The Banger Boys (1976)
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- A look at the banger drivers competing in "Destruction Derbies'
Year: 1976
Genre: Documentary (of the period/time)
Production: New Decade Films
Narrator: Peter Jones
Director: Stanley Marks
Production: Stanley Marks, John Wolstenholme
Writer: Stanley Marks
Photography: Charles P. Gordon, Nobby Smith, Bill Marshall & Doug O'Neons
Editing: Bill Greene
Sound: Chris Gurney
Featuring: Adam Gordon (As little boy)
I was a regular at Tongham in the 70's and 80's, and loved every bit of it. I stopped going when I saw my apprentice master's immaculate Princess being stripped in the pits, having been stolen off his drive the week before. It was not a rusty box, but a one-owner, showroom condition, low mileage job. He was heartbroken at his loss. The perp did this to many show cars, one of them was a capri, and that got dropped from a crane in front of the crowd. It wasn't all 'jolly chaps', by any means.
That's crazy. Now a days here in Canada, guys are demolishing cars with motors worth 13'000 dollars, no joke.
I raced a '71 Monte Carlo and it cost me 40'000 for one year of racing, and I didn't even race every week.
I worked with someone who had their MG Maestro stolen and he was suspicious it had been nicked for motorsport (there was a racing series at the time).
i liked how they just drove off from the scrapyard leaving your missus and your kid running behind to fend for themselves, thats how it was in the 70s, you could play with asbestos and drink luminous pop.........marvelous.........
In the 70's you brushed your teeth with mercury, too ;)
Around 1976/77 I used to go to Bangers at Matchams and a couple of times a big one in Wimbledon. The Kinson Cowboys were our locals. My neighbour's dad Harry White used to take me along as his brother Ron drove too. Really exciting times for a nine or ten year old kid back then. Thanks Harry; a good man.
My my my happy memories of matchams in the mid 70s watching the kinson cowboys take on everyone
This beats polished mk1 Granada coupes . Mega bucks cars.
Mindless wrecking trains . This was total back to basics racing . Nudge n spin having a laugh a hand shake & a beer . Great times
In the seventies I was mechanic for 395 Joe Morbelli, The Cambridge was the car of choice, so strong compared to most others and really easy to prepare for racing. We would prepare and race up to 3 cars a week. Wednesday = Arlington, Thursday = Aldershot and Saturday = Wimbledon. It took about 2 hours each to prepare including a paint job. We later raced a stock rod (fiat 128 coupe)
The good old days , pre health and safety, when mucking about in a breakers yard was completely safe !
That toddler at the start what a star , i hope he gets to see this and remember the good old days !
Haha that toddler is me
Sorry it's me you fraudster.!
Aaaaah the 70's! Great times, never to be forgotten.
in a lot of ways i wish i was living in these times now! the good old days so to speak!
The good old days before Health & Safety mania in the U.K.
Mersey Merlin. Still is probably still safer than being around one of england's finest knife wielding refugees.
health and safety the axe man of British industry
Don't you mean full spectrum dominace by the chosen few?
Those were the days, brings back memories. Down the scrapyard, pick up an MOT failure for £5, take a chance and drive it to the track, about 40 miles, knock out the glass and totally wreck it and leave it there for the scrappies.We started recycling.
Judging by the pile of notes that changed hands I bet the car in the film cost more then a fiver
@@Fcutdlady 10 or 15 quid was the going rate for a shagged Oxford or A60 in 1976.
Love this...I used to watch the banger racing at Harringay Stadium, North London as a young teenager. 1976, when this film was made, was the great heatwave (and drought). My memories of breaker's yards started in 1977 searching for parts for my Mk11 Cortina - they were always full of oily puddles.
Then you'd remember my dad two time world champion at harringay peter miles 337
My Dad is the driver in this film! Barry Symons.
I'm guessing the young lad must be 54 by now, any relation to you? great nostalgic film!
I'd love to know more about this film as well.
When money looked and felt like money.
I was born and raised within the sound and smell of Foxhall Stadium. Was great to see this and might have been one of the thousands in attendance. The older me finds it hard to watch the Speedway track being abused though.
proper banger racing not like the dross served up now, loved the old scrap yard spent many hours in them taking gt cortina engines out to go in my 105e Anglia and so forth
minor classic this! love it! and Peter Jones narrating too - lovely bonus.
