I thought it may be prudent to offer a cautionary tale that you may wish to pass on to fellow FJHRA members. The story concerns a company based in Wolverhampton by the name of Industrial Crankshafts and its principal, a Mr. Mark Rigg who advertise among other things that they manufacture a ‘Cosworth-Ford MAE’ crankshaft.

After a telephone conversation early this year I ordered and paid the deposit on a steel crankshaft, purportedly of Laystall design, to Mr. Rigg, who at the time of ordering wrote telling me that the units were in stock and required only Nitriding. I did not receive the item on the promised date and after several more calls, during which it was obvious I was being ‘stalled’ I asked for my money back both verbally and by recorded letter.

The long and short of all this is that my money has never been forthcoming and I have had to resort to the internet small claims court procedure to try and retrieve my loss. A warrant has now been issued by the Wolverhampton court bailiff’s office. I have spoken to the bailiff’s office who tell me that there are a number of warrants as well as mine issued against Industrial Crankshafts and that Mr. Rigg is not cooperative and will not let the bailiff into the building. Incidentally they are located in the old Sunbeam Works in the centre of the town.

It appears that Rigg liquidated his previous company some time ago and set up again in the same location. It seems I have little chance of getting my money back and even less of getting a crankshaft from them. Needless to say this is a much condensed version of a story that has been going on for several months, be warned!