Unique Performance is gone

[RedEsprit]

It would seem Shelby is getting a little taste of his own medicine on this one. Imagine, snarfing the name of Eleanor from a Hollywood movie. Whodathunkit.

[marcocsx3121]

Those cars were phony pieces of crap, and as someone pointed out, replicas of nothing. Maybe there is justice in this world after all.

[hey,littlecobra]

phony pieces of crap maybe, but how sad for the stupid....er ignorant folks that laid out 100K- 200K for these cars. They are being taken by owners to several different mechanics around DFW to see if they can be finished.
A fool and his money are soon departed.
I don't know of anyone personally that bought one, tho.


"Does anyone know if delivery times on the CSX Cobra's have smoothed out now that the '07 GT500's are being churned out on a regular schedule ?"

John, the gt500's are not related to the CSX cobra's in ANY WAY. (other than the little cobra on the side of the 500). And..... you pay a little extra to get Shelby to sign stuff.
also, as i've read here, the CSX delivery times have improved, re: Amy's posts. The gt500's come out of Michigan, and are running about 2-3 months after order. Depending on dealer, etc.
Kristen

[kris-kincaid]

I think you can get a new CSX4000 roller right now with no waiting. They've refined the build process and things are really moving now.

[1985 CCX]

Looks like CSX4000 cars are listed everywhere and are priced around 50k for a painted glass roller.

[JBo]

A bit off track, but not much:
Police seize refurbished Shelby Mustangs

Kathy Jackson
Automotive News
November 12, 2007 - 12:01 am ET



Police in a Dallas suburb have seized 61 cars from Unique Performance Inc., a company that refurbishes and sells 1960s Shelby Mustangs.

Each of the 58 Mustangs and three Chevrolet Camaros that were confiscated last week had fictitious or altered vehicle identification numbers, said Chad Taylor, spokesman for the Farmers Branch, Texas, police department.

Taylor said the numbers apparently were changed because the frames used on the refurbished vehicles had salvage titles.

"The investigation was based on a complaint from a customer who had his car in for repair," Taylor said.

Unique CEO Douglas Hasty did not return calls or reply to an e-mail from Automotive News.

The investigation began in October, shortly before Carroll Shelby Licensing Inc. said it was canceling a licensing agreement with Unique. Shelby says Unique has taken at least $7 million in deposits from customers but has not delivered the cars. The cars range in price from just under $100,000 to more than $200,000.

At least 10 customers have sued Unique Performance. Shelby Automobiles, headed by the 84-year-old sports car hero, also has been named as a defendant in lawsuits. The suits allege that cars either have not been delivered or that consumers have received defective cars. Unique also manufactures vehicles designed by car customizer Chip Foose, including a reproduction 1969 Camaro.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by Igofastr

This forum gets more fun every day. Where do I donate, this entertainment is too good to be free. Yes, I'm serious.

There is usually an annual donation to clubcobra. Anyone who has donated has a trophy next to their name...

[turnpike boy]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

There is usually an annual donation to clubcobra. Anyone who has donated has a trophy next to their name...

HEY!!! You're cuttin' into my revenue stream.....go find your own.

[1985 CCX]

Unique Performance, feel bad for those guys who were customers. It is a crazy thing, how can people send so much $$$ at any company up front is beyond me. Guess it is a learning experience for those who can shell out the dough.

I will be sending my annual donation January 2008, I encourage all to do what they can since this website is a very important tool and great conversation.

[Archrms]

Did Unique Performance deliver any completed cars, or were they all talk?

[Wammy]

Believe the Orange County Chopper guys got their cars! They always had a good car show, will be missed...

James

[STCinc]

http://www.uniqueperformance.com/default.aspx

[1ntCobra]

I'm not sure that the government has done a service to the customers of Unique Performance here. The concern seemed to be with removing the old serial numbers and using new ones in possibly misrepresenting the cars being sold. But the customers here all knew that they were buying 1960s era mustangs being rebuilt into genuine, but not original shelby mustangs. Would the customer care if the car had perhaps been flood damaged, if the car is completely stripped down to the body, repainted, rebuilt, etc.

If you think about what Shelby did in the 1960s, he put his own serial number plate on top of the ford number. I guess the difference here is that Unique tried to completely remove the ford number before putting on their plate. Well I guess, that was silly since even with original Shelby mustangs, the original ford number can be used to authenticate the car.

I'm not trying to say that Unique was necessarily running a business properly with the big backlog of unfinished cars and apparently using some cheap parts on their rather pricey cars. But having the government come in and confiscate all of the cars because these re-manufactured mustangs are being issued new shelby serial numbers seems wrong, when in fact that is probably the reason why most of their customers were willing to pay the big bucks.

And with all of the cars confiscated, will the government help the customers get their money back from Unique? Or will the government just fine Unique and keep the money?

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

If you think about what Shelby did in the 1960s, he put his own serial number plate on top of the ford number.

In the 60's, Shelby American was classified as an Automotive Manufacturer.
In this century, companies like Unique cannot meet regs and standards to be qualified as such.

[Don]

Police seize cars in investigation
FB: They allege that the manufacturer altered identification numbers
12:00 AM CST on Tuesday, November 6, 2007

By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com
Police have confiscated more than 60 vehicles as part of a criminal investigation into a well-known custom car manufacturer based in Farmers Branch.

No charges have been filed against the owners of Unique Performance, but police allege the company has been altering vehicle identification numbers on customized cars that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Police say the company uses frames from limited-edition vehicles – mostly Mustangs from the 1960s – to build its custom versions. But the titles on many of those frames have been deemed "salvage," meaning the car has been declared a total loss, police Cpl. Chad Taylor said.

That categorization alone severely lowers the value of the vehicle, Cpl. Taylor said. Police allege that in order to hide the salvage status, the company swapped VINs from similar model cars that didn't have salvage titles.

"What we believe they're doing is purchasing a Mustang of the same year, buying Mustangs around the same year that don't have salvage titles" and replacing the VINs on the cars that had salvage titles, Cpl. Taylor said.

Officials with Unique Performance could not be reached for comment Monday night.

According to the company's Web site, Unique Performance "builds small volumes of handcrafted, limited production vehicles ranging from vintage Shelbys and Camaros to a custom version of the current Ford Mustang."

Police confiscated 61 vehicles from two Unique Performance facilities in Farmers Branch, two in Dallas and one in Grayson County, Cpl. Taylor said. The vehicles are being kept at a storage facility in Carrollton, he said.

Cpl. Taylor said charges are likely, though the investigation is still in the early stages.

"We don't have any charges on anybody as of yet just because the vast amount of evidence we have," Cpl. Taylor said. "Pretty much time is on our side now. We believe we have most or all of the cars. We can kind of sit back and look at what we have."

Charges against the company could include placement of serial number with intent to change identity, a third-degree felony, he said.

[cosbytnkid]

Originally Posted by STCinc

http://www.uniqueperformance.com/default.aspx

Well well well, I've had Unique Perfromance's website bookmarked for quite awhile. I wondered if something was up when one of their models I looked at had jumped up about $10,000.00 with no changes that I could see. Just now I went to their website and guess what? It's gone! This doesn't look too good for the boys out in Farmers Branch, TX.

[mpanten]

This is a bit disturbing to say the least. I always watch the car shows and Unique has been the feature on many of them. Sounds like a lot of people jumped on their bandwagon without a whole lot of investigation. This is going to damage a lot of peoples reputations. I really really feel for the people who got screwed on this deal. Im sure not all of them can just absorb the loss and write another check.

[CSX 4039]

I've never followed Mustang's much, nor movies. How is it that the Mustang experts didn't know that there was no such thing as a "Shelby Eleanor", or whatever, before the movie? Seems the faithful would have cried, "BS" pretty quickly, instead of jumping on the Eleanor (even in the Registry) bandwagon.
Confused.

[Tim Brewer]

Cpl. Taylor is barking up the wrong tree alltogether. He is so off base it's not even funny. It makes no difference weither those frames or cars were deemed "salvaged" or not when they are rebuilt from the ground up. This man needs to be educated, BIG TIME.

[Excaliber]

I bought a fairly new Dodge, salvage title, repaired it and sold it to a friend, at a nice price because it DID have a salvage title. I had to pay big bucks to have the car inspected by a special State licensed inspector to get it approved for registration. He FORCED me to retain the word 'salvage' on the title, probably related to this idiot Cpl. Taylor. Now come on, I did a really really good job, so why do I have to stick with a salvage title? Why can't I be allowed to 'hide that nasty little salvage detail' from a prospective buyer? That stinkin' salvage title reduced the value of the car by 50%. Dang it, I should have just copied over the vin and not told anybody so I could make more bucks.

Yeah, thats the way it should work, right Tim?

Or are you suggesting that Unique and Foose and other 'really good' builders are 'special' and above the law? Heck I want to be above the law, where do I sign up?