Latest on Unique Performance Cars

[mherman2]

Well, the story continues. I do not have a pending suit so I can talk about this. The good news is all of the guys who did not get the cars have gotten together over email and have been talking to each other helping each other out.

Here is the latest. There are about 60+ cars that are unfinished frames, in my case, an actual completed supersnake convertible body just left unpainted. See pictures on link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.her...14872681900098

The bankruptcy court has come back to the people who did not get their cars and has said that for $8500 you can buy your body from the bankruptcy court.

Shelby has told us that we can have the cars built by another builder and if built to Shelby Specs, they will be licensed as a Shelby Continuation Vehicle.

I have asked around and you can build these cars for about $100k in parts and labor. Based on the recent auctions they are fetching $150k+ despite Unique's LARGE issues.

My thought was that if I do have the car built by a reputable builder, I may have something of value and fun toy that is licensed by Shelby.

The other side of the coin is to run for the hills and write it all off as a total loss.


Interested to hear peoples thoughts.

[J.Bailey]

I would never have bought one of those frauds to begin with. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings but let me tell you a story that hurt mine. I was negotiating to buy a really nice Cobra replica. I was talking to a Shelby friend of mine and he calmly states: "Hey, Joe, after you buy that fake Cobra for yourself let me sell you a fake diamond (zirconium) for your real wife." Heck, the more I thought about it the more right my buddy became. In other words buy a real Shelby, real diamond, real painting, etc. I hope that I didn't hurt your feelings as I'm not trying to. I just hope that I'm giving you good, sound investment advice. Also, I would seriously question that "$150,000 figure!!!

[mherman2]

j, you are not gonna hurt my feelings, I asked for feedback as I respect peoples opinions on this forum good or bad.

The $150k number was reached exceeded two times recently. Only considering this as a way to recoup some money to buy a 69 Grabber Orange GT500 convertible.

[tesgt350]

Cut & Run or Continue???? Tough question. It all depends on how much you have invested? How bad do you want the Car? The Photo shows it as just a Shell, will you get the rest of the Car to finish it? If not, how much will you have invested totally? Do you think you would be able to sell it later for at least your invested amount?

If you decide to continue.......you might try calling Mustangs Unlimited to finish it for you.

David.

[shelby367]

I am by no means an expert but my opinion is by the time you get your car finished and to the auction block the pool of people willing to pay $150k for these cars will have dried up. On the flip side I have been wrong more times than I can count.
Mike

[Early67]

Sure is a lot of plastic filler on a car that would be presented as completely new. I'd pass on that.

[Charley]

I thought you had filed suit ? Why the court gets 8500.00 for something you already own is hard to understand but I would spend the 8500.00, get it home and decide from there.

[Coralsnake]

Mike,

Thanks for keeping us updated. This is a disaster anyway you slice it.

I am not trying to rip Shelby here, but what is the "license" worth? If he is going to license anything, built by anyone, that makes it pretty much worthless in my opinion. I guess more than anything, I am very disapointed in the way CS has let his legacy be degraded by this type of stuff, but he has the right to do as he pleases....

There is no shortage of guys who will slap this thing back together and charge you even more. I say give it up. The good news is you now have a PHD in scams.

Maybe you can buy the chassis back and make some money off it? I think you will be hard to pressed to make anything near $150k after this debacle.

Just curious, have you heard what Foose is doing for his customers?

[rshelby]

Originally Posted by Charley

I would spend the 8500.00, get it home and decide from there.

I agree with Charley.
Randall

[sharpe427]

Originally Posted by Charley

I thought you had filed suit ? Why the court gets 8500.00 for something you already own is hard to understand but I would spend the 8500.00, get it home and decide from there.

Because he doesn't OWN it until UP delivered it to him. His deposit/advance monies were just that deposits on a vehicle yet to be manufactured. The court has x number of creditors owed $ and y number of assets to satisfy those debts. Court assigns prices to the assets to (hopefully) recover the monies owed to the creditors and than tries to sell them to saisfy the debts. Basically, his original money is gone; thats why the local PD and DA are talking fraud thru deception
(I took your $ to build a car I don't have with parts I don't own).
As for this car...my advice is walk away and chalk it up to experience. One saving grace may be if the car has a desirable VIN (very doubtful) that would justify fininshing her to oe and selling. I think if you buy the car ($8500) and deliver it for 'finishing to Shelby specs' you are going to be a long way upside down. Also take into account the narratives about how work was being done at Unique Performance...a lot of what they did do to this shell may very well have to be redone...or worse may make the car unsuitable for a starting point.
Just keep in mind you aren't married to it!
Whatever you decide (Buy a real Shelby), Good luck and Godspeed....

