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to search this page RAPIDLY:
Listen VERY CAREFULLY

If you're using Internet Explorer web browser, all you do is hold down your CONTROL key and type "F" (for "FIND"); in the little "find" box that pops up type in the word or company name you're searching for... for example, if you're looking for any feedback on a firm called "Yabba Dabba Exoticars," then type in yabba; if it's here, the page will immediately scroll to the first instance of the word yabba. To find the next instance of yabba, hold your ALT key and hit "F" again, and you'll instantly go the the next mention of yabba.

Note: if you're a Macintosh user, the same approach works (using Internet Explorer OR Safari ); just use COMMAND F (instead of CONTROL F ) for your initial find; then use "OPTION G" (instead of ALT F ) to find again.

And if you're using AOL's browser, well, lotsa luck: this page will no doubt be weeks out of date. Don't blame us, blame AOL.

"Build Your Own From Scratch"
READ AND HEED

We've received numerous phone calls and emails over the past few months regarding magazine ads for "build-it-yourself" replicar books and "build-it-yourself" replicar plans & blueprints, with prices starting at $10 or $15. One emailer asked "Can I trust that this book or these plans will enable me to make a Lamborghini Diablo replica?"

In a phrase: LOTSA LUCK, FELLA. We've seen such ads ourselves many times over the years (remember, the kit car and street rod magazines lunge to accept advertising dollars for anything and from anybody, no questions asked... except 'Do you have our address so you can send us money?'"). In 100% of the cases we've looked into, the advertiser of the book or plans is seeking only to sell you a worthless book (or plans), not to provide you with genuinely usable information.

If you want to build yourself a kit car, then YOU MUST purchase a high-quality kit from a reputable manufacturer. You have no viable, low-cost alternative. Once again, if your gut feeling is "It sounds too good to be true," then dammit, it IS too good to be true.

Hurricane Motorsports
31 January 2011

Today I received a call from Steve Sinnard, who is President of Hurricane. He phoned to inform me that Hurricane is indeed back in business and selling Cobras. Steve further explained that it was an inadvertent oversight that Hurricane’s owner Mike McLaughlin hadn’t returned my phone calls. Steve promised to personally keep me informed on the progress of the firm and of their ongoing engineering and functional improvements in their cars.

24 August 2011

It's now been precisely a year (24 August, 2010) since I left the second of two telephone messages with an employee for (Hurricane owner) Mike McLaughlin to return my call and bring me up to snuff on his firm's apparent re-emergence into the Cobra replica marketplace. I was assured by said employee (Scott somebody) that "Mr. McLaughlin was busy in the shop, but would return my call later." Just so you know, Mr. McLaughlin has still never extended the simple, customary courtesy of returning my telephone calls. Nor am I holding my breath waiting.

Porsche Speedster enthusiasts:
READ AND HEED

If you're considering purchasing a Porsche Speedster replica kit, make sure you do your homework first and purchase your kit from a reputable outfit. That includes such firms as Vintage Speedsters, Intermeccanica and Special Editions. Stay away from the telemarketers/telepredators: telemarketers are the plague of the industry.

If you fall prey to their line "You gotta rush your deposit to us today, to get this wonderful special discount price," then you've got no one to blame but yourself.

Make sure you read and heed Curt Scott's "Predators and Editors" commentary
on the subject of kit car and Cobra replica and streetrod industry telepredators.

Email from a bonehead

On occasion I receive an email missive from some bonehead who subscribes to the Society of Boneheads principle that since email is (nominally) anonymous and... moreover... long distance, why it's de rigeuer to be rude and accusatory.

Here's a representative example. It was sent by anonymous "Jeff"; Jeff's email assaults (sans corrections) are in red text:

email#1 from "Jeff" on 23 May 02:
" Thanks for letting us know that there are unscrupulouis people doing business out there in Kit Car World. But are you any better than those you fault if you don't tell us who this person/comapny is? You give hints, but since I haven't a clue who you mean, your information is useless. If they have truly been convicted, then there should be no problem with telling us who they are. Come on, don't be one of THEM... help US out..... Jeff"

It's clear that "Jeff" never entertained his option of courteously stating 1) which of my commentaries he's referring to, nor 2) to inquire courteously why I might, as he alleges, have declined to identify the subject of said commentary.

