19 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Sadly, at the Goodwood Revival Meeting a BRM V16 con-rod and piston assembly was stolen from the National Motor Museum V16 paddock display in support of their Restoration Appeal. 
 
Action was taken immediately to alert eBay and other public sale avenues of the theft. No clue to the parts' whereabouts has yet emerged.
 
This is an appeal to the thief's better nature simply now - after a month of illicit possession - just to parcel the stolen con-rod and piston and mail them anonymously back to Doug Hill, The National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hants, England SO42 7ZN.
 
Please appreciate that this con-rod and piston is not just an individual assembly, but one of a full set of 16 painstakingly matched engine components. The fact that it was taken during the final hour or so of what had been a wonderful weekend for the NMM's utterly dedicated, capable and ridiculously hard-working staff ruined the Revival Meeting for them. Should the thief now wish to correct the balance, perhaps he or she would enclose a contribution to the NMM's BRM V16 Restoration Appeal in the parcel? Such an apology would, at least, be respected...  But all the team really want is to see the con-rod and piston safely returned...
 
DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 24 October 2014 - 20:11.

[Tim Murray]

Bastards

[Nick Planas]

Why would anyone ... ? I despair...

[Lee Nicolle]

Sadly, at the Goodwood Revival Meeting a BRM V16 con-rod and piston assembly was stolen from the National Motor Museum V16 paddock display in support of their Restoration Appeal. 

 

Action was taken immediately to alert eBay and other public sale avenues of the theft. No clue to the parts' whereabouts has yet emerged.

 

This is an appeal to the thief's better nature simply now - after a month of illicit possession - just to parcel the stolen con-rod and piston and mail them anonymously back to Doug Hill, The National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hants, England SO42 7ZN. No further action would be taken.

 

Please appreciate that this con-rod and piston is not just an individual assembly, but one of a full set of 16 painstakingly matched engine components. The fact that it was taken during the final hour or so of what had been a wonderful weekend for the NMM's utterly dedicated, capable and ridiculously hard-working staff ruined the Revival Meeting for them. Should the thief now wish to correct the balance, perhaps he or she would enclose a contribution to the NMM's BRM V16 Restoration Appeal in the parcel? Such an apology would, at least, be respected...  But all the team really want is to see the con-rod and piston safely returned...

 

DCN

Dont bother even notifying Ebay,, by the time they do something about it it will be sold and delivered somewhere else. That is if they do anything at all. I have given up reporting illegal goods for sale.

[fuzzi]

Why not add 'BRM' and 'BRM v16' to your E-Bay searches. The missing parts might be picked up that way.

 

It will make a change for me rather than looking at Austin Seven and Talbot bits.

[kayemod]

Dont bother even notifying Ebay,, by the time they do something about it it will be sold and delivered somewhere else. That is if they do anything at all. I have given up reporting illegal goods for sale.

 

I've had stuff listed on eBay that infringed copyrights I hold. It wasn't easy getting registered with them as a copyright holder, but once I got on their list, action was almost instant, following a notification from me, listings were removed within the hour. You have to be pretty sure of your ground of course, but I've never a complaint or comeback from the sellers. This isn't the same as selling stolen goods of course, something I gather is a big and growing problem, but although eBay get a lot of criticism, I've found them helpful and effective once I managed to get my foot in the right door. Contact them the moment you find a suspicious listing, but I guess they wouldn't be too sympathetic if you could only tell them that you'd had something stolen, and that it might, just might, be listed on their site some time in the future.

[cpbell]

Very sad indeed. 

[Doug Nye]

Regarding eBay - I'm a fan. My family have both bought and sold quite frequently on the site and (thus far) the experience has been entirely satisfactory. Occasionally I have noticed sellers offering pirated copies of our copyright photos. One has to prove one's objection to the eBay people, but once they were satisfied our objection had merit they reacted pretty quickly, and the offending entries were deleted.

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 24 October 2014 - 21:13.

[Nemo1965]

Sadly, at the Goodwood Revival Meeting a BRM V16 con-rod and piston assembly was stolen from the National Motor Museum V16 paddock display in support of their Restoration Appeal. 
 
Action was taken immediately to alert eBay and other public sale avenues of the theft. No clue to the parts' whereabouts has yet emerged.
 
This is an appeal to the thief's better nature simply now - after a month of illicit possession - just to parcel the stolen con-rod and piston and mail them anonymously back to Doug Hill, The National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hants, England SO42 7ZN.
 
Please appreciate that this con-rod and piston is not just an individual assembly, but one of a full set of 16 painstakingly matched engine components. The fact that it was taken during the final hour or so of what had been a wonderful weekend for the NMM's utterly dedicated, capable and ridiculously hard-working staff ruined the Revival Meeting for them. Should the thief now wish to correct the balance, perhaps he or she would enclose a contribution to the NMM's BRM V16 Restoration Appeal in the parcel? Such an apology would, at least, be respected...  But all the team really want is to see the con-rod and piston safely returned...
 
DCN

 

The chance that the person who took it visits these shores I estimate to be rather low. I think - considering the nature of the theft, which seems pretty random to me - that the thieves were not historical racing-fans or people who own a BRM V16 themselves.

 

I think it would be a good idea to start a page on Facebook called 'BRM V16 Parts theft' with a picture of the stolen goods. 

 

My guess is the parts are standing on a cupboard somewhere, as a kind of joke, a trophy of the thieves' 'daring' and the 'sillyness' of the original owner. If the Facebook page is shared often enough, I think the heat on the culprits would probably press them to ship the stuff back.

 

Just my five cents. 

[Louism]

Hello, 

I am really sorry for The National Motor Museum.

I had a chat in the paddock about the project with them and the piston was displayed on the table, I took a picture to have an idea of the size alongside of a pen...

 

If I can help...

 

 

Warm regards

Louis Monnier

ACO

[Nemo1965]

Perhaps it is futile, but I've placed the picture and a part of Doug Nye's post on my facebook-account and asked my Facebook-friends to share the picture.

[D-Type]

As we approach a year later, can I ask if it was ever recovered?

[Louism]

I have ask during the Revival two weeks ago, I am afraid the answer is no.

[Mistron]

Not suggesting for a second that this is linked to the theft at Goodwood, but I see there is a Rod for sale in the upcoming Historics sale (without piston)

 

Can't post a link, but it's lot 112.

[Doug Nye]

What company's sale is that please - and where?

 

DCN

[Tim Murray]

http://www.historics...obilia/112.aspx

[Lee Nicolle]

That one may fit the same engine but it is a fair bit different. 

The one pictured above has the thread in the rod, this one has through bolts.

 

In the great scheme of things the stolen rod is easlily remanufactured [in better material and finish if required] by any number of places [at a cost ofcourse] the piston though seems very much a one of.

I doubt you can contact a piston manufacturer and get them to machine up a replacement from a blank like you can with many production engines.

And I very much doubt the original forging dies are still around. If they are then that too  is then a simple [but costly] exercise

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 06 June 2016 - 22:39.

[quintin cloud]

It is really sad that people would rob a museum, go back and look at it again and let everyone else also enjoy a piece of engineering history. 

[sabrejet]

Just noticed this thread: I have a photo I took of said item at the Revival Meeting in 2014 (Saturday), with my finger for scale. It didn't occur to me that some 'person' might steal something like this: I was just full of admiration and appreciation that the museum staff would let Joe Public actually get up close to such iconic artefacts.

 

I know that two years have passed, but I hope this one reaches a successful conclusion and a boot in the appropriate area for whoever was responsible.

[sabrejet]

I'd imagine pistons are/were made for the Hall & Hall replica, which was part of the museum display in 2014.