David Piper vs Mark Hales

+1

 

That is the salient point isn't it? Mark Hales, as you might expect from a journalist, has done quite a good job with his PR post the case but remember that he lost and, if you read the judgement in full, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion that he deserved to. Yes this is all unnecessary but that applies to both sides.

Jonathan

 

From what I have read Hales missed the shift and blew the motor. Insurance did not cover the motor, Hales was liable but did not have the money and or tried to welsh out of it by claiming the mechanicals were faulty. After that it gets murky.

I always liked to think that the classic car community was well, a community. Maybe the big bucks that has invaded a mechanical hobby has completly transformed it. But Piper was part of the old guard.

Even if Hales is completly wrong, bankrupting someone is not the gntlemenly thing to do in what should be a gentlemenly hobby, and upon which Piper has earned very well. I know If I lend my car to someone without the means, liability of not I am going to foot the bill.

I also know that when you car appears in a classic car magazine it is a from of advertising used to enhance a sale, in fact most stories are essentialy that with cars lent by the seller or auction house.

We dont know what got Pipers back up, maybe these days money is tight, maybe Hales denied responsibility, maybe the Octane negotiation was insulting, but to bankrupt someone? Even from a commercial standpoint it does not make sense. From a social standpoint it seems the classic car community stands with Hales, so what does it do Piper. Soungs like a grumpy old ego maniac to me who got his back up because others insulted him and misbehaved.

If you sell somethign to someone who cant pay, odds are you are not going to get paid. Same if you rent something. The rest is just legal niceties.

It woud be interesting to know what happened in the Octane negaotiation that got Pppier so worked up, or is he just being a grumpy unreasonable old coger. In any eent no one gains here, its just a blight on the hobby(which is now really a buisness which explains it) and ablight on piper who really may not care.

The sad part is it takes a hobby which is about appreciating and enjoying old cars one step closer to being just another corporatised managed packaged branded entity. Pity but with all the money flying around its mazing it got so far based on informal comraderie.

 

Great post, seems awfully like something another englishman, Mr. BC Ecclestone would do.....

 

Mr.Piper- what goes around comes around.

Benevolence is a trait of greatness.

 

I remember when David Piper's group first came out to South Africa in 1988 with a group of cars, one of them was a Ferrari P4. It was driven in the first race by "Whizzo" Williams who reportedly also missed a gear and blew up the engine - memory over 25 years is not perfect so apologies to Whizzo if it was a mechanical failure. I remember seeing a chunk of piston lying between two of the intake trumpets. I don't know who paid for that one, I think it was David Piper himself and I know it was a big deal because parts were scarce. The thing is its not the first time its happened to him and maybe he has got to be less patient!

 

You're so right!