For sale: Vulcan bomber, one belligerent owner

If your next-door neighbour has just bought a thrusting silver 4x4 with tints, alloys and bull-bars and spends all of his time waxing it suggestively on the front drive just to make sure everyone else knows just how inadequate they are in the vehicle department, then eBay may have the answer.

Yup, for just a little over £6k (current top bid £6,100), you can snap up Avro Vulcan XL391 - complete with engines - just as long as you're prepared to move it from Blackpool airport where it is currently menacing passers-by. Details, it must be said, are sketchy. No indication as to whether it's got tax and MOT or what insurance class you might be expected to pay before taking it for a spin. The vendor simply notes that there is no postage on this particular item.

Still, it must be worth a punt - despite its reportedly less-than-perfect condition. After all, it's all very well revving your chav Rav-4 on a Sunday morning but how's that going to compete against the might of four Rolls Royce Olympus 301s? We rest our case.

The auction for Vulcan XL391 has five days left to run. Those wishing to keep up with, and ultimately blow away, the Joneses, should have a shufti here.

The Avro Vulcan

First flown in 1952, the Avro Vulcan was developed in response to the need for a four-engined nuclear bomber to counter the growing threat of the Soviet Union. The planes saw service with the RAF from 1956 to 1984 and won signal successes in the 1982 Falklands Islands conflict, participating in the famous Black Buck missions against Argentinian installations 3,886 miles away from the nearest useable airfield.

XL391 - a Vulcan B Mk.2 - was one of 136 of the type built (including two prototypes) and first flew in 1963. She was among a number disposed to interested parties after retirement by the RAF. Details of her service history are hard to come by and we'd welcome any additional info which we can pass on to prospective buyers.

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