[Paul A]

I sold ERA 044 to a gentleman who owned Carson Toyota, in Carson, CA. He drove it for a few months and then flipped it. Tony S lived in Marina Del Ray and ran with the LA heavy hitter crowd and got talking with Billy Idol and ended up selling it. Billy picked up the car from Tony's dealership and drove it up to his place in Hollywood.
Billy never got to his home, smoke starting coming out of the rearend & trunk, so he took it to a shop in Hollywood who stored Billy's collections of motorcycles. Billy called Tony S and Tony referred Billy to call me to help do a root cause analysis for the smoke.
I was on a speaker phone with Billy & the shop owner and I asking them a number of questions of what to feel and where to look. I was at a loss and then I finally asked them what position is the emergency brake handle in? Is it horizontal or point towards the sun? They said it was pointing towards the sun. The whole shop broke up in laughter and the employees were calling Billy various names that started with a D.
I told him to put it down and take if for a 15-20 ride and see if it still smokes and call me back with the results. It didn't smoke anymore.
Even thou I didn't display the ERA044 S/N on the car, when I registered the car with the California DMV, the CHP installed the state's vin # where I asked them to put it, in the trunk, drivers side on a horizontal steel cross brace just behind the bulkhead between the two vertical rollbar hoops. It was registered as a Specialty Constructed Vehicle.