Best way to tackle this section is by quoting the owner/racing driver Steve Hemmings in a series of texts between us from 18th June 2019 – 3rd September 2019.

Question:

What is the story behind the banger racer?

Answer:

A Wisbech man had them (both chassis). One had a 4.2 manual and he wanted it for his kit car project. I took the engine out and he gave me the cars for free.

Both cars were bare shells when obtained. One shell had no running gear but had wings and a bonnet. The other had nothing on it at all and roof cut off. The picture of cars in scrapyard (blue car in gallery above) shows first on top of latter.

One was raced and the other was scrapped as had no roof. I had an XJ6 donor and used the running gear (dark car pictured in gallery with banger racer on top of it). Wanted it to look like an XJ6 estate as (the running gear) bolted straight on. People thought it was a Jaguar prototype.

The race occurred at Swaffham Raceway circa 1999.

Question:

Do any parts still exist? For example bonnet?

Answer:

They were alloy, so went in bin (bin means to be weighed in for scrap).

Question:

Can you tell me anything more about the banger racing scene at the time?

Answer:

The car was run under the Predators team which was formed in 1997 from the Swaffham Earth Shaker teams. I was Captain until I retired in 2013. The team is still going today. I raced about thirty cars a year.