Possible Stolen E Type

[Durango2k]

„Better safe then sorry“ comes to mind reading this....

Carsten

[PeterCrespin]

I do understand your position, I just don’t think it is just.

How can one be unjust to an anonymous person, or besmirch the reputation of someone unknown?

When my two E-Types were stolen the same night from a supposedly secure shipping location in Cambridge, the editor of a different website publicised the facts and one of her readers called back to say they'd seen vehicles matching that description near Harrogate. By the time the police had managed to get a warrant overnight the cars were gone next morning. I subsequently drove up there just because I'm a masochist, but I was glad the fellow enthusiast reported his sighting, albeit he was noticed observing the suspicious the activity in a local farmyard.

As if handing over two E-Types and never seeing them again wasn't bad enough, it was the two insurers involved who royally shafted me and didn't come close to putting me back to where I was before the theft.

[chrisfell]

Pete,
We have both experienced that hollowed out feeling that results from realising someone has stolen a cherished car (or two). Mine was stolen in pre-internet times, and despite finding the engine fitted in a known thief’s car whose description matched that provided by a witness to the theft, the Rozzers refused to prosecute. And like you I had a long and ultimately fruitless battle with the insurers. And I lost a chunk of NCD. Even now, almost 25 years later, it hurts.

As for the anonymous and just thing, this is hardly so. The car has been identified (even we, members of this forum can identify it from this thread), police were called, as was the local MP and the Chief Constable. It is as if someone had pointed at a car they had never seen before and said out loud “the owner of this car is a criminal”. That is hardly just. And as yet, I seem to be the only one who thinks this is a problem. I wonder how anyone else would feel if they became the subject of an unjust accusation, I know how I would feel. I wouldn’t like it one little bit. And that was my point.

[christopher storey]

Chris - and Peter . Happy New Year to everyone here. If I can be a self-appointed arbiter here, I think that you are both right. Peter correctly points out the usefulness of immediately reporting suspicious activities, but Chris ( correctly in this case in my view ) makes the point that a totally unwarranted accusation was made - not just an enquiry as to whether any car was missing - but that False Number Plates had been attached to it . Had the original poster had a bit more knowledge, the fact that they apparently came from an XJ should have alerted him to the possibility/probablity that the car was a kit . That aspect of it was, rather , shooting from the hip and if I were the legitimate keeper of the car I too would be brassed off about such an accusation

[veteranjeeper1945]

A Very Happy New Year to all.

Oh dear, what a disheartening story, particularly for the owner. It is in deed, a Challenger E type. With everything taking off last year, partly surrounding the fiasco with Suffolk, it doesn't do the replica car industry any favours.

To the uninitiated, and a lot of people on here, Jaguar had sanctioned the design and build of the 299 odd Challengers ( mine is 286) on condition that it was not marketed as a Jaguar. The handful of earlier cars used Ford / Rover mechanical parts whereas the later ones used all Jaguar bits. I had always wanted an early Series 1 which I could safely use as a daily and this is the closest I'm going to get!

It wouldn't have helped of course, that It was unfortunately still registered as an XJ6 instead of a Challenger- a matter of continued debate within the kit industry, particularly for 'historics'.

[MarekH]

I can't see any harm (intended or otherwise) in this thread.

If someone doesn't know quite what is going on, then why not ask? For starters, they may not have realised that there may well never have been a number plate on the front and if the number plate on the back appears to be from a saloon, not an etype, then why not ask questions?

Without the interior console picture, the side door chrome trim or the picture of the data plate, we wouldn't have been any wiser as to the kit car provenance.

kind regards
Marek

[chrisfell]

Please can this thread be parked now?