No real problem with banter however, the forum is intended to be able to allow the members to show their cars off, once replies start to mount up and a few pages are created i think the thread will lose it's direction a wee bit, just my thoughts, but anyone looking at the showcase will also then have to trawl through the banter to get to a stage whereby they can reply something that hasn't already been mentioned.
I can see merits for keeping all the comments on one thread as well :)
The banter thread is the most popular and always carries a lot of active threads, so, to have multiple links into the OT&B thread from the showcase and have the normal OT&B traffic as well may be too much.
So, let's stay the way we are and see what type of "banter" appears in the showcase threads, but, of course, i'm open to suggestions :)