See this sketch where he cribbed the voice from as a spiv car salesman: czcams.com/video/nU5KssXokYE/video.html
Brilliant upload thank you took me right back to my childhood thanks again
Imagine how much that that scrap yard with them old classics would be worth now
what a wonderful piece of british history :-) you don't see scrap yards like those anymore , and banger racing is not like that anymore . ELF N SAFETY and environmental laws killed them both . banger racing was exactly like that years ago , you went to the local scrap yard , paid your £15 - 20 notes to the scrap man for your Morris Oxford or Ford Anglia whatever , got your mate to tow you home . then prepared your car , come the race day got your mate to tow you to the race meeting , paid your £5 .00 entry fee away you went . happy days .
Huw Jones my grandfather is in this
In 16 years of banger racing I never bought a car from a scrap yard and never paid an entry fee to race. Get your facts right.
Nice of Roy Hodgson to take time out of his busy schedule to provide us with a commentary…
Great memory's of Arlington in Sussex watching my brother & his mates racing .
We still go occasionally
Those were the day's ,i remember going to banger racing ,and demolition derby's ,back in the 70's , great fun . Now of coarse the car's used in that period ,for that sport , the one's that survive are all Classic Car's ,and taken to different show's , to win prize's . Really great video .
The "Gollywog" would get you cancelled nowadays 😂😂😂
The good old days, before wankers were offended by everything…. Good times spent with my old man & his mates around scrapyards & stockcar tracks & to this day Im still doing the same at 45yo..
yep many races at Arlington
Thats badass! Respect from ol, dirty Minnesota U.S.A.
The BMC Farinas always did seem to be the 'weapon' of choice in that era - I remember them well!
My dad owned an Austin Cambridge as the family-car when I was little, but it wasn't his favorite! Things like having to open the bonnet to turn the heater on were really irritating!
Well made and a favourite also as you could easily fit a MG B engine and transmission
Love this my mum is racing in the video. She has since passed.
Sorry to hear about your mum. Pleased you found this video and saw your mum in it. Great and different days back then.
I remember it well good old days . Used to come back next day with the wrecker and collect all the abandoned cars . how times have changed .
It makes you realise how big the British Motor Corporation was and the vast amount of cars it sold. Virtually every car is from Longbridge or Cowley with a sprinkling of Ford's, Rootes and Vauxhall. Looking at the production figures over 800,000 Farinas were made and there are still over a 1000 registered with DVLA after being out of production for 46 years. By way of contrast 84,000 mk.2 Consuls were made and less than 300 are known now. There is one Hi line Farnham Estate Car known and one Hi line Zephyr automatic. FB Victors are in small numbers while early Humber Hawks are in single numbers.
And there's the next point. This was 1976 and we see a 1955 Humber Hawk. Conversely we see a Hillman Superminx not even 10 years old.
A very enlightening piece of film.
cheers
Nic
At 2.40ish in when the little boy climbs in the boot that looks like a 1973 audi making it only 3 years old
I've just finished restoring an FB Victor. We looked on DVLA and found there are 13 registered. Out of 380,000!
You'd think it would be worth a fortune on rarity alone!
Brilliant stuff. I was 10 years old when this was shot. Ii grew up around motors (Uncle had a good old fashioned scrappy in Assington. This looks like it was filmed at Foxhall stadium near Ipswich. Spent many many hours watching he bangers there. They would roll out to 'Mouldy old dough'.
Thanks for posting this piece of British history, it has really taken me back.
Just finished watching this. it is Foxhall, theres a bloody good chance I was at the track on the days of filming.
I used to sit on the red and white metal barrier in those days, health and safety never existed in those days (well not to todays strict guidelines). I remember one meeting I was sitting there legs a few feet from the wire ropes when a Ford Corsair locked up coming down the back straight, mounted the concrete edge, popped through the wire ropes and landed literally a few feet from me. I wasn't worried, I was just excited that I managed to get that close to a banger!!!
I miss those days when cars were a bit ropey!
Oh wow thanks for sharing your memories. The good old days without red tape. You are correct it was filmed at Foxhall stadium Ipswich. Each event was filmed over the weekend. My dad co-produced and did camera work. I was the little boy at 3-4 years old. Nowadays I can't see them being aloud to let kids roam around the yards like I did. 🙂
That's great, what was the background to this? Were the two men and the pretty girl actors or were you all related in some way?
