Blown headgasket - closely followed by me almost blowing a gasket

Blew the head gasket on my 2100EFI saloon last week - and this was the reason - a Racetorations supplied (via Chris Witor - not his fault) 200 quid piece of junk!!! Really makes my angry - these retail at 169.95 quid + VAT

 The fire rings are completely randomly swaged onto the gasket material - I don't know whether its the fire ring that is too small or the gasket hole is too big but the result is when the fire ring is compressed it collapses as there is no gasket within.
 I cut the fire ring on one bore where it was crushed and the was virtually no gasket material beneath it - where it was properly made there was about 1.5mm of the gasket crushed in the fire ring sandwich.

 These "Payen" branded gasket used to be good quality but they seem to have nose dived in QA/QC in the last few years - perhaps the Made in UK stamp is now stamped for Daryl in China? It would certainly improve profit margins.

 I have a brand new one but didn't dare use it - I used a secondhand one that has been on my PI and is obviously OK.

Equally annoyingly Wishbone Classics were a good alternate source and cheaper but another run of poor QC ended in me buying 10 gaskets at $90 each which were only good for the bin - and Kai now refuses to answer my calls or email despite admitting that they were a faulty batch - he did sell me some good ones previously. Really angry about this sort of junk

Mileage 26000km since full rebuild - cam and followers mint (6000km)