Dispute over 'catastrophic' damage to famous drag racing car

A legendary drag racing car has received ‘catastrophic’ damage after a garage manager allegedly took it out for multiple joyrides.

WOO, a Ford Capri 4x4 Cosworth built and driven by late Mossley mechanic, Peter ‘Rusty’ Kennedy, was a regular fixture on dragstrips and TV in the 1990s and 2000s, famously leaving supercars driven by Jeremy Clarkson in her dust. 

However, she was damaged when left with a garage in Cheshire, which was supposed to replace an amplifier cable. 

According to one of WOO’s custodians, Lee Sykes, it was a job that should have taken an hour: “They kept the car for seven days and in that time, they took her out on multiple occasions without permission.  

“On the final joyride on Thursday November 7, [the manager] took her out on his lunch break and tried to do a rally-style launch. 

“He failed and stalled her a couple of times, and on the last attempt he reached speeds of over 50miles an hour from a standstill on a side street within seconds. 

“This caused her to receive catastrophic damage to her drive train and subframe.” 

Mr Sykes alleged the garage denied causing the damage before backtracking when shown telemetry data. 

He added that although they agreed to pay for any repairs, they have since reneged on that and denied any responsibility. 

“We are all still in shock that this has happened and the company has just wiped their hands,” said Mr Sykes. “We can’t afford to fix her.” 

The car is now back in Tameside with a garage in Stalybridge, but will remain off the road until WOO’s custodians can find £4,000 for the repairs. 

In response, the manager of the Cheshire garage alleged to be involved has said: “Mr Sykes dropped his vehicle off with us on 5th November for labour work to be donated for the vehicle's cause. This was to have a look at the audio. 

“When we came to get the vehicle out of the workshop on 6th November, the vehicle's battery was flat, an engineer contacted Mr Sykes by text to advise him of this.  

“The vehicle was then driven approximately half a mile around the block to try and regain some charge in the battery.  

“Mr Sykes confirmed that there was in fact a battery drain on the vehicle and as long as the engineer was insured to drive the vehicle, which all our engineers are under our business commercial insurance, then Mr Sykes was happy with it being driven. 

“On the 7th November, in the morning the same thing happened, so the engineer repeated the same process as on the 6th.  

“However, this time when the engineer drove it around the block, the engineer heard a clunk. They reduced the speed and proceeded to bring it back into our workshop. 

“The engineer inspected where the clunk came from and noticed that the drive shaft had failed. 

“Within the following weeks, Mr Sykes has requested thousands of pounds from us as a company to repair the vehicle from his belief the damage that had been deliberately caused, however, as any business would, we have referred this matter to our insurance company, who are in the process of assessing the failure and providing a full report. 

“We apologise for any upset or distress this may cause, and we hope that our insurance company provides an outcome for Mr Sykes as soon as possible to determine the failure.” 

WOO has helped raised thousands of pounds for Willow Wood Hospice, with an annual car show in memory of Rusty, who died aged 64 in 2020.  

The 2025 edition of the show will take place on Sunday August 31 at the Great Ashton Academy on Broadoak Road.