Unique Performance scam

[Steve1968LS2]

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?

I don't think that would fly. They are perfectly allowed to use "Shelby '67 Mustang" in the movie since it's mearly descriptive of what it is. It would be like GM trying to sue Paramount for an actor saying "They stole my Corvette!" in a movie.

In any event I'm sure a bunch of lawyers will get rich off all of this. lol

[trapin]

Well...I guess there's only one way around all this.....

BUILD THE DAMN CAR YOURSELF!

[buickfunnycar.com]

"Well...I guess there's only one way around all this".....

this have anything to do with a louisville slugger and brain matter does it...?

j/k man...I like your style.

[Rybar]

Here's an interesting link from lateral-g:

It's a PDF of the actual lawsuit from the filmakers I believe:

http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/...ck_cage_wm.pdf

[TonyL]

I thought they actually got permission to use the "elenor" name. Wow. these guys are a whole bag of stupid.

[4MuscleMachines]

Wow, I wonder what is going to happen to the value of the Eleanors that were built and delivered since they opened?

[BRIAN]

You have to feel bad for Chip. This is his 2nd round with a bad Co.

As far as the vins they are dealing with 30 year old cars. They were probably doing what just about everybody does which is paste a car together with the best parts and using the title on hand. As long as the titles are clean usually there is no problem. But I am sure there are laws against a lot of things done with 30 year old vehicles. They weren't caught swapping vins in new cars right??

Always somebody out to screw someone.

[68Formula]

Here's an interesting link from lateral-g:

It's a PDF of the actual lawsuit from the filmakers I believe:

http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/...ck_cage_wm.pdf

Wow, interesting read. It's amazing Shelby would do something like that considering how he was so law-suit happy about protecting the Cobra name and design against the kit cars.

[Streetking]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...2.41f4dc5.html

SW

[Streetking]

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

[bobbaganoosh]

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?

I dunno, I think I'd be pretty pissed that somebody made my POS look even worse.

[Bob Johnson]

that just p***** me off...that disgusts me that there are people like that in the world...they refuse to make an honest living so they make their living stealing from others....theives deserve whatever they have coming to them

Unfortunately I've been exposed to this kind of person several times in the past and am in the throes of prosecuting one right now..it's a strange person that can steal for a livelihood..especially from someone who they are acting like they are friends with..

[Bob Johnson]

No way you could have known. It's not like they'd have told you that they were as crooked as a dogs hind leg.

My question was would the mags (not just you guys) would be as eager to cover the bad stuff as they were to cover the good. IMO, a far more intersting story, and one that would benefit the readership.

Despite the legions of people ripped off by Hennesy, I don't recall reading anything negative about him in the C&D, R&T type mags. They sure as heck let him send cars to drive though.

It's quite easy to see if you have experience with building cars or running a manufacturing business. Anyone could walk into his place and see the type of employees he had, the size and scope of his operation and the junk cars he was starting with, there was no way it could be a money making venture. It's very tough to make money building or modifying cars. Unique grew way too fast and didn't have the infrastructure and experienced help to get the job done. Their overhead was way out of line. Their pyramid structure of getting money up front before work ever started covered their losses and their high salaries and expenses. I had made the comment to Alan Johnson that I just couldn't see how anyone couldn't see thru this. Plus their cars were just junk. A friend of mine owned Regency Conversions in Ft. Worth. He sold out a little over a year ago. Unique came to them and wanted a bunch of Mustangs painted. He didn't want to do it but the new owners instructed him to take the business. It cost Regency $400K. Never got paid for all the paint jobs. I guess Shelby and John Q public forgot the debacle that was created with the Shelby Series I and the deposits taken and deliveries not met just a few years ago.

[Bob Johnson]

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.

the same thing happened to Keith Henderson and John Leonard and their Vipers..

[70RT/SE]

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.

What I don't understand with the motive given is what difference does it make if the car had salvage title since the cars are built from the ground up? I can understand the motive on a newer car but for 40 year old car that is basically having everthing gone through would it really dramatically lower the value? If the vehicles were stolen....then it would make sense.

Just trying understand what they were trying to accomplish. Thanks

[theoriginator]

I worked at Unique Performance for 1 year and was excited by the fact that they hired me to work there after seeing all the stories in the magazines and the RIDES episode on TV, working on Shelby and Foose cars was a dream job. Then after I saw the way they actually built the cars and how things were operated I was shocked. The extreme amount of bondo and fiberglass was unbelievable, the body fit and finish was laughable, the crooked stripes, hard lines in the door jambs, water based undercoat, left me speechless. But I was determined to make them better, the clowns they had as supervisers were as knowledgable about cars as the guy delivering all the bondo, upper management knew less about building cars than the HR lady. It was all show and hype, constant tours, sponsors' stickers on the wall. Checks being passed out late with insufficient funds, shutting down for a couple days or a whole week, the CEO cursing at people for no reason, it was a complete mess. When we did deliver a car it had to be built in 4 or 5 days forcing more problems and half done work. Cars had to be painted 2 to 3 times before being "delivered" the first time because of all the bondo cracking and scratches and chips from assembly, then painted again after they came back because of mechanical problems. Cars being returned then repainted and cleaned to be sold as "new" cars. The good/ talented employess they did have could have built better cars in their garages after hours. You probably won't get rich building cars so don't try to mix the two. Aside from all the customers who paid for cars and put money down, we as former employees are still waiting for wages for hours worked and the 401k money witheld from our check to be deposited into the account ( guess he thought he would keep that money too ). Don't ever do business with Doug Hasty, and if you know where to find him please let us know because we would like to pay him a visit before he goes to jail if he's not already there.

[Damn True]

I sure hope the DA who is running the investigation on the vin-washing is aware of your situation and that of the other (former) employees. If not, call them, soon.

If there are labor violations in addition to what seems to be a raft of other transgressions it will only help to put them away.

[4MuscleMachines]

we as former employees are still waiting for wages for hours worked and the 401k money witheld from our check to be deposited into the account ( guess he thought he would keep that money too ). Don't ever do business with Doug Hasty, and if you know where to find him please let us know because we would like to pay him a visit before he goes to jail if he's not already there.

I bet that from the very beginning, they knew the 401k money was going straight into their pockets.

[got_hp?]

Don't ever do business with Doug Hasty, and if you know where to find him please let us know because we would like to pay him a visit before he goes to jail if he's not already there.

make sure you contact the authorities to help strengthen their case against this douchebag.

dont just stand back and hope he gets sent to jail, help put him there!

[Bob Johnson]

I bet that from the very beginning, they knew the 401k money was going straight into their pockets.

If he took any money that was deducted from someone's pay whether it be for retirement, Taxes, or Social Security, that's a no no from the word go. He can bankrupt out of lots of that other stuff, but he will get hammered if he keeps money from deductions.