I can remember going there as a kid was about 5/6 years old and a car nearly coming in to the stand where I was standing had to be pulled out of the way. And in the late 80's to mid 90's marshalled banger racing at a lyhams farm in Surrey
Wonder what was up with the Audi (2:27) - couldn't have been more than 3 years old
I noticed that, my dad had one in 1987 same colour!
Anyone remember Ted "Balmy " Butler who normally raced an A60 or similar ? I remember he would celebrate a win by rolling the car across the finish line to take the checkered flag and with doors flying open etc ! He used to win a lot !
Every car here is now rare to ultra- rare.
The amount they would be worth now if they had been looked after would be staggering.
"Few women are banger racers .... a pity. A waste of natural talent!" The Wimmin's Equality warriors would tar and feather Peter Jones for that remark today no matter how accurate it is.
It's a real reflection on how much BS the Media is pushing on the world today. That statement shows the facts that men really never wanted to stop or tried to hold down women at all. As a matter of fact they would be heralded and encouraged if they showed any interest in anything like this. Don't believe anything the Main Steam Media says these days at all.
@martin welsh They're the bigger risktakers. Likely better on average at driving though
Well I hope all the drivers did the right thing and exchange details at the end of the race!
Excellent footage,golden times. I was 5 when I went Banger Racing with my Dad, Kimbolton, Cambridgshire,from then on,I was hooked,Gt.Gidding,also was just down the Road from where we lived,many great Sun watching Bangers, Hotrods and Mini contact formulas. Absolutely love it,and still do. Now nearly in my 50's Oval Racing is still what keeps me sane,after racing Autograss,Bangers and creating,and Racing,Classic Hotrods,its in my blood. It's part of me. You can stick your modern World,not interested. This film shows some real times,real fun,and memories made. Building many Race Cars with my Dad,and having great success was what made life what it should be for me. I was a lucky Man.
Thanks for posting,love it !!!!!!!!!😆😆😆😆👍👍👍👍
Health and safety has killed the fun of wandering around the scrappie - and lots of other things too.
It's funny when folk make comments like yours, as I bet the first thing the families of folk who have been crushed to death wandering round a scrapie will do is complain about the lack of safety. It's not normally health and safety the stops stuff, it's more like the owners trying to protect themselves from litigation as know one seems to be able to take responsibility for their own actions now a days.
On the contrary, my parents would have said "Serves you right, it`s your own fault, I got no sympathy for you" and such like.
My thoughts exactly - you'd likely be violating some laws now having a child wander around a junkyard today, and leaving the wife and child to run behind the car after it starts? That's dead wrong! I thought at least they'd have stopped and let them get in. Given the date of this video, some of those scrapped cars would have been relatively new, just over a decade old.
You can still wander around our scrappie, and remove what you need. Great place!
I know a scrappy in Coventry where the health and safety men fear to tread !!! its run by Ukrainians who take no rubbish of anyone, you either take their backhanders and push off or get your head kicked in lol
My first @ last banger race was at hendsford in a vx 490..i just floored it @ up set the local lads..😀 needless to say I ended up on the roof.the gearbox came though the floor @ the motor ended up 4ft shorter than when I started..yeah good days.😏
great video, thanks for sharing
Thank you so much for sharing, really enjoyed this. 10/10. :-)
UK TRUCK VIDEOS You're most welcome.
It's still a scrap yard but Yateley
Commercial motors have gone and it is just Blackbushe metals now, don't think your allowed in it now, Northamptonshire still has a couple of walk amoungest the stacked scrap cars though 👍2018-2019
This brings back memories of A60s Zodiacs and Austin Westminsters smashing everything in site. It really was that easy and cheap to race back then. My friend , no longer with us was in a Motorcycle football team in the 70s which was also a cheap and cheerful sport .
I literally grew up in a junkyard. In a barn building cars.
Kids in a scrapyard...the snowflakes of today will be passing out.
I am 22 I LOVE Junkyard's :)
When I was a kid I used to LOVE going to the Junkyards, more then anything in the WORLD.
You can’t climb in any scrapyard now. They have a yard hand who gets it for you. Pisses me off. Used to love search through scrappies.
