M3 crushed for being cut and shut

[Turks]

Crushed: show car was made from “at least four cars” | News | West Midlands Police

We’ve crushed an award-winning show car after finding it was a ‘cut-and-shut’ of stolen parts – and warned other drivers to be wary they don’t buy a dud. Traffic officers stopped the stunning green BMW M3 Estate on Dartmouth Middleway on 15 November last year. The eagle-eyed officers knew...

www.west-midlands.police.uk

 

[stevieturbo]

Weird.

So they seized the car, they destroyed the car....and not a single mention of any arrests ?

how can it not be traceable ? How can the car have had a proper ID ? How would any insurance company have touched it ?

And an "elongated M3" ? who writes that **** ?

The cop at the end says "if you buy a stolen car, it's likely to end up like this....." All good and well. Seems that if you actually steal the car and do all sorts and con people out of money....nothing happens to them though.

 

[Cro]

By the same reasoning they could have done the same to my estate? Or any countless reps seen across our shows with conversions done and all above board

There has to be more to that story surely, like the parts could have been bought on eBay or something

 

[gary1365]

The way I read it I thought they meant it was spot welded together and was well disguised with filler and paint. I remember in the 90s hearing about people being killed by cut and shuts snapping in half.

Maybe it wasn’t legally on the road or maybe they used a vin and v5 from a car that wasn’t declared as written off. I’d love to know more about it and see a pic of the car before it was destroyed

 

[gpaevo]

I guess it's because of all the nicked parts.

There are plenty of E91 and F81 M3's knocking about that have been built correctly from donor cars and are insured correctly.

 

[gary1365]

How many hooky classic chassis and vin combos are knocking about

 

[Paul.]

This seems a lot like a marketing move from West Midlands Police to get people talking about car crime. Obviously if the car was built out of stolen parts the owner gets what they deserve, but the details don't make much sense. I want to see proof that it's two cars stitched together, otherwise it could be saloon rear quarters worked onto the estate body. The wings and bonnet are going to fit in the same way you can swap an E90/91 front end assuming you've all the parts.

As for the fact it was registered as a 320d - isn't that totally normal even if everything was above board? DVA don't change the model designation so even if a 330d engine went in, the car would be a 320d. Putting a redtop in a Corsa Swing didn't make it into a GSi back in the day, either.

Edit: The car was actually correctly registered as green too.

How many hooky classic chassis and vin combos are knocking about

If Ford built 10,000 Escort Mexicos it must be a relief to know that all 11,672 have survived to the present day. Trickery with VINs is always going to happen on a minority level.

 

[Jamie-g]

The way I read it I thought they meant it was spot welded together and was well disguised with filler and paint. I remember in the 90s hearing about people being killed by cut and shuts snapping in half.

Maybe it wasn’t legally on the road or maybe they used a vin and v5 from a car that wasn’t declared as written off. I’d love to know more about it and see a pic of the car before it was destroyed

Here you are.

 

[NickR]

Seeing those pictures confirms that BMW missed a trick by not making a F81 M3

 

[gary1365]

View attachment 335150Here you are.

Looks well it’s probably that number plate that got him pulled over it’s supposed to read ROH it’s also lost 131k miles in 2018 could be when the conversion was done. I’d really like to know more about how it was put together.

 

[Cro]

Front end complete bolt on swap from 5dr m3 (so different vin stickers) , rear arches welded on or custom made, rear bumper is a half/half mould of original and either 3dr or 5dr m3.

I get how it really can look like a cut and shut if you found all the lines join lines but the chassis stays the same. Everything bolts on

Made immensely easier if you had a stolen m3 to pick parts off however I’ll admit

 

[vw1500]

The way I read it I thought they meant it was spot welded together and was well disguised with filler and paint. I remember in the 90s hearing about people being killed by cut and shuts snapping in half.

Maybe it wasn’t legally on the road or maybe they used a vin and v5 from a car that wasn’t declared as written off. I’d love to know more about it and see a pic of the car before it was destroyed

Check the youtube video

What happened to the wheels?

 

[stevieturbo]

This seems a lot like a marketing move from West Midlands Police to get people talking about car crime. Obviously if the car was built out of stolen parts the owner gets what they deserve, but the details don't make much sense. I want to see proof that it's two cars stitched together, otherwise it could be saloon rear quarters worked onto the estate body. The wings and bonnet are going to fit in the same way you can swap an E90/91 front end assuming you've all the parts.

As for the fact it was registered as a 320d - isn't that totally normal even if everything was above board? DVA don't change the model designation so even if a 330d engine went in, the car would be a 320d. Putting a redtop in a Corsa Swing didn't make it into a GSi back in the day, either.

