"Fake" Ferrari ring busted

Yes it was… and in the case involving the Mera , Ferrari had already brought it to trial back in 1988. To sue or charge someone over the Mera again would be like charging someone twice for the same crime right? If the owner of the “328” replica had said it was a replica of the Mera instead of a Ferrari, he might have gotten away with it was all I was saying. It is more like a Pontiac Mera than it is a real Ferrari, thats for sure and according to your link there were only 247 Mera's built so it in itself is a rare car that people might want a replica of.

 

DELETED - SPAM

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ looks suspiciously like SPAM to me.

The fake watch thread is here, by the way: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=180606 .... in the 'Watch' section.

 

Mod Squad is always on the lookout. BEWARE!!!

 

Sometimes they just need pointing in the right direction.

 

Its a little late. Was as at a dinner party and a colleague brought up the news of the busted Fieros wannabe Ferrari ring. We had a good chuckle over it ending in a cartoon idea.
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I really am getting fed up of this 'Fake Ferrari' stuff. As if these politicians haven't got anything better to do.

Here's a latest news report from the good old BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7289220.stm

Fake Ferrari star of piracy show

A fake Ferrari sports car made in Thailand has become the centrepiece of an exhibition in Brussels warning against the dangers of pirated goods.


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The fake Ferrari is powered by a Subaru engine

The Ferrari P4 - of which only three were made, in 1967 - was made in a back street factory in Thailand and is powered by a Subaru engine. The Authentics Foundation has used the car to warn against the growing tide of counterfeit goods. Blah-blah-blah (again).

 

Except that the car in that small photo in the BBC news article looks horribly like this same car:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135783091&postcount=45

So - there's a (presumably UK-built) Noble P4 replica in Brussels, that I need to track down.

 

I don't know if the beck cars violate or not we will find out overtime if they did or not if their company goes under. thats the sad thing about kits you'll find out if they are doing something wrong when the company goes to hell.

 

Photo of the year!.

 

Video news article from ITN - Yasmin Le Bon models Fake Ferrari P4.

http://itn.co.uk/news/c378ff919ec59c6e7daac2c976bd74b1.html

 

According to Reuters ....

See: http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/03/10/which-is-the-real-model/

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Hoo boy is this becoming a hot news item (mostly in Europe, at the moment) .... but it's spreading fast.

Found a batch of photos here: http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/all/1?q=Fake+Ferrari

.... which are copyright images by AP (Yves Logghe) and Reuters (Thierry Roge) news agencies.
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Despite all the 'made in Thailand' B/S - I stand by what I wrote previously, in that I believe this car to be a British-built Noble P4 kit.
Perhaps the car may have been subsequently exported to Thailand, and fitted with the Subaru (boxer flat-4) motor. Who knows ?

One things pretty certain in my mind - it's the very same P4 replica that was in the photo waved around by Franco Frattini back in 2006.

.... Either that - or it's a very good 'fake' copy of it.

Note the ridiculously excessive number of fixings on the perspex headlamp covers of both cars, for example.
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Hmmm. I wonder if Yasmin Le Bon would be interested in sitting on mine. ..... Noble P4 'Fake Ferrari' that is !!

 

Watch the video between 60 and 65 seconds in, where they lift the rear bodywork / engine cover.

http://itn.co.uk/news/c378ff919ec59c6e7daac2c976bd74b1.html

Note which way it hinges (incorrectly à la Noble P4). Rear chassis cross-members look very Noble P4 to me, too.

 

will they eventually destroy the fake p4? that would be a great shame.

 

I don't know yet. They may well decide to do so as a 'symbolic gesture'.

Email already sent to Authentics Foundation president Timothy P Trainer, and I just got off the phone from Reuters in Brussels.

One things for sure, I'll make damned sure I get the car's full details on my register, before they do ....

 

With all the heat that I take for posting about P4 replicas on this forum, some of you may wonder why I bother to hang around here.
The simple answer is that it sometimes pays dividends.

I pick up some really great leads, which assist me in tracking down various P4 replicas, for my register on here, thanks to you guys.

Here's a great little post by Michael James, which he made in the South African built P4 thread, a week or so back:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=137516128&postcount=56

Thank you, Michael. Here's your answer ....

 

This morning, a copy of the April 2008 issue of Cigar Aficionado magazine (www.cigaraficionado.com) dropped through my letterbox.

See: http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Home/In_this_Isssue/0,2510,,00.html

I was very keen (as you may have gathered, from postings elsewhere - in the 'Drink & Smoke' section) to get hold of this magazine.

Here follows a copy and paste of the relevant parts of the text from that article, relating to the 'fake' Ferrari P4 replica in question:

faking it by Frederick W. Mostert

from page 78:

In an unglamorous garage in London stands a fake Ferrari 1967 P4. The P4, Ferrari lovers assure me, is one of the world's most beautiful cars, with all the curves in the right places, as well as one of the most expensive models in the Ferrari stable, with an estimated value today of $15 million. Only three were ever made, but I own a fourth one. Luxury fakes are my dubious specialty, which is why I know that the fourth example of the P4 is absolutely a fake.

from page 81:

The real story about that shift in counterfeits begins, in some ways, with the curvaceous Ferrari. I first learned of her existence after our investigators were tipped off during an investigation into counterfeit watches in central Thailand. Instead of timepieces they found fake Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Lotuses. Hogwash, I told the lead investigator upon receiving this report. Counterfeit supercars? Not possible. Their pride at stake, the investigators returned to the workshop in the dead of night and sneaked a series of eye-popping pictures, which they sent to me in London.
I was intrigued. As a "petrol head" I felt bound to broaden the scope of the probe and asked the investigators to try to track down other cases. I found a factory in northeast China, which claimed to ….