[SFM6S006]

I would think that this car would sell for much more on Ebay, especially with the CS promise to license the car if done correctly. I would buy the car and take it from there.

[shelbnut]

Will the car have a legit Vin # and title? If you could do the majority of the work yourself I get it back, finish and enjoy it as a retromod. I don't see you ever recovering your total lo$$ in the near future with or without $helby's continuation license.
Another option is to get the car back and sue CS for the additional expense to complete it per the original specs. After all, his name being attached is a primary reason for such a expensive purchase.
I would also question his quote "if built to Shelby Specs". Are his specs the same, better or worse than UP's?

[mherman2]

Thanks for the input everyone. $8500 isn't gonna kill me. I just may buy the shell since I have a free place to store it in Dallas for free. If some miracle happens (like Shelby Licensing finishing the cars for us) then I still have it. I also think I can get $8500 for the shell as is.

Other option is to partner with a builder and split any profits on the car should I find someone to agree to that. After thinking about, I'm not going solo on this, buying the shell will be ok.

I also found out somene filed suit to stop them from trying to sell the shells back to us. Claiming the cars were paid for and not communty property of the bankruptcy claims but our property since we paid for them. we shall see.

I'm out as much money as a concours correct KR Convert would sell today and I got off lightly. Some guys bought 2-3 cars.

Mike

[vernonestes]

Originally Posted by shelbnut

Another option is to get the car back and sue CS for the additional expense to complete it per the original specs. After all, his name being attached is a primary reason for such a expensive purchase.

I wouldnt say that filing suit against shelby would be the appropriate action as shelby was the one who revoked their agreement to use his name after he saw the poor craftmanship and incredibly long waiting list for cars that were never to be delivered.
I think his actions are enough to clear his name as he made an effort to prevent the further screwing of other enthusiasts.
Just my 2 cents.....

BEst Regards,
Vern

[tesgt350]

Originally Posted by vernonestes

I wouldnt say that filing suit against shelby would be the appropriate action as shelby was the one who revoked their agreement to use his name after he saw the poor craftmanship and incredibly long waiting list for cars that were never to be delivered.
I think his actions are enough to clear his name as he made an effort to prevent the further screwing of other enthusiasts.
Just my 2 cents.....

BEst Regards,
Vern

I totally agree with this.
David.

[mherman2]

Originally Posted by tesgt350

I totally agree with this.
David.

Vern and Testgt350:

No one escaped this unscathed, everyone had some involvement. Send me a PM if you want to know more.

Mike

[ChiCobra]

Having gone through many sleepless night with the start up of Shelby's 2003 adventure into the 4000 series Cobras, I would be very careful about spending $150,000 with another 'authorized' builder of Shelby cars. View it like the stock market, only spend it if you can afford to loose it all.
For this amount of money, there are so many existing Shelby's you can buy I would focus my efforts in this direction. Good luck

[crzy4shelbys]

Mike,

I personally do not car for the Eleanor cars, but that's just my opinion... if we all liked the same things, the world would be a pretty boring place. I think it's horrible what happened to you and the other people that got screwed. My honest opinion is that you could buy that shell and flip it and make a couple grand, given the fact that Shelby's agreed to license it (although I agree with all of Pete's points on that, all that matters to your decision is that CS will license it). If you had a line on a painter, you could put a quick paint job on it and probably make even more (a shop would probably be cost prohibitive). Ultimately, though, I think you're the only one who has all the information that you need to decide what you want to do. I agree with those opinions above that state that you may not be able to get the $50K out of it. Prices may go soft as the general public becomes more familiar with the Unique story. I think a lot of people are still unaware that they've gone belly up. Additionally, as we all know, builds have a way of blowing budgets... almost every time. So, is it worth it to become emotionally invested in something that has a lot of bad memories and shattered expectations for a quick flip of a couple grand or at best, a long lead time for $20K-$50K? That's something only you can answer, knowing how attached to the car you were and what your financial situation is. Personally, I'd do the quick flip (plus a paint job, just because I know a phenominal painter who works pretty affordably), but I don't care for the car, and I'm not as well off as you are so it wouldn't drain me emotionally and I could use the money to put towards my future Shelby fund.

Whatever you decide, I hope it works out well for you.

Josh