Can't even wander through these places anymore. We had one near us we would sneak into. We played some killer hide and seek in there. One kid spent the night in there on a dare!! He was crazy. We all had our scrapes, stitches, and bruises. We stayed up on our tetanus shots that's for sure.The old man who owned it was nice, he died and his kid sold the place now a bunch of houses are there now.
In Canada we have "Pick N' Pull" Yards where you pay $1 to get in then pull off of whatever car you want whatever you need. You pay for the parts when you leave. Not quite as cool as the old junk yard days but same basic thing. You can buy whole cars too if you want. Maybe you have something like that too?
Health and safety nightmare kids playing in scrapyard and guy on top of stack of cars, today they would have book thrown at them. How things change 🤔🙄
Haha yep. I remember getting parts from cars in McGuinneses in Stoke on Trent and wobbling around 3 cars high as I got various bits off I needed 😂
Huge scrapyard at Child's Ercall I used to go with Dad. great place and just a huge playground to us kids. Climbed up on everything! Remember McGuinneses too, still there but you can't play any more!
Lol awesome, reminds me of me father and i visiting, the narrator sounds like a young Prof David Bellamy.
Lol, love the stripper music, while ripping out the interior.
Used to watch the ajax team in 70s when I was a kid
Never been to a banger race but used to hear them racing at Tooting Greyhound track a mile from old gaff.
Ugghhh, saw a 59 Cadillac Vista roof in the back ground.Thats depressing !
Great film, love those old A60s
The music is like some medieval funeral is going on
those days were allsome the falcons, the rebels , blue star, kinson cowboys with there allsome murals, team cobra, and of course the infamous yateley bandits, i'd love to relive them days
Sounds like Peter Jones narrating, he was in the comedy series The Rag Trade among other tv programmes.
Does anyone remember Cross in Hand race track years ago.
Why don't they cut jeans that way today?
Women looked so damned good in them.
3.3 ventora!! Fabulous tow car!
James Court - I had also had a 3.3 Ventora, super car at that time (late 70's), it was done a little with the engine which was very fond of gasoline. With after the cars of the time, it was tough and fairly fast.
I had one in about when I was about 16 in the mid 80's. Paid £60 for it, stripped it with big plans for restoration then realised how rotten it was. Ended up in the scrappy.
I have had a few similar cars in my time, but in Australia they were referred to as 'Paddock bashers'.
Although I do remember the term..
"Where did you get that old banger"
"Made up like a patchwork quilt"
"Looks like Fred Flintstone's car".
Car registration is not so easy these days.
Anyone else spot that four door 1959 Cadillac in the yard missing its tailights? Looked like a mid 50s Chrysler sat next to it...
Blue car with a white flattop roof just in front of the fire engine as the title comes up.
My dad owned an Austin Cambridge as the family-car when I was little, but it wasn't his favorite! Things like having to open the bonnet to turn the heater on were really irritating!
Brilliant film. I remember hot 1976, used to do a milkround after my paper round & on a few days near the end of the deliveries the milk had started to go off.
Used to go to Wimbledon stadium most Saturday evenings 1979 onwards £2 through the turnstiles. Millions of A60's , P4/5s jags etc.
When I bought my first car it was Saturday morning down to Atkinsons car breakers in university road, Wimbledon. Buy some bits & Put some light bulbs in your pocket & hope no one saw you otherwise they'd probably take you round the back & beat you up ! Remember they used to check your toolbox on the way out.
First car was a 13/60 herald, then , mini vans, mk2 cortina, Morris oxford, consul classic (Anglia roof) bloody rotbox!, 2 mk1 Sweeney granadas etc. Now have a mk2 transit I'm restoring. This one won't end up at the banger track though!
I raced speedway at wimbledon stadium.. A lad called Terry Mussett knocked me off. 1987the year was. Still got tyre mark on me arse cheek. Happy days.. Great film this.
Who knew all those cars would be classics one day. We could have stuffed sheds with them and cashed them in as pensions.
Seems crazy watching these guys with no H bar :D I used to love going to the scrappy to find bits to upgrade my Cortina's etc, turning my 1.6GL into a full ghia model over a period of time :D
Fantastic! Just like it was when my Dad and I went between 1969 and 1978
Even for the time that junkyard dealer took that poor family for a ride.