Edit: The car was actually correctly registered as green too.


If Ford built 10,000 Escort Mexicos it must be a relief to know that all 11,672 have survived to the present day. Trickery with VINs is always going to happen on a minority level.

Nothing to say the current owner built it.

A report lacking in any detail and fact really. If they're claiming cut n shut, which they are....how did they determine this with the paint and body still intact ?

hell, you could say any accident repair that has had new panels is a cut n shut, as none will ever be put back together as good as the factory builds them.

But again...not one single mention of an arrest for the stolen parts. That is the real crime.

Looks well it’s probably that number plate that got him pulled over it’s supposed to read ROH it’s also lost 131k miles in 2018 could be when the conversion was done. I’d really like to know more about how it was put together.

What does ROH mean ?

 

[gary1365]

What does ROH mean ?

In the pictures above the number plate is S33RCH but it’s actually S33ROH. Must have used screws to make it look like RCH S33RCH doesn’t exist.

 

[richie_mck]

There’s a crowd in England, unit 17, that have put a good number of these together, I read somewhere that they’ve at least 12 built. You’d be fairly concerned if you’d bought one as I’m sure they weren’t cheap

 

[quattro Rick]

There’s a crowd in England, unit 17, that have put a good number of these together, I read somewhere that they’ve at least 12 built. You’d be fairly concerned if you’d bought one as I’m sure they weren’t cheap

I think it's amusing that the owners believe their car is an M3

 

[cauld1]

So really, the issue was the stolen parts and possibly not registered properly.

Surely nothing wrong with what is a mostly bolt on conversion with some rear arch work. Not seeing any indication of it being a cut and shut. Also 'elongated m3' lol.

If they don't want to be taken for cretins why can't the police simply post the facts rather than exaggerated nonsense that sidesteps what the actual problem was.

 

[cauld1]

Also, on looking about the 320d thing. I don't think you can change the model name on the v5, so it could have had the correct engine size and fuel type etc but the model would still be 320d if that is what the base car is.

Of course these facts and context wouldn't make as exaggerated a story and in any case don't negate the use of stolen parts which is of course disgraceful.

 

[gary1365]

Unless we have the car infront of us we’re never going to know. It does say 2 estate cars were used to make the body and the panoramic roof so could be more to it than just a 320d estate with 2 stolen m3s bolted and welded to it.

shows up on vehicle enquiry as a 2 litre diesel still.

 

[cauld1]

Unless we have the car infront of us we’re never going to know. It does say 2 estate cars were used to make the body and the panoramic roof so could be more to it than just a 320d estate with 2 stolen m3s bolted and welded to it.

shows up on vehicle enquiry as a 2 litre diesel still. View attachment 335188

I did acknowledge that there may have been a registration issue also, but did outline what does happen also (that the model remains the same but the fuel and engine size changes on the v5).

Just rubs me up the wrong way when the police social media do these smug posts with a sprinkling of relevant info and then lots of exaggerated guff.

 

[vw1500]

Truth isn't always as interesting and they've made a big thing of it as it was such a high profile show car. Maybe just send a clear message out to whoever stole the car/parts. As said many show cars have had major modifications but they're done legit and logbook etc should be changed.

I remember a documentary into cut and shuts a few years ago buying a Seat of some sorts. They'd shown a couple of horrendous repairs (I remember a Clio with angle iron welded in behind the bumper to get it to sit straight) then they went undercover to buy a car. Usual TV blarb about the seller being known to do this etc. When they viewed the car with hidden cameras the guy openly admitted that it was a damaged repairable and explained all the work that he'd done, wasn't hiding anything. They said it was unsafe if it was in another accident and crushed it. Surely if they had crash tested it 1st would have made more sense. Totally vilified the seller too and he wasn't doing anything wrong!

 

[cauld1]

To be fair, I havent seen it at any of the big shows across the water so would dispute the high profile show car part too

 

[stevieturbo]

A better report would have been factual, truthful....and where they caught the thieves of the stolen parts and those involve in the handling of them

There's no way it cannot be traced.

 

[gary1365]

I’ve just managed to watch the video. They had a chance there to highlight all the dangerous elements of the car.

I would like to know if it was built by a couple of dodgy criminals in a random shed somewhere with a plasma cutter, grinder and a cheap mig or it was done properly. For all we know the drivetrain could be all held together by bird **** and cable ties or be precision engineered a talented criminal.

Suppose the proper truth wouldn’t get the views.

 

[cauld1]

Given that all of the drivetrain bolts in, they probably wouldn't have much to say on that. The floorpans are the same if I recall correctly.