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Letters to the Editor'A vulture vandalising Bentleys'Dear Editor,I've followed your website with enthusiasm, and have supported it by selling a car via it earlier this year (I also briefly spoke with you at Beaulieu). I hope that you are serious in your desire to preserve and support the vintage car movement, so what am I to make of the following two adverts; http://www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad59470-2.html and http://www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad59471-2.html You are advertising for sale the parts of an perfectly useable Bentley, that a vulture is breaking for parts, so he can make a fake racing car from the chassis to sell to gullible buyers who believe they are buying a "vintage sports car". This is vandalism, pure and simple, and by permitting the advert on your website you are being complicit in the sale of an original and fine motor car so someone can make some money by destroying it. I don't imagine you can possibly be aware of all the adverts that are placed on the site, but someone should be ensuring that such adverts are not accepted - they do no credit to a website that is supporting vintage motoring. It is not the first time he has done this, and it won't be the last - but I am disappointed that PreWarCar appears prepared to carry his adverts and thus be a party to the destruction. Are you prepared to say you will no longer accept adverts from him, or does profit come before principle? regards Paul Weston Hello , As a long time used and admirer of PWC I hope you will take the following criticism as a piece of well meaning advice. Recently adverts have appeared for parts from cars which are being deliberately broken up, either so that a "special" can be made from the chassis, or just to sell the parts for a sum which is more than the original car would fetch. The latest of these is for a radiator from a Derby Bentley, shown actually on the car before it is destroyed! Many folk over here in England deplore this trend of breaking good cars, particu;arly saloons, to make so called sports cars from them, and the Vintage Sports Car Club actively discourages it in its rules. I feel that you should refuse to publish adverts selling parts that have obviously been stripped from good cars in this way, you are encouraging this scurrilous trade by helping the sellers get rid of their purloined parts. You often praise people who preserve 'barn-finds' and those who restore neglected cars. That is an admirable perspective. Helping those who vandalise such cars by publishing adverts such as the one for the Bentley radiator is , in my view, quite deplorable. Please can you arrange to refuse such adverts in future? Best Regards, David Barker. Dear (editor), I am horrified that Prewarcar is running this advertisement. The vendor is clearly vandalising a perfectly usable pre war car and should not be encouraged. I feel strongly that you should refuse his advertisement. This sort of thing is happening too much in Europe and many good examples of Derby Bentleys and Rileys have been destroyed in this way. I have already made my feelings known to the vendor. Yours sincerely James Holland answer by editor: Dear Paul, Thanks for your letter. After a week of travelling I see that advert only now. Though we are not going to remove the advert we are not favouring this way of conduct either. Our adverts reflect what is on the market and do not reflect our opinion of what is on the market. If we would discriminate adverts based on their content, we would give the false impression that all remaining adverts are perfectly honest and posted by law and heaven vintage car respecting people. I can assure you that we could never guarantee such a thing. Also this practice would go on without being known like it is now in this case. Is the hobby helped by it, if this practice moves on to dark back alleys? So in short: an ad is an ad is an ad, some make you feel glad, some make you feel sad... Joris Bergsma Author: Joris Bergsma Tuesday, 11 October 2011
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Comments
Converting saloons into 'sports specials' has been going on for many years. ( where did all these Riley Specials come from)
In my youth I transformed many a standard motor cycle into a 'cafe racer' with no regrets.
At the moment although not a car of our period I am stripping out a Porsche 928 as a track car.
I do also own a Sunbeam 20/60 tourer which I am restoring as best I can to original spec.
After all a car is just a car
David Pryce
It is no doubt supply and demand (market forces), as some write. But we can influence the demand side: Make it clear to whoever will be the buyer of the destroyed Bentley that when he shows up at any old car event (including especially Bentley Drivers Club) that he is a pariah, whose car is not welcome. So long as these monstosities, created at the cost of destroying legistimate prewar cars, are accepted (and even admired by some) there will be a demand for them. What these people are doing with their ruined Bentleys is the equivalent of painting over a Vermeer or a Turner to create a fake Andy Warhol, or carving ornaments into a Nakajima table. Other art forms and antique markets prize the originals, the old car market is retrograde in that respect, we need to cherish more our historical record and to discourage more firmly those who would ravage it. Jack Triplett, editor, On the Road (the publication of the Derby Bentley Society, but views are strictly my own)
i know i have told you several years ago about a (...)dealer who advertised an incomplete minerva dd , i refused to buy it, months later he contacted me to say he found the parts and i bought it , but when it arrived to ireland it was incomplete , to still have a crook like this advertise on pwc for me makes this bentley add a saint , derek wilson
editor: Unfortunately sad things like that do happen. Therefore it is always a wise thing to make sure - very sure - what you get, before you send money. No matter if this to another continent or to somebody in your own town.
A footnote to your Derby Bentley correspondence see:
http://www.rick-ford.co.uk/PWC/109-1mod.jpg
and 109-2mod.jpg
Both at The Jack o'Lantern, Romsey in 1959.
Silver Ghost behind is chassis #1962 now carrying body number 3 a Roi des Belges
Body changes havee been happening since the earliest days.
I think we would all agree that PWC.com is a very good asset to our hobby.
Though it is a pity that anyone would wish to break up a perfectly good Thrupp & Maberley saloon, it is something to do with market forces...............
As said above, when the buying public pays more for saloons than faux racers, all this will stop!
So, don't shoot the messenger!
Your choice to run such ads on your website is entirely acceptable.
I was sadly disappointed when (y)our advertiser wouldn't play in accordance with the Queensberry Rulez.
Not only did this Bentley Boy presume (incorrectly) that I'd buy his superbly-patinated sports-saloon coachwork AND remove the body myself, but the ultimate insult to what little intelligence I have left was that I received no answer to several subsequent emails counter-offering to swap his complete car for a derelict-bodied Bentley of identical specification.
To bridge any misunderstandin g, I attached Mr Google's most-entertaining translation of my idiotic English into His idiomatic European ;-)
I am still prepared to haggle away more than enough folding cash to make it well worth his while to throw my body to the wolves instead of prostituting his own.
My email address remains the same, G.
I look forward to shaking hands on a win-win deal...plus an extra WIN for the car.
MikeR
PS IOU a fee for the "wanted" advert, Joris ;-)
However, when someone is so obviously going to break up a fully viable car with the intention of selling the "rubbish", keeping the good bits and making yet another fake "Special" to be sold to an unwary/ill informed buyer then I feel you have a interest in trying to point out the apparent intentions.
I suggest that you tell such advertisers that you will only accept the insertion if it is placed in a "Breakers Yard" section. You have many searchable sections already and one more would be simple. Yes some may slip through but segregating such sales just might discourage a few profit hungry wheeler/dealer outfits from spoiling the reputation you have for the preservation of sound and historically interesting cars..give me a creaky old 1935 Bentley with continuous history and flaky paint rather than another of those hideous "Specials" now regularly concocted in Germany.
Please consider this and think again.
as the owner of a Bentley R-type standard steel saloon which is currently undergoing a long and costly mechanical rebuild before I decide how to treat the bodywork, can I just add a little to the above conversation.
I do not support or decry anyone in this, but the two points I wish to make are:
1) I have sourced some second hand spares for my car, and have been glad to find them, either as a way of saving a little money, or because new parts were not available.
2) Whatever view we might take of the man, it's apparently his car, and he can do with it as he pleases.
The cost of refurbishing a worn Bentley, particularly a saloon often is much higher than the value when the car is finished, and some people don't subscribe to "labour of love".
I'm not taking sides, although the Derby does look a bit good to destroy.
With best regards
John