Exotic Car Company Raided In Farmers Branch

Unique Performance - These are the guys that did the Eleanor (gone in sixty seconds) re-creations and the power tour style 69 Camaro. Some of us met up at the huge annual car show last year. I think Uncle Greg had a car in the show.


Exotic Car Company Raided In Farmers Branch

Stephanie Lucero
Reporting

(CBS 11 News) DALLAS Imagine spending six figures on an exotic car and never receiving the vehicle.

That's what Farmers Branch police said happened to customers who bought from a company called Unique Performance.

The company restored Shelby Mustangs, a limited-edition muscle car, for a price of $200,000 per car.

Monday, police confiscated all 61 vintage cars from the company.

Many of the cars could be worthless because the vehicle identification number has been removed. Steal plates with illegitimate numbers covered up the scratched areas.

Police believe the company was involved in title-washing.

 

I hate to be the devil's advocate, but it sounds like customers were recieving their vehicle, so I don't know why the reporter stated that misconception? Besides, how many of these old muscle cars do people REALLY think have clear, unwashed titles? These cars were getting in wrecks long before computerized motor vehicle departments & Carfax LOL. True history is unknown unless your dad owned it!

 

Steal plates? I guess they have a spell check but not a grammar check over there at CBS.

 

That's crazy......wasn't Ol' Shel hisself involved with the Stamp of Approval on these guys???

That IS a huge no-no, tampering with VINs though, maybe they ran out of suitable donors and were scraping the barrel.....??

Sad to see, but not the first time someone got a little desperate......

 

Yea, I keep my 5 digit VINs on steal plates also.......but I hide them under a Royal Purple sticker....LOL!

 

These are basically kit cars, so why did they go to the trouble of stealing the vin's? The value is in the builder, and not what the car was originally. I had heard some issues with the quality of the products they were selling for $100k plus.

 

Shelby is / was formally involved in Unique performance I am sure he did not know this was going on. Here is his public stock info.

Unique Motorcars, the parent company of Unique Performance, Carroll Shelby Licensing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Carroll Shelby International, Inc. (Pink Sheets:CSBI)

As of October 2007 Carroll Shelby is taking steps to sever ties with Unique performance. Interesting timing.

It appears Chip Foose is involved in the company as well. He was there last year at the show and he is tagging his name on some of the cars they are building out of Unique.

At the minimum this is a bit of a PR issue for both of them.

 

When touring the place a few years ago (thanks Jim!), it appeared that shells were purchased for pieces or wholes. If they could use the shell, they would create a car from it. Others were left for sectional pieces they could weld onto needed shells. The Shelby endorsement was huge. From what I was told, the cars received new VINs with Shelby's stamp of approval. It was much more than rebuilding Mustangs... unless I missed a large detail.

 

Yea, but when your taking someone's $200,000 you can't do things that even make you look shady and they did.

It's all about perception in this case.

That's how I see it.

 

Remember, it can take one bad customer that will ruin it for everyone else. I'm sure there is a lot more to this report than whats already been said. I was with Randy & other FChatters that day for the tour. I remember hearing them saying they were buying as many Mustangs they could get their hands on, wrecked or just rotting in a field & giving them new life. I've even been to they yard where the chassis were soda blasted clean down to the bare metal. (www.sodablasting.com) The demand back back then was even back up upwards of 6 months or more. I'm sure hope they get it straightened out, they had some excellent project there.

Video link
http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_309192500.html

 

They did some of the late model Foose Mustangs. I would assume those weren't confiscated, but who knows. Going to be tough to keep that relationship given these accusations. I think the old Camaros were somehow tied to Foose - they may be part of the confiscated cars?

 

http://uniqueperformancescam.com/?gclid=CKKYqrLayI8CFQRuZQodqGo99A

Just did a Google search for "Unique Performance" and that came up under a sponsored (paid) link. Someone is pissed.

 

Shelby severing ties with Unique Performance
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/08/shelby-severing-ties-with-unique-performance/

Carroll Shelby's licensing arm is taking steps to end its relationship with Unique Performance, the Texas tuner that created and still updates muscle cars for both Shelby and Chip Foose. Unique has apparently been the subject of an increasing number of complaints and lawsuits from folks who have paid for cars and not received them.