Once this hit-and-run anonymous emailer/provocateur was identified for me, I checked our records to compile a roster of every free favor that "Jeff" had done for me in the past. Surprise! Surprise! This marks the very first time we've ever heard from "Jeff"... whence his introduction-of-choice was to lay assault to my character for my not having provided him with sufficient free information to satisfy his appetite. I promptly counseled "Jeff," as I am wont to do, to take a swan dive into Hades.

"Jeff" opted to up-the-ante with the follow-up personal assault:

"I didn't think I attacked you personally, but since you feel that way, thank
you for your response which just re-inforces what I had been told about your
site, that it is a sounding board for you without substance or meaning. Jeff"

"Anonymous Jeff" is deputy sheriff Jeff Popa of Akron, Ohio.
Courtesy and civility are self-evidently NOT criteria for employment in the
Parking Meter Patrol of the Summit County, Ohio Sheriff's Department.

Just about everyone, myself included, responds courteously to a courteous request for a reply or for information. Conversely, most folks, myself definitely included, respond negatively (if at all) to that 1-in-a-thousand bonehead like deputy Popa, who practices the maxim "Kick 'em in the teeth first, then ask for favors."

Urgent "READ THIS!!" if you're an AOL / America OnLine user      
(AOL alert opens in a new, "temporary" window;
just close it to return to this page)

visitation odometer for Consumer Alert page
beginning 30 May 2001

Copyright violators in the kit car industry (24 January '02)

"One Little Guy Lays Siege
to a Big and Shady Operation"

Remote hotlink to Patrick Bedard's June 1995 Car and Driver magazine commentary about
about Curt Scott's relentless exposing of Florida kit car telemarketer's business practices and
product quality. Courtesy of Car and Driver magazine and Bob Putnam at Era Replica Automobiles.

Complaints received about:

Ck3 Design (March '02)

Cobra Int'l/Paul Fisker, Midlands, Ontario, Canada. Folks, the complaints keep rollin' in.(20 Nov. 2002)

Using purloined (i.e., illicitly copied/published) photographs and other graphic images to promote product has long been a scourge and a scandal in the kit car, Cobra replica and streetrod reproduction industries. In one notable instance in the 1980s, a firm in the U.K. (Prova Ltd.) advertised Lamborghini Countach replicas in American kit car magazines (and in our buyers' guides). The cars looked really spiffy in the company’s ads. They should've looked spiffy. You see, it eventually turned out that the photos were of real/original Lamborghini Countaches... a red one and a white one. You see, the firm had rented them from an exotic-car rental agency in London, then took them out for extended photo shoots in the Sussex countryside, to be portrayed as the firm's replicas. What you received for your money was a far cry from what you saw in their ads and brochures. We removed the firm from our guide as soon as we were provided convincing evidence of these tactics. But at least you got something for your money.

With the Internet, the situation is sometimes worse. Some folks who have nothing at all to sell, will copy photos and other graphic images (and even text) from various replicar websites, then employ those purloined images to create their own private and commercial websites, and to post "For Sale" (even on the big 'auction' sites) products they don't possess, much less own or produce. You must ask yourself, if they genuinely possess or produce said motorcar(s), why must they resort to stealing others' photos and then deploying them as representing their own possession or production? And these scofflaws commit these wrongdoings contemptuous of clearly-posted copyright notices and in the teeth of the severe federally-mandated penalties for copyright-infringement.

Now you can check this page for those lawbreakers who copy and use photos (or any other copyrighted materials) from any of the replicar-industry websites on kitcar.com, cobracountry.com and streetrodcountry.com, and especially those lawbreakers who falsely display said photos as representing their own non-existent product.

Each posting here will remain in place for a minimum of 120 days after the pirated images have been removed from the offending website or from the print publications(s) whence they appear.

Mitch Koester
4611 Sandy Park Drive
Memphis, Tennessee 38141
(901) 362-9986

For some time I had posted here a stern commentary that we've experienced instances of Mr. Koester copying and using (Federally copyrighted) text and images from our websites kitcar.com, CobraCountry.com and streetrodcountry.com, on his own commercial website. I have a zero-tolerance policy for other commercial websites copying and using our copyrighted materials. Mr. Koester phoned me today; our conversation was to-the-point but entirely unhostile. Koester's position is that the (Crown Publishing) copyrighted materials most recently displayed on his commercial website were submitted to him by others, and that he had no idea that the materials in question had originated from our sites; he further averred that indeed he has strived to avoid copying anything from our websites since June 2001, when this issue first arose.