…. Continued on page 84:

…. produce modern sports cars. Could they manufacture me a Mercedes SLR, I asked - even though it was not listed in their full-picture catalog? Within three days I received a reply: no problem. I decided to raise the bar. How about a Maybach? The answer came back two days later by way of a question-would I like a long or short wheelbase? But
here's the deal with these fake cars. The gas tank could explode, the brakes might fail, the steering wheel is rickety and, I am sad to report, the famous Ferrari Red on my P4 is starting to peel, which of course would never happen on the real thing. (By the way, I should make it clear that conscience keeps me from driving her, as well as the certain knowledge that my boss would kill me should I give in to the temptation of taking the lady for a spin.)

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Photo caption from page 85:

This fake Ferrari 1967 P4 best shows the lengths to which technology allows counterfeiters to go. It may be cheaper than the real thing (which goes for $15 million), but the paint peeled on this one and you can't be sure the gas tank won't explode.

from page 88:

So how to avoid purchasing fakes inadvertently? Speaking from personal experience, here are a few tips:

Call upon the experts: This isn't always possible, but if you can, call in the experts, such as watchmakers, winemakers, car engineers and other specialists. Because copies are so perfect, even the gurus find it impossible to determine authenticity without a full scientific analysis – often based on an in-depth test such as DNA fingerprinting.
This is an onerous battle, worth fighting if it means spiking the guns of the terrorists, closing child labor sweatshops, stopping things from going up in smoke – literally – and keeping the veritas in the vino. ….

Frederick W. Mostert is the chairman of the Authentics Foundation, past president of the International Trademark Association, author of 'Famous and Well-Known Marks' and 'From Edison to iPod – Protect Your Ideas', and the chief intellectual property counsel for a major luxury goods company.

 

You'll notice that I've highlighted a few words from the Cigar Aficionado article text in red.

Let's start with 'in London' and 'Hogwash'.

You'll also possibly notice that in this article, there aren't actually any written claims included, that this car was 'made (nor found) in Thailand', as have been bandied about recently by various EU politicians and the anti-counterfeiting lobby. The car was photographed (presumably in a suburban London garden), rather than in a 'backstreet factory in Thailand', nor as previously claimed, in May 2006, by EU VP Commissioner Franco Frattini 'a scrapyard on the outskirts of Shanghai' .... but 'in an unglamorous garage in London'.

Which is where the majority of British enthusiast-built kit-car replicas are constructed.

The car is clearly a British-built Noble P4 replica. Probably a 'late model', built in the early 90's, as it has a few features (such as the lack of 6"x8" 'reservoir access hatch' on the front scuttle panel. Other items of interest, such as the red-painted chassis and removeable rear cross-members (the front one is missing in the Cigar Aficionado photo) point to the source of the original kit-car being Tony Butler (an ex-employee of Lee Noble, who left Lee's company and started up on his own, before selling the project on to Neil Foreman of NF Autos).

 

Here's a similar 'late model' car with a red-painted Noble chassis and Butler-modified bodywork that I discovered a few years ago.
The owner was actually contemplating building it in his living room, at one time, before the project got 'evicted' to the garage.

Notice any similarities ?
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Another little point of interest.

If you study the photos of the car, taken by Associated Press and Reuters news agency photographers in post #63 ....
.... you will notice that the car has been fitted with two 'aircraft-style' remote fuel fillers on either side of the scuttle.

Noble P4 replicas originally had two fuel tanks at the rear of the sill sections - one on either side.
Later Butler and Foreman P4 replicas had a single fuel tank only on the L.H. side of the car, running the whole length of the sill.

If you look at the photo of the engine compartment, in the Cigar Aficionado article, you will notice the R.H. fuel tank is missing.

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Perhaps this might explain Frederick W. Mostert's comments:

'The gas tank could explode' and 'you can't be sure the gas tank (note both singular) won't explode.'

 

The first AP image clearly shows the car fitted with British-made Compomotive TS15 'F40-style' 3-piece modular wheels.

See: http://www.comp.co.uk/wheels/popup.asp?wheel=144
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And zooming in on the third AP image of the car's interior:
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and that (of the dashboard) published in Cigar Aficionado:
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.... clearly shows that not only is the car's interior 'all wrong' - not just for a real P4
.... but even for a 'standard' Noble P4 replica (with it's central gear-change, etc.)

But as one 'concession to originality' the car builder used the (UK) 'kit-builder's favourite' Ford Fiesta steering column indicator stalk !

So perhaps they're even faking obsolete Ford (UK) parts in Thailand - to use on their fake Ferraris. .... I think not somehow.