Unique Performance scam

[kmcanally]

They were raided...both the main faciltity and the body shop. I saw the Farmers Branch Police, TxDOT and the FBI supervise the confiscation of all cars finished and otherwise. Rumor is that Doug Hasty, Chris Layne, and Richard Kearby are in jail. Apparently some of the cars they bought as cores and resold were stolen and the VINs were changed. They are done.

[Damn True]

If they were booked the charges will be public record.

Interesting stuff:

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_...309192500.html

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/23/r...ack-at-shelby/

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...6004/1530/FREE

http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2007/...-performa.html

[GT500KR_Vert]

http://cbs11tv.com/local/local_story_309192500.html

It's kinda stupid the way they are pointing out the VIN numbers on the fender apron. That sheetmetal is alomst always replace due to rust!

the VIN would be on the PASS inner windshield

[Boyd]

Damn! Every car guy in the metroplex is going to be watching the newspaper for when those cars go to police auction.

[GT500KR_Vert]

they won't auction them, they'll either crush them or give them back to the original owners they were stolen from.

I feel bad for the people who laid out major $$$$ for UP cars.

[MrQuick]

Thats a shame. Another reason why not to go too big with a business. Desperation sets in. Just bad news for everyone.

Can you imagine getting your POS 67 fastback stolen back in the 80's then having it returned to you a full blown elenore clone. Talk about jack pot....I think my police report from 86 should still be good right?

[GT500KR_Vert]

If they removed the VINs no way to tell who they belonged to. Although the VIN is in few places, the inner fender, the vin tag on the dash, and the build sheet if it's still in the car, plus the door tag.

But doors are swapped all the time, I never trust those tags.

[CraigMorrison]

Probably from one of the links above, but Jalopnik is running a story as well......http://jalopnik.com/cars/breaking-ne...?autoplay=true

[absolom]

my dad just called me and told me, he was at keith craft's shop today and they let him now

http://digg.com/world_news/Unique_Pe...Company_Raided

sucks for the customers

[Scatpack]

I don't mean to take this in a new direction, but just briefly, what was the issue with Hennessey? I thought he made some sick and powerful vipers.

[TonyL]

have a look at this Scatpack.

I remember someone, I think from this board who had his own car in the shop, and Hennessey sold parts, including his custom wheels and tires OFF HIS CAR while it was in his shop.

[absolom]

yeah, this does remind me a lot of the henessey fiasco

[LowBuckX]

have a look at this Scatpack.

I remember someone, I think from this board who had his own car in the shop, and Hennessey sold parts, including his custom wheels and tires OFF HIS CAR while it was in his shop.

Not uncommon sadly. I worked at a vette rebuilding shop for 2 weeks once. In that 2 weeks I witnessed the owner cherry pick through customer cars in the shop and load the parts into his Swap meet van and replace them with knock offs and trashed swap meet parts.
On my second week there a car owner came in with the sherrifs and reclaimed his 58 convertable and break down in tears to see the condition of it.. INterior was sold including dash at swap meet. I offered to make a statement for him in court but never heard from him.

Then we didnt get paided so we all took our pay from the guys legit inventory of Nos and Rare Nos parts. We told him we where going to if he didnt pay us at end of day... He never showed up and I got my parts and never went back..

I hope Chippy is sweating right now.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

goddamn all this is scary..

[JEFFTATE]

Ouch !
This makes every shop in the hobbie look bad.
Even if they are honest.

[tchesney]

Police seize cars in investigation

FB: They allege that the manufacturer altered identification numbers
12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, November 6, 2007

By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected] Police have confiscated more than 60 vehicles as part of a criminal investigation into a well-known custom car manufacturer based in Farmers Branch.
No charges have been filed against the owners of Unique Performance, but police allege the company has been altering vehicle identification numbers on customized cars that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Police say the company uses frames from limited-edition vehicles – mostly Mustangs from the 1960s – to build its custom versions. But the titles on many of those frames have been deemed "salvage," meaning the car has been declared a total loss, police Cpl. Chad Taylor said.
That categorization alone severely lowers the value of the vehicle, Cpl. Taylor said. Police allege that in order to hide the salvage status, the company swapped VINs from similar model cars that didn't have salvage titles.
"What we believe they're doing is purchasing a Mustang of the same year, buying Mustangs around the same year that don't have salvage titles" and replacing the VINs on the cars that had salvage titles, Cpl. Taylor said.
Officials with Unique Performance could not be reached for comment Monday night.
According to the company's Web site, Unique Performance "builds small volumes of handcrafted, limited production vehicles ranging from vintage Shelbys and Camaros to a custom version of the current Ford Mustang."
Police confiscated 61 vehicles from two Unique Performance facilities in Farmers Branch, two in Dallas and one in Grayson County, Cpl. Taylor said. The vehicles are being kept at a storage facility in Carrollton, he said.
Cpl. Taylor said charges are likely, though the investigation is still in the early stages.
"We don't have any charges on anybody as of yet just because the vast amount of evidence we have," Cpl. Taylor said. "Pretty much time is on our side now. We believe we have most or all of the cars. We can kind of sit back and look at what we have."
Charges against the company could include placement of serial number with intent to change identity, a third-degree felony, he said.

[MuscleRodz]

I wonder how deeply involved Shelby is in the "Elanor" name? The only reason they were able to sell the cars they did is that they could put their Elanor clones on the Shelby registry where everybody else could not. The DOT does not play very nice do they......

[BonzoHansen]

Ouch !
This makes every shop in the hobbie look bad.
Even if they are honest.

That is what I was just thinking. I'd like to hear thoughts from the professionals here on how you think these may impact good shops and the business in general.

[Damn True]

That is what I was just thinking. I'd like to hear thoughts from the professionals here on how you think these may impact good shops and the business in general.

I'm not "in the biz" but from where I sit this presents an opportunity, not a detriment to the guys who do it right.

This gives a shop owner the chance to differentiate himself from the bad apples by having an open discourse with his customers on expectations. And for shops run like Prodigy the chance to show the benefit of his particular billing procedure.

[StRacerDuke]

I wonder how deeply involved Shelby is in the "Elanor" name? The only reason they were able to sell the cars they did is that they could put their Elanor clones on the Shelby registry where everybody else could not. The DOT does not play very nice do they......

It should be interesting to hear how the lawsuit against Shelby goes considering they used the word 'Shelby 67 fastback mustang' in the movie without his permission. I wonder if this is why he was saying he would sue them right back. Shelby lost against Factory 5 a few years back, should be another interesting legal battle for him.

Steve, are you guys going to give this mess (Unique's scam) any ink?