keep Out" scrawled in old engine oil on a bit of ply.

A little fella used to keep a shed on the other side of the yard for VWs and NSUs and the like and became quite well known as a parts supplier.

Depending upon what mood the owner, Robbie, was in you might be allowed in as a nipper to harvest old badges, horn buttons and the like but he was a funny sort and sometimes would come up behind you and bellow "FUCK OFF OUT" in your ear. There was an old Rollalong caravan as a site office next to the weighbridge containing a jukebox which I thought was the height of cool and badly wanted to work there when I left school.....

Also in 1974 - this was just nine years old. Old Jags really were/are worthless.

I'm a little too young to remember scrapyards like that although I wish I could. the first one I got to visit was in about 1988 when I went with our neighbour when he scrapped his wife's Cortina 2000E, TOO200N. I was eight and remember being a bit disappointed that the oldest cars there were a Minor 1000 and a Mk. 2 Triumph 2000. My second Wolseley 6/110 came from a chap who'd been something to to do with the Coventry Avengers banger team and regaled me with tales from the seventies of picking up Westminsters for a few quid, running them until the ticket ran out, racing them and getting his money back for scrap. He said he preferred Humbers or P5s purely because they weighed more. Sorry for the ramble, cheers for posting the vid.

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Wed Mar 11, 2020 8:33 pm Also in 1974 - this was just nine years old. Old Jags really were/are worthless.

In 1974 a yellow, 1968 E-Type 4.2 FHC was parked on a driveway on my way to play group. It never moved and was swept away in about 1986.

Before I bought the MGB in 1976 I was looking at E Types as well. Fortunately I couldn't get insured even though it would have been my Dad's car as far as they knew. I know that now it would be worth xty million pounds but doubt it would have lasted long without me going bankrupt. I also looked at Lotus Elans which would have had the same result. They would also have looked a bit out of place outside a 2 up 2 down in a grotty area of Leeds as well.

Not to worry , i'm sure they'll be a load of old giffer cars on the market soon..

Probably a MGB as I'm in my mid 60s.

It'd be fucking ironic, along with a lot of other things, if I pegged it just as it was ready to use after being off the road for 14 years. One 'careful' owner for the last 44 years.