355 Challenge STOLEN in New Hampshire!

That's awful. Good luck with getting it tracked down. What were the circumstances surrounding the theft?

 

My good friend Andy Sanborn just had his 1995 355 Challenge STOLEN in New Hampshire, NH plate "Anglina".

More details to follow, but please keep your eyes open! It is a Tommy Hilfiger team car (one of three), pics below. It has an open exhaust and is very loud. Can't imagine what someone is going to do with it, other than take it for a joy ride. If they try to part it out, please let me know (mysteriously low prices on 355 parts, especially Challenge parts). Alas, the third possibility is that it's in a shipping container going to Latin America or the Middle East or Eastern Europe. Damn.

Thanks.

--Dennis
BigHeadDennis@earthlink.net
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My good friend Andy Sanborn just had his 1995 355 Challenge STOLEN in New Hampshire, NH plate "Anglina".

More details to follow, but please keep your eyes open! It is a Tommy Hilfiger team car (one of three), pics below. It has an open exhaust and is very loud. Can't imagine what someone is going to do with it, other than take it for a joy ride. If they try to part it out, please let me know (mysteriously low prices on 355 parts, especially Challenge parts). Alas, the third possibility is that it's in a shipping container going to Latin America or the Middle East or Eastern Europe. Damn.

Thanks.

--Dennis
BigHeadDennis@earthlink.net
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Threads merged.

 

Andy, its always a drag to have ANYTHING taken, but worse when the possession is prized. I hope you get it back safely and quickly.
I think Vik is correct, in that if you give more info, you will get better help here.
Anyway, best of luck with recovery.

 

That's a shame. Hope they catch who did it.

 

Serial number...!!!

 

104321, 104377 or 104490...? i'm thinking 104321...

 

I will keep my eyes open. Eventually they all cross my desk I guess.
Thinking I sold that car through Mike in TN.

 

Best wishes for the car's complete recovery, Andy.

 

Andy,

Here's to hoping you get the 355 Challenge back very soon.

Andrew

 

I feel just sick about that happening to you. I hope you have the best of luck in getting it back unharmed. I feel for you. Keep us posted.

Jim

 

Any more details on the circumstances of the theft?

 

Sorry to hear that, hope you can recover the car in one piece. My thought is that it was targeted by pro's, can't imagine that locals in a little town in N.H. would jack a high profile car like that. I used to live near Freeport ME. and we didn't lock anything. Hope for the best , but get your insurance policy out.

 

Andy,
If anybody tries selling parts or is looking for parts for your car to change it you know they'll eventually come to me and I'll let you know. Good luck on a speedy recovery.
Michael

 

So how about that serial number...?

 

There's only three with that TH paint job, Carby..........I toyed with buying the one in FCA Newsletter last year....

It would match my wardrobe!

I think the speculation on pros is the most likely. There's a wreck job somewhere, that needed parts....... d@mn shame......that VIN plate will wind up in the dumpster.

 

We can rule out that guy in West Chicago......

 

Armchair racer here, but I'm gonna bet some bonehead stole it and this is not a pro/going to Eastern Europe type of job. 355 Challenges are not that expensive. Sure, if you stole it it the risk might be worth the $60G or so that you "saved." But what are the chances that someone sitting in Serbia with 60,000 USD in their pocket is going to steal a high profile car from off the beaten path. It just doesn't make sense. Cars that go into containers are 1) either mega-expensive (think 250GTO) or expensive but low-profile (think new MB SL65) and 2) generally near a major port.

It makes no sense to steal a car from the middle of nowhere (not a bad place to be IMO), that is not all that expensive, but attracts attention like no other between its pedigree and over the top paint job. This leads me to believe whoever stole it is an absolute dumbass, and generally speaking, you have to at least have an ounce of brains to run an international auto-theft syndicate.

My guess is some quasi-inbred is driving it around right now, and it's within 50 miles of where it was stolen from.

 

Good luck Andy. Saw your car at NHIS this spring when One Lap was there.

 

I hope you get it back without a scratch and no additional miles....

I'll keep watching for it.

 

UPDATE: WBZ Channel 4 news in Boston ran a piece on the stolen 355 Challenge tonight, at the beginning of the 11 pm newscast (must have been a *really* slow news day). PLEASE do keep your eyes open - you never know where or when it might turn up!

http://cbs4boston.com/topstories/local_story_305123235.html
Click on the video, and it'll play as a Macromedia .flv file....

If you want a 26 meg download of it as a mpg4 file:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E5SPVAQG

They interviewed Natalia from Ferrari Maserati of New England, and some giant blowhard added some theories about what might have happened to the car. Still, they have a bit of a 430 being started up and sounding cool. The hope is that getting more publicity on this topic will inspire the thief to realize that this car is too hot to do anything with it, and instead just wipe it down and leave it in a parking lot.

And it made the Boston Globe today too, with a link to FChat even!

vty,

--Dennis

 

Damn that really sucks, I hope you get it back soon.


This kind of reminds me of another rare car that was stolen 10 years ago & still hasn't been recovered, most likely overseas somewhereor stripped for parts.

Norwood's $500,000 Porsche creation made its appearance in 1995 - the racer DOOM. It was a supercar with ultra-high-tech fabrication utilizing components, of Indy cars and other radical cars put to use in a new way. The 3.6 supercharged engine designed to last 24 minutes did the job beating every competitor. The record remains unbroken. DOOM, named after the biggest selling computer game of all time that helped to finance it, disappeared on July 31, 1995 stolen from outside Norwood Autocraft fabricating shop in Dallas, Texas and has not been seen since.
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This is such a pain. Very sorry to hear about this.

Any idea if that F50 stolen form Algar was ever recovered?