I'll accept Mr. Koester's word for all of this, and conclude that the matter is resolved. Mr. Koester and I agreed to establish a de facto 'Hot Line' to promptly contact one another should any copyright concern (or any other issue of potential conflict) arise in the future.

The lawbreakers du jour:

Kris Delong
Grapevine, Texas
(817) 421-3026

Kris Delong is yet another of those boneheads who operates with the delusion that U.S. Federal copyright law doesn't apply to him. You see, we were alerted by one of our readers that Mr. Delong has a Cobra replica advertised on a cars-for-sale website (along with his ads for a CMC Gazelle replica and an MG-TF replica, and perhaps still others); the photos accompanying his ad raised our reader's eyebrows. Mr. Delong describes the Cobra as unfinished, and says it's a Shell Valley Cobra. We checked it out: one of the two photos he displays of a SOLID BLACK Cobra... which is a federally-copyrighted photo of a Lone Star LS427 that Mr. Delong purloined (stole) from CobraCountry; the second photo is my federally-copyrighted photo of B&B Cobra replica... a photo which for several months graced the home page of CobraCountry; you can see it now on B&B's CobraCountry website; that dazzlingly beautiful Cobra was built by and belongs to George Spencer of Altadena, California. It DOES NOT belong to Mr. Delong, and neither does the photo. Moreover, on every page that ever featured that photo on CobraCountry, a full-blown federal copyright notice has continuously accompanied it. Thus, ironically, this bonehead cannot even plead ignorance.

Mr. Delong states in the text of his ad "The picture may not be this car." You mean you're not quite sure if you shot those two photos of two entirely different (and non-Shell Valley) Cobras, Mr. Delong? In any event, Mr. Delong, I don't spend my photography time and travel dollars to provide you with a phony representation of your unfinished Cobra replica. And you'd do well to hone up on the devastation that violating federal copyright law can wreak upon your net worth.

It's an unfortunate fact-of-life that, just as in this case of Mr. Delong's purloining of my copyrighted images, the purloined/ misappropriated photo is more-often-than-not (mis)used to misrepresent something. Sigh.

John Collett
603 Tarvin Rd., McKinney, Texas
toll-free (888) 729-2487
phone (972) 548-1710

John Collett is another of those scofflaws who has curiously concluded that U.S. Federal Copyright Law doesn't apply to him... or else he isn't concerned with that pesky (and federally-mandated) $150,000/per-intentional-violation penalty. So he has smugly and illegally copied the entirety of at least two websites from KitCar.com (those of Exotic Illusions and D&R Replicars) onto his commercial website. Each of those sites on KitCar boldly displays a full-blown, unambiguous federal copyright notice. So Mr. Collett cannot successfully claim in federal court that his flagrant copyright violations (read: illegal copying and use of intellectual and artistic property) were unintentional. So Let's see (we can sidestep actual damages): the 46 purloined images alone that I have counted on Mr. Collett's website x $150,000 = $6,900,000 maximum penalties in federal court.

Equally as distressing as all the above, now--at least on Mr. Collett's website, until I'm compelled to haul him into court--Exotic Illusions and D&R Replicars must now share the spotlight with many of the kit car industry's recognized customer-complaint generators. You know, those firms you find listed at the top of this Consumer Alert page, under the heading "Major complaints received about."

We take no-nonsense steps to ensure that those reputable manufacturers you find on KitCar won't be forced to rub shoulders with industry telemarketers and other questionable outfits. Mr. Collett self-evidently has no such reservations: precisely like the kit car and street rod magazines, for an advertising dollar he'll unflinchingly lead you to swan dive into any number of the industry's dozen-or-so empty pools. All the while he's stealing (federally) copyrighted text, images and computer code from this website. Sigh.

As if all of this isn't a damnable enough, Mr. Collett's counterfeit copy of Exotic Illusions' website includes thoroughly non-functional page links. Sigh. We didn't discover that... it was reported to us by no fewer than three sharp-eyed KitCar visitors.

KitKars.com/Jeff Collison

KitKars.com (no relation whatsoever to this website), run by one Jeff Collison, allegedly at the address of 19601 East Walnut Dr. South, City of Industry, California 91748, with yet another business address (RV rentals) in La Habra, California; The "Hostmaster" is listed as: DataPipe, 80 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, phone: