Quite often there is a dark side to the collector classic car world. Recently, Unque Performance out of Texas, had been producing replicas for Chip Foose and Carroll Shelby. They were producing Mustangs for Shelby and ’69 Cameros and ’70 Challengers. It seems like there is a rip in the fabric. Some thoughts of trouble after Shelby’s licensing branch announced it’s taking steps to sever their relationship after numerous complaints and several lawsuits filed by customers who paid for various ”Continuation” Shelby’s and have yet to receive them. We are talking a $200,000 down-stroke here.
Then last month the parts arm of Unique, called PerformancePartz.com, was put up for auction with a high bid of $3,000,000. Which did not meet the reserve, whatever that might have been. Even that auction was met with some disapproval by the bidders and watchers.
Now come the police of Farmers Branch, Texas. They raided Unique Performance a couple of days ago and busted them for title washing. None of the cars had the correct Vehicle Identification Number and that was on 64 cars.
I have seen many dealers, private people and auctioneers not use a level playing field. It really is a case of buyer/seller beware. No offense to the auction listed below, but there are two things I learned in this business:
1. Never buy a car in Texas
2. Never buy a car in Texas
And that is no joke….
