Building a clone becomes fraud when the serial numbers are faked to make it
appear that the car is something that it is not.
I remember reading an article about a rare car that was wrecked and there were
two chunks of the car that ended up in different hands when a partnership split
up. Both used the available original piece with proper provenance to build a
car around it and both claimed ownership of the original serial number!
It has not been uncommon for race cars to be rebuilt completely from
unrecognizable wrecks once the market sends values into the stratosphere. In
most markets, a clean untouched original car will be worth more than an
over-restored and/or modified car, but I don't think that has been the case for
Tigers to date and that may be due to the still limited appeal of the car due
to lack of public awareness (or let's face it , interest. We own Cinderella
cars that have little following).
It takes huge money to restore a car (is there one Tiger owner out there that
is not upside down in market value after doing a 100% effort restoration?) and
even more to make a clone of some of the rare cars that may have unique trim
that is impossible to find and has limited market to recoup tooling costs to
reproduce it. Many of the original Hemi cars are just too valuable to drive on
the street and that is a shame. If clones allow this to happen and let people
enjoy them as they were intended, more power to them!
Reliable reproduction parts? bring them on. That has nothing to do with the
admiration for those that are guardians of clean originals that are completely
faithful to what rolled from the factory. My car, for one, should have been
scrapped and it was only stubborn determination on my part (and 2 miles of mig
wire) that has it as a flag bearer for the marque.
Bob Melusky
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
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