Could they not see 40 years into the future and see that most of these are prized classic cars now ?!
No. Nothing in the yard was worth saving. They were scrap cars, worn out and rusty.
Outstanding !!! ...they would not let my little one in the junkyard ...I even tried to bribe them ... : ) Fun
Just watched this for probably the 5th time since it's been uploaded ! Love it. Proper old days of banger racing.
So we know that Barry Symons was the driver and you are the little lad running around the scrapyard, who are the slightly older chap and the young lady ?
Gerry Collard and Sandra Baird
@@tl50camiva would Gerry Collard be a relation to Mick Collard? I remember watching him race hot rods in the 80's
@@David-ki6jq Not sure, I was just reading the credits from the end of the film.
Great film. Great Summer.
Bloody strong old engine.
We actually did something similar to this once, we called it "tranger racing" inspired by banger racing. A friend from our transgender support group inherited a farm from her uncle who was a car hoarder, with some barely operable and culturally insignificant cheap cars - Passat b2, Opel Kadett E, Zastava Skala 55, Ford Orion and so on... Her decision was to sell the whole lot for building of a new touristy complex and clear it all out, so cars would've been sold for scrap value anyway. Since I worked with cars before transition, and the lot was fairly big, it took us a day to remove all glass and lights from 11 sort of working cars and it was a last car standing type of thing between members of trans community that, excluding me, had no ounce of experience with cars. I ended up behind the wheel of Audi 80 B3 with completely rotten door bottoms and faded gold paintwork. The damn thing overheated after half an hour, but it outlasted 5 cars, first to die was Citroën BX whose suspension collapsed....
Always theA60/ Morris oxford in banger racing , big heavy cars.
I wonder how many Morris Oxfords and Austin Cambridge's last turned a wheel on a figure 8 or oval track it must been in the thousands!
them bmc.farinas .slow Strong .pure old school gals... how MANY go a kicking back in the day
Sounds like the late Peter Jones with the running comentery.
This film isa product of its time …
Argh mk2 zodiac I'm crying 😪
Yes, I saw it. And mk3 Zephyr 6s and Zodiacs. I believe the MK2 owners club started the year after this in 1977?
Some of them drivers look worse than the banged up cars.
Think I would be right I saying that this is Foxhall Stadium Ipswich
yes it is
I raced A60's in 77 & 78. We actually 'raced' them then, although I retired when I got a serious neck injury. Great fun whilst it lasted though. Where is this btw?
Good stuff 👍
So sad, really.
Those bloody Farinas were indestructible!
Fuel tank and radiator in the right place...
They were a lovely old car.
Great video thanks for uploading it
The Audi F103 was on sale in the UK from 1965 so the one in the film could have been 9 years old and no where near as old as the Austin A95 underneath it. There's also an HB Viva from 1967/68. I bought a two door HB Viva in 1974 for £75.00 reg number KOB 95E. 574 DUK a 1964 Victor cost £15.00!
@@nickjervis8123 the Audi was on an L plate so 1972/73 (3-4 years old).
At 3:27 a C reg Jag on the scrap heap at only 11 years of age!
Yes, cars really didn't last that well back then.
In 1989 I had a 1980 Triumph Dolomite. It was rotten.
Some of my friends had 1980/1981 Cortinas around the same time too. They were also rotten underneath.
I have a 2003 BMW 5 Series now with 189k miles on it and no rust !
Helpped a friend persevering buses and one thing I've learnt is a vehicle can look in perfect condition but if the chassis and engine aren't in great condition there's no point in preserving it. For example the bus in my avatar is an Irish pdr 3 Leyland Atlantean. In the mid 90's the last of them were phased out of service . The tmsi and one well known private preservationist got one each (the one that was bought by the private preservationist. Is the one in my avatar) but the rest had thier chassis cut and engines removed so the buses couldn't be sold for further use or preservation. The scrap yard got them .
The Jag could have been uneconomically accident damaged as well as/instead of rust?
Looks like Foxhall Heath , Ipswich to me
Brilliant video! 27:50. Damn! A Corsair!
Does anyone know who these poeple are and where the scrapyard was.
Required safety equipment = 1x brains-bucket!
In 1952 I was that kid. Bye the time I was in 3rd. grade I knew more about cars than 95% of the men in the USA.
