I heard about but didn't see this variant on the "car on top of the outbuilding" stunts.

Sheil Barracks in Verden in West Germany (as it then was) was home in 1980 to the British 1st Armoured Division HQ and Signal Regiment. There was some mutual aggravation between the (British) Commandant of the town and barracks, and the officers of the units who lived there.

The Commandant issued an order that officers' vehicles (whether private or official) were not to use the main parking area, as this was required as a helicopter landing pad. This caused much inconvenience. However, he made a point of leaving his official vehicle, a black Ford Escort estate there, to show that he was not bound by his own orders.

The officers of the Signals Regiment clubbed together, and went to local scrapyards where they purchased various wings and panels and windows off wrecked Escorts. (A right-hand drive version of the Escort was manufactured in Germany, so there were plenty of these in the knackers' yards.)

When they had accumulated enough body parts to make a complete Escort shell, they painted them black and went out at night and pushed the Commandant's Escort out of sight. They then assembled their dummy Escort around a straw bale, securing the various parts with twists of baling wire. Add plenty of petrol, light the blue touch paper and retire. Then telephone the Commandant, and say "Sir, you'd better get down to the parade ground. There's something you ought to see."

The Commandant arrived bleary-eyed on the parade ground to see what appeared to be his official vehicle ablaze, while Royal Signals officers toasted bread and sausages on the pyre.