Unique's issues with Shelby seem to revolve around the Shelby GT350 SR and GT500 E, which sell for upwards of $100,000 apiece. The Foose vehicle in question is the Foose Stallion. The Foose is produced by two companies, Unique and Tecstar, so it's possible that Tecstar could continue to produce it without Unique. Chip Foose's licensing arm is still working with Unique and their customers to resolve complaints.

Round 2: Unique Performance fires back at Shelby
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/23/round-2-unique-performance-fires-back-at-shelby/

We reported earlier that Shelby was severing ties with Unique Performance, builder of the Shelby GT350 SR and GT500 E continuation series Mustangs. Shelby claims that some customers who put down deposits up to two years ago have not received their cars. Unique has taken approximately $7 million in deposits and has around 50 to 60 orders that they have yet to complete. At least ten customers have also filed suit against Unique, and several of those have also included Shelby Automobiles in their suits as well. Carroll decided that enough was enough and announced he would no longer do business with the Dallas-based company.

Now Doug Hasty, CEO of Unique Performance has fired back. He claims that the production delays were due to faulty engines provided by Shelby. "Twenty-eight of the 42 Shelby Super Snakes produced prior to August 2006 experienced engine issues that led to overheating and/or mechanical failure," said Hasty. "Resources required for addressing the Shelby engine issues led to production delays to all vintage models." Carroll Shelby denies that Unique had informed him of engine problems and says that he only recently learned of the issue a few weeks ago. He also stated that the engine problems have nothing to do with Unique's delayed production of cars.

Hasty claims that the engine issues have been resolved and that the deposit money taken from customers is being used to complete the cars on order. Thirteen cars are scheduled for delivery by the end of this year. As for the ten law suits against Unique Performance, Hasty says that three have already been settled and that the others are being addressed.

 

I am glad I don't have a deposit sitting over there.

 

Thats for sure. Sounds like they have very little operating funds and are using current deposits to build cars ordered many months before.

 

Guess they don't know about business loans...or they just can't get one?

 

Not hardly. These aren't even close to being kit cars. Nothing more than a high end restoration. Washing titles and changing VINs is a new accusation against them. As far as I knew, the original VINs were being left in place, and there was an ADDITION of a Shelby VIN type plate. I say type, as it wasn't a federal VIN, just a plate serializing the cars as being produced under Shelby's authorization.

 

Since these cars are being rebuilt from the ground up, I don't see where owners would care much about salvage titles, VINs, etc. as long as they were legal and they really owned the car. Maybe something else is the focus. Possibly stolen cars/VINs or maybe just mainly fraud in terms of not delivering what is promised?

 

I know they are not in the same category as a fiberglass body cobra, but the quality you were getting was not worthy of a $150-200k car. This came from someone who knows cars and exotics well, and had first hand experience with Unique. That being said, I did enjoy my ferrarichat tour years back, and other than that horrible Eleanor hood, made a nice "looking" product.

 

I didn't use UP to build my Eleanor but purchased many parts from them and had a great experience. I bet it's a simple misunderstanding or incorrect procedure they are following for certain shells they are buying (buying a wrecked shell and completely rebuilding it and giving it a fresh title?).

I have always heard it takes them awhile but that's the case with every restoration shop. It took me two years to complete my Eleanor. I have another car being hot rodded and it's been there two years as well.

I miss the ol' gal but I'm replacing her with a 355 shortly.

Steve
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Anytime you scratch VIN's or serial #'s off anything you will automatically make yourself look suspecious on some level. Why not just leave the VIN #'s on and add one next to it or whatever?

One question, if the origional VIN #'s were still on the car would these allogations ever have come up?

 

Is the Mustang pictured the original one from the movie?

 

Something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay. In this case, many people thought it was.

 

No. That picture above is an Eleanor clone that I had built by East Coast Jesse (not James). It is an incredible car. Unfortunately, I sold it when I learned my wife (27 at the time) had cancer. I sold off all my toys to make sure she had the best care money could buy. Three years later, she is doing great (had a second bout but doing very well).

If anyone is interested in seeing more pics, the current owner has an incredible site: www.ramspeed.nl

He is from the Netherlands and has done an amazing job promoting the car. It was featured in a Meguires ad, is sponsored by Pioneer and has had numerous television shows feature the car.

Pardon me while I go cry in the corner.

On the positive side, I am waiting for the PPI results for a potential 355. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Steve