Sadly because of banger racing there are hardly any Farinas left.Later Ford Cortina and Granadas were used which are another endangered species.
Then again classic cars are big business.The reason so many British cars ended up scrapped is because in 60s and 70s they had zero corrosion protection.Banger racing was ok to start with until the reality kicked in when they found out the motors they were wrecking future classics.Soon all cars will be electric anyway.
I love watching this video as it brings back so many memories as we’ve been bought up around banger racing since the early 70s and me and my brothers still race A60s / Westminster’s / rover P5s and old jags at the pre 75 meetings now ❤️👍 also we restore them as well 👍
@@Mr-millen Used to attend Arena Essex now closed back in the 80s and 90s.Of course the world has changed a lot but the memories remain.
PAUL JACKSON the racing will never be the same as it’s so fast and the cars are so hard 🤦♂️ I’ll just stick to the pre 75s 👍
Coz they could take a lickin' and keep on tickin' !!!!
good old days before whiplash was thought of.
American here who knows absolutely nothing about British cars. What kind of car is 801? Was it considered a full size car back then? What kind of car was most popular back then? Thanks for any info.
Thank you for the info.
Huh, the British have classy junkyard dogs.
Great video I've had some great times doing bangers and 3 wheelers it's a lot different nowadays 😀
1976 : just put a new battery in there and if it works , it runs .
2022' " how do i bypass rhe damn computer ?? 🤬.
Seen some banger racers who avoided particular car models ( like jaguars from the 90s ) because of the electronics.
Still wonder how all these E class mercs ended on the oval , at that " the rounded headlights model " in particular. These were a mess .
I was 1 when this recorded, but my first few cars came from a scrappy. Fiat Strada, Austin allegro, Mk3 escort and a metro. My newest car until I could afford anything on finance was an 11 year old Mazda 121!
Amazing how little there is in the way of safety measures.
No 'H' frame, a common seat belt, the car apparently is running on it's original fuel tank and the doors aren't even bolted or chained shut.
It seems like the Austin Cambridge was the car to have then. More bulk than an old Ford Anglia.
What a pity our man didn't have the dosh to buy the Rover or the big Humber.
my dad won a DD at wimbledon in an anglia 105e against jeff robberts in his wasp coloured xj6 jag!..that was aprox 1980ish..no water tanks just the rad moved on top of the engine.A chain from the passinger door pillar to the origional anglia drivers seat and a gerry can petrol tank and that was about it.He loved getting anglias..
How'd he beat a Jag XJ6 with an Anglia?
Given the bulk of a jag, unless the Jag was just about dead it doesn't add up.
The jag was almost dead before my dad had a go at it.But the anglia drove off the track and drove off the trailer the next day back home.I raced for spedeworth for 7 years in total.6 years in the junior ministox aged 10 to 16 yrs old and the in 1992 me and my dad raced together in spedeworth 2litre stock saloons until they banned the formula at the end of 92...I would love to do it again but i cant afford it..
Oh i forgot.my dad raced spedeworth bangers late 70's early 80's..My mum also did a couple of lady bangers meetings and my sister also did spedeworth ministox too...All of us have had ago at sometime or another!
Any videos of spedeworth bangers from 74 to 77?
Looks like steptoes grandsons !
Quality video but what got me is why did they push the car from the scrap yard when they could of loaded it up on the trailer aha.
Is the film available on DVD?
Izmir Übel Hi, unfortunately not. It was only shown in the cinema back in the days of short films before the main feature
@@addspad Thank you for the information!!!!!
It's strange. I have mixed feelings of nostalgia and great sadness. From the 70's onwards, banger racing has been a big sport/pastime/hobby (you decide!) for many people in the west country but there must have been thousands of good quality cars found and bought from older people plus barn finds etc, and this has been the chief reason (in my humble opinion) why the cost of classic cars is so high that no ordinary working Joe can afford to buy one. Classic cars are a form of currency now and I'm sorry but I blame banger racing as a major cause of this. I'm not saying this to upset the banger boys, they are just enjoying what they do but it's the knock on effect that saddens me. Hey ho.
The music is like a Quentin Tarantino movie
Now I know a lot more about human if human that have no regard and why Australia now is a done deal with the extractors and not long the controllers complete