I received an alert today from a Canadian replicar enthusiast today about this alleged Lamborghini Countach replica maker; he urged me to check out their website, which I promptly did.
You gotta check it out (the hotlink above opens into a new, "temporary" window), if only so you'll appreciate every website you ever visit in the future.
But I was immediately alerted to their claim that reads "15 Years Experience in the Industry." You see, I've been reporting on and publishing about kit cars since the early 1980s... and I've never heard of this operation, and they certainly have never contacted us or sent us any product literature. So, curious, I dialed the two phone numbers listed on the site (i.e., 905-276-7059 and 905-403-0744). In each instance I got a phone company recording saying "We're sorry, you have reached a number which has been disconnected, or is no longer in service." Stay tuned (below) for further developments.
The same sharp-eyed kit car aficionado updated our file on The Fibreglass Shop today. Here's the text from a web page put up by an alleged victim of TFS:
"To anyone who will help us locate and prosecute, David Barnard, owner of The Fibre Glass Shop, last known location Mississauga Ontario, Canada. He might have moved to British Columbia, Canada. David Barnard is in his late 30s or early 40s.
History: We met David Barnard in Mississauga in the summer of 1998. He told us that he was an experienced builder of kit cars, and that he could build a Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition. He showed us pictures of a Lamborghini Countach that he said that he had built (the pictures below). We agreed that he would build the car for us. the agreement was that we would put a $ 5,000 deposit and then pay the balance when the car was complete.
However 6 weeks later, he told us he needed more money to complete the car, so we gave him more, this happened a couple of more times. All of a sudden it was May 1999 and we had given him $15.000. One day in May I called him, and the phone was disconnected; we went to his new location in. He had closed shop and was nowhere to be found.
Since then I have not heard from or seen him, or our car that he was building for us or our money. I have later learned that he might have moved to British Columbia. He is probably still trying to sell kits of the Lambo or he was also trying to sell kits for a Ferrari 308 and Ferrari 355 convertible. Please call us today if you have seen or heard from him, or if he is trying to sell fiberglass kits anywhere in north America. We are willing to pay up to a $1,500 reward to anyone who helps us locate him. This guy is a big-time scam artist, and I can't wait to get my hands on him. Thanks for helping us making our marketplace a safer one where we can trust the people and the business, and we can get rid of scumbags like David Barnard. Marcus"
When I read that, the lights started coming on. So David Barnard is the proprietor; we've received a number of complaints about Mr. Barnard over the past decade or so. Sigh.
Editorial commentary: What can I say? We've been publishing our "Complete Guide to Specialty Cars" since 1983, replete with truckloads of information about who the good guys in the replicar industry are and who folks should be wary of; we've been publishing our kit-car consumer guidelines ("The Ten Golden Rules for Selecting and Purchasing a Specialty Car") since 1985, and we've featured our Consumer Alert page here on kitcar.com for everyone to see since 1995. And folks keep right on merrily leaping into the water without first investing two cents or two minutes to check for alligators. Sigh.
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