The Jensen Owners' Club

This is mentioned in cars for sale but I thought it better to post here in the hope that more people will see it.

John Wild's FF chassis 119/036 has been stolen from a lockup in Ruislip, West London.



It was taken between the 15th and 28th October 2010. If anyone sees the remains of the car abandoned, or if you are offered it for sale, please contact John.

email johnw@wild1.com
forum user johnw

Would it be worth quoting the engine, gearbox & transfer box serial numbers?

Or is it best to keep quiet in case it assists the thieves in using or selling parts on?

What do you reckon?

Thak is fookin outrageous! sorry to hear this.
I would not put numbers for obvious reasons as Martin said, anything dodge we will check.
All eyes will be peeled rest assured, I'll ask a few folks down this way to keep eyes on.
Again sorry to hear that.

It is highly unlikely that the thieves realise what they've got. I hate to say it but they are probably looking at it as scrap. I think that John would be well advised to visit the large scale metal recyclers in the area.

John should remember that the property rights in a stolen vehicle cannot pass so if he finds it in the hands of an innocent purchaser it still belongs to John.

VGU42G wrote:It is highly unlikely that the thieves realise what they've got. I hate to say it but they are probably looking at it as scrap. I think that John would be well advised to visit the large scale metal recyclers in the area.

John should remember that the property rights in a stolen vehicle cannot pass so if he finds it in the hands of an innocent purchaser it still belongs to John.

Of course they might just have nicked for the V8..........

I would be happy to put something in the magazine about it if you think it would help.

Danny Hopkins, editor, Practical Classics

Sorry to put a downer on this but with the price of scrap as high as it is it would not surprise me if that is where it has gone.

A local scrap dealer is giving xxx£300 for heavy scrap cars like Jags. 2 or 3 of those dropped off is a good days work.

It might be worth visiting such local people.

Good luck

Steve

John,

My recent break in by highly organised and sophisticated criminals led me to contacting scrap yards upto 60 miles away. Being in Gloucestershire both the M4 and M5 are conduits for the thieves.

It is a real bind but if I were in your shoes I would be looking at scrapyards that A. specialise in handling cars and B. are on an easy route away from your place of theft.

The law requires every person handling / transporting scrap metals to be licenced. The plain fact is that it is the scrap yards that are culpable because they do not insist on only taking in stock from licenced carriers.
They pay in cash and they know full well that a great deal of their intake is stolen.

I have started a campaign locally involving the authorities to stop any vehicle with scrap to be thoroughly investigated. The fact that very few scrap yards are open during the small hours should make feeding them with illicit material difficult to say the least.

An undercover police operation checking scrapyards is the answer. Put a few of the VERY wealthy LEGAL ( ?) scrapyard owners behind bars over christmas and the rest of them would maybe start to act responsibly.

May I suggest a visit to your MP's surgery to implore him to do something?

Best of luck with finding the FF my fear would be that it is already on a slow boat to China !

Regards Ross

Without wanting to malign a perfectly respectable ebayer - has someone checked the provenance of the FF parts mentioned on the forum under the Parts for Sale thread?

I think these have been on eBay a few times recently, and to my mind before the car dissapeared, but I've left a message for John to check anyway.

Thanks for spotting these FF parts on EBAY and bringing this up. I have phoned the ebayer, Duncan Clarke, and had a chat. I remember him buying the front frame, hubs and diff that he now is advertising from Medway just before Medway Interceptors closed. So those hubs and front diff are not off FF 36.

FF 36, being one of the first 50 cars, has Dunlop brakes, with front hubs specific to the Dunlop calipered FFs. FF 36 also has its original Cam Gear steering rack fitted.

Coincidentally, Duncan's front diff and hubs came off a very early FF, a Vignale, that was broken at Medway. Ulric has the transmission out of this broken car, I believe I have the dash and centre console, and one chassis leg, with Duncan having the front diff, frame and hubs. Duncan is also advertising a transmission. I don't know the provenance of that exactly, but I seem to remember him having bought a spare transmission, as he had at least 2 FFs at the time.

Thanks for this, and please keep an eye out for the car. So far I have no more information on where it has gone.