Calling the integrity of Bill Connelly and Upstate Super Replicars into question

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by RACER X #99

Bill, You should never have gotten involved with that car.

If I only had that advice before the fact . You need to work on your timing there Roger


Bill S.

[Wayne Maybury]

Lets assume for a minute that Bill S. is full of crap and much of this mess is his own doing. If the seller is a straight shooter and sold exactly what he said he was selling, then why doesn't he come forth and set the record straight. I know that if I was in this position and I felt that the facts were not being fairly presented, I sure would want to clear up the record.

In this case, Bill S. states that he has tried several different ways to contact the seller but to no avail. Really strange that the seller doesn't respond.

Just my 2 cents worth,
Wayne

[John McMahon]

Let me chime in for many of the respondents here.....

Bill got involved in selling this car at my behest. I had been at Connelly's shop to have him finish off my 289FIA last June (2005). As I dropped my Cobra off, Bill C. asked me to find him a buyer, I called Bill S. and took the Mustang racer to him in my trailer. Bill S. worked out the details with Bill C while I was in transport about his fee and started to set up the website to sell the car. He quickly found a buyer within a few weeks.


(not to detract from Bill’s issues here, but here is some more background, this is the first I am speaking of this on CC)...

I had no time to finish my Cobra, so I took it to Connelly since he is a former Contemporary dealer and has Wayne from Contemporary working in his shop. Who better to work on a Contemporary than him!

I had Connelly work on my Cobra with a $1500 stop gap, I had no more money to spend than that, he agreed to work on it at his normal $40/hour rate and let me know when the money ran out.

I have emails confirming he knew what my stop point was and we also discussed by phone. I went so far as too tape a list of prioritized work items to complete on the car in the order of critical need (i.e - do these until the money runs out and do not proceed until we discuss) on the windshield and in big bold letters…I’d like to set a spending cap of $1500 and see what can be completed for that amount.

He never did notify me and when he finished, told me I owed him an ADDITIONAL $4800!!!! This was money that I did not have to spend in the first place, but I had to pay him the money to get my car back.

I considered Bill Connelly a friend, I had known him and raced with him for years and he screwed me….screwed me good. My wedding fund took a big hit in order to pay him off. Not sure if he still has his business up and running, but I do know he is active on the Corvette Forums after buying himself a C6 Z06. I can only guess where some of that money came from.

So, let it be known that this is not the first time this has happened. I am sorry I doubted Tom Wells when he brought up the issue he had with the uprights he bought from Connelly last year.

Friendships end all the time, but you don’t screw a friend in the process. I am sorry that Bill S. got caught in the middle of this.

[RedBarchetta]

Nothing a well swung Louisville Slugger couldn't handle. You guys need to man up and perhaps pay this Bill C. character a visit, huh? Aggh, don't bother....just pay his C6 Z06 a visit instead.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Johnny Mac;

With freinds like that, you can't afford to have too many enemies!!!!!!

Sorry to hear about your deal with Bill C., that sure ain't no way to do business with anyone, much less a freind...............

A good ole fashion country a$$whipping would be in order after that episode...........

David

[HI Cobra]

So much for integrity Sad testimony.

[John McMahon]

I have tried to put this behind me as a 'Lesson Learned'. I was going to go to small claims court in his town, but its 200 miles away.

God knows how I'll react if I ever see him at Watkins Glen again.

[ROUSHAC]

I guess we now know why Bill C. didn't share his view of the subject. Very sad situations for Mark, Bill, John, and Tom.

Sounds like a h*lluva standup guy to have for a "friend"!

After hearing basically the same story from well respected members, I suspect that more than a few of us will give him a piece of our thoughts on the subject (or perhaps a bit more) if/when we meet him.

Dave

[RACER X #99]

I knew we were in trouble with Bill when 10 of us sat down for dinner at the Seneca Lodge and the first thing out of Bill's wifes mouth was "seperate checks"

[Tom Wells]

As a further note to the above warnings, be aware Connelly uses eBay to sell stuff under the username "64coupe".

Here's what's on the site as of this evening:

http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQf...QQsassZ64coupe

Just in case anyone might be tempted to bid

Tom

[Mark Husar]

Who is Bill.C and what is his history in the Cobra world? I have heard of him but don't know anything about him. He must have some history. I believe I have one of his late 90s cars.
Thanks,

mark

[John McMahon]

Bill was a dealer for Contemporary when Peter Bayer owned the company, how far back, I don't know.

When Bayer decided to sell the rights to the Contemporary Daytona Coupe, Bill bought it. I think this happened around 1996 - 1997.

That being said, up to this point, he seemed OK, although priced a little high especially after the introduction of the Brock Coupe from SPF, which I see as his direct competitor.

Unforunately, I was blind sided with what occurred to me and the completion of my Cobra and needless to say, my friendship with him has ended and I am out over $4500.

In regards to mrmustang, he is now stuck in the middle of Connelly and the buyer of his race car, taking the heat for how Connelly misrepresented the car in the eyes of the purchaser.

End Result? mrmustang may not be able to repair his friendship with the purchaser due to the misrepresentation of the car from Connelly. He did not receive one skinny dime for his efforts on selling this car for Connelly.

My personal feelings are, the purchaser should have gone over this car stem to stern at the time of purchase and raised any red flags then. It could have avoided all of this.

It doesn't make it right in the end that he did not get what he paid for from Connelly, but mrmustang is in no way responsible for this change of events IMHO.

Last I heard, Connelly was looking for a buyer for his Daytona Coupe business.