It seems like we’re wrong. We only see gray terraced houses under the dreary gray sky above Northern England. Then we turn right and drive up Bradley Lane, towards a small industrial estate. Suddenly we see the remains of a car rising above the treetops to our left, but we have no idea what kind of car it is. Given the bright green color of the body panels, it could be a Lamborghini. Indeed that appears to be the case. We see the remains of a Huracán. “Douglas Valley Breakers,” it says on the door. A watchdog that is warned by a sign, barks and pulls on its chain. In the area behind it, the size of a football field, are hundreds of luxury cars: Ferraris, Lotuses, Porsches, Aston Martins, Rolls-Royces. The rain gives the desolation of the terrain something fascinating. All dream cars are only here because of their parts, they have been severely damaged in collisions and then bought by Douglas Valley Breakers, directly from the insurer or at auctions. This car scrapyard full of dream cars has been around for 25 years. Steve Strange is the director and the sole buyer. He buys the wrecks in Great Britain and then exports the rare parts to countries all over the world. “Almost all of that happens online,” says salesman Graham Cook. He just sold a Porsche door to someone from Nazareth, Israel. Graham leads us past the four-car-high rows of expensive cars. There is so much to see that we don’t know where to look. “Porsche Boxster,” he says boredly. He nods to a number of Boxsters in different colors. “That is our most popular model, we always have dozens of them.” Together with Cook we walk past a row of Aston Martins, then we walk towards some TVRs. “Tamora, Cerbera, Griffith, Tasmin.” He runs his index finger along the cars and recites the model names without moving a muscle. “And behind it are the parts of a very rare car.” According to him, we are looking at the remains of a Lotus Elan M100 – and who are we to doubt that? “We are probably the largest trader in the world when it comes to M100 parts. There is a lot of demand for the rear wishbones.” We should probably take ‘very much’ with a grain of salt, because only a few thousand copies of this Elan generation were built. Good Business on eBay Until about a dozen years ago, customers from far and wide would visit Bradley Lane to shop locally for rare parts for their cars, says Graham Cook. More than 11,000 parts have now found a place in the company’s Ebay shop, from cigarette lighters to twelve-cylinder engines. “The engines are at the top of the hall,” says Cook. We wonder why this area is not covered, given the value of the cars there. Now huge loads of parts are rusting away in the rain. “Yes, the boss wanted to do that too, but somehow the owner of the site does not give permission for it, I have no idea why not,” is Graham’s answer. In any case, money does not seem to be the problem, because Strange does very good business with the parts: he has had a helipad built on the roof of his hall. In the hall there are two lifting bridges and ten-meter high racks with engines, gearboxes, chairs and wheels. Three of the eleven employees are busy taking apart two Porsches and photographing the parts for sale. There is a package on a table that will be sent to Spain. We walk back onto the site and see a heavily damaged Opel GT, on which someone has written ‘Christine’. “As a reference to Stephen King’s novel, which you probably know.” But why? “Well, the driver didn’t survive the accident.” We become silent for a moment. “To be honest, I’ve seen plenty of cars that were much more damaged.” And also more expensive. What is Graham’s favorite? “Well, as far as I’m concerned, that’s the F40 we once had here.” We walk towards the Ferraris, which have been given a spot between some Maseratis and a Corvette. “456, 360, 348.” Graham Cook provides the type designations. They sound like lottery numbers. “There’s a Testarossa underneath,” he says and continues walking. Then the Brit, who had several Porsches in his garage and still drives a Porsche, says goodbye to us. Duty calls. We would love to stroll through this amazing junkyard ourselves, but that is strictly prohibited! Moreover, we would undoubtedly have to deal with the barking watchdog. It is time to leave this surreal place behind us. Now we finally know what the eternal hunting grounds look like.
Source: www.autoweek.nl
