Senseless People & vandalism.

[Lex Templar]

I found my car at 1pm on Thursday with the front bumper ripped off the car. In broad daylight a group of 'men' kicked the right side of the bumper bar off the car, and pulled it off and dumped it on the road. The bumper is destroyed from the back and needs to be replaced, the bolts on one side ripped out of the body. Luckily no other damage. A replacement from SJ is being ordered.

I'm sure you can all get a sense of how this would make one feel. It is an example again of some people having no regard and wanting to spoil it for the hard working owner.

It was parked in a quiet street in a nice a suburb in Sydney.

Edited November 2, 2013 by Lex Templar

[ramjet]

Sorry to hear Lex. If the group of 'men' were seen, does anyone have any pictures or the like of them?

 

I just don't get why.

[Lex Templar]

Michael my neigbour just heard male voices and the sound of them removing it. By the time she came out they had gone. No car was heard. I have talked to everyone in the street and being midday there were very few people around.

 

Here is is just as it was going onto the truck to be repaired. You can see the brackets on one side still in the body, the other ones have gone through.

 

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Edited November 2, 2013 by Lex Templar

[Iconic Ride]

Should you be fortunate enough to locate the culprits, I suggest that they be "incorporated" in the rebuild, preferably between the bumper and bodywork, with the appropriate bolts holding them in place. I wouldn't be too concerned about initial ground clearance issues, as they would likely dissipate from frictional wear and tear on the offending appendages. Snug up the bolts as needed.

[rizla603104]

I am really sorry to hear about this mindless idiocy! I have had people drive into my Esprit in a car park. I even had someone walk down my drive just to throw up on my old Jag! I have CCTV around our house now - which I hope is deterrent enough. I hope it is not too painful. Sadly some people are just tw@ts.

[Whirlybird]

Sorry to hear about this mindless crap. I have CCTV on my house which covers part of the road also, worth checking if there is any which covers the surrounding roads.

[Lex Templar]

Buddsy the car is usually parked on the other side of town I brought it over to my house for a couple of days. I think it was opportunistic by a bunch of no hopers, perhaps saw the 'burglar protected' sticker and thought they would show otherwise. I have recently found out the area is not as safe as I thought with a few other neighbours having cars keyed etc..

[robington]

That's really annoying to see Lex, your topic heading says it all really.

Like Buddsy, I just don't understand the mentality that would lead to wanting to do that kind of thing in the first place.

[Bibs]

Probably alcohol fuelled pack mentality.

 

Sorry to see what's happened, it really is shitty. Although little solace to you right now, gladly this is a very, very rare occurrence where the Esprit is concerned.

[cbclotus]

Sorry to hear that.Jealousy.Morons .....................Mike

[Freemason]

Sydney is full of feral idiots. So sad that instead of appreciating something beautiful, these people had to vandalize it. Surprised it happened in the middle of the day though and would be curious to know what suburb this occurred in.

[fmxa]

That's beyond annoying 

[lrg_machine]

NSFW

 

http://youtu.be/VO48Vr4KIc8

[Mark Blanchard]

Sorry to hear this.  The splitter looks damaged too.  What scum. 

[slewthy]

Dreadful.

 

Shame your 'Burglar protected' sticker didn't have the system too!

Mind you....

 

I am surprised in a way that our cars do not attract more of this mindless yobbery. Afterall, people are always very keen to point out how unreliable and poorly made they are (mainly thanks to TG) and would like to demonstrate this to their mates. I expect that is how your damage came about.

 

Hope you can fix this relatively easily. You can't repair the feeling generated though.

 

Bast***ds.

 

Makes me think of an idea though - shock triggered dash cam - recording the whole time but a shock to the vehicle makes it store the last 2-3 mins of footage. Easy to do.

[Lex Templar]

Sorry to hear this. The splitter looks damaged too. What scum.

Thankfully splitter is fine, it's just the bumper mounts dangling down.

I imagine the bumpers from SJ are good. I'll take the rear one off and get that repainted in satin black so they will match in finish.

Camera sounds like a good idea.

Suburb was Balmain.

[MalcolmS]

Lex, sorry to hear this. You're not getting any luck at the moment. :-(

[Lex Templar]

Lex, sorry to hear this. You're not getting any luck at the moment. :-(

Turning around hopefully from this point on. Finally found a good mechanic that is reliable and know what they are doing. Bit of trial and error in Australia unfortunately. On the bright side I wanted to take off the bumpers to re-paint them in satin black, it was the one area that was letting the car down, the front one had a few scrapes that had been touched up.

Admittedly I would have taken a bit more care removing it.

[Simon350S]

Agree with all of the above!

Is the bumper salvageable?

The mounts were held on by ply wood by memory and could easily be re-fibre glassed in and that would shave you a bucket load of cash on delivery alone!

[nello]

Sickening Lex - hope you get it sorted. I had someone bend the bonnet on my Fiat Coupe not long ago without notice so I know how you feel! 

[Lex Templar]

It's being fixed as we speak by the lovely guys at Simply Sports Cars. The only place to deal with Lotus in Sydney. Not a hard fix, just an annoying one.

Bumper not salvageable, the timber backing has been destroyed.

The time spent fixing it would cost more than the new bumper, the new one will come in with some parts they have already ordered from the UK so shipping may be cut a little.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Lex Templar

[Paul Coleman]

Bas*ards

[mayevora]

Tossers. Heres Hoping they get a dose of the same treatment.

[Vanya]

Sorry to hear about this. Had my daily driver vandalized 2 times within a week recently so I know how you feel (sorta) - if it had been my Esprit I probably would have taken to harsher measures.

 

People like this should just be shot or sent to work at a labor camp somewhere....

[LOTUSMAN33]

Hope you get it sorted soon Lex, some people are mindless pricks and we can only hope they suffer a similar fate to something they own in the future, although not ideal at least they will know the pain it causes!

Painting the bumpers was on my list of things to do so must be over due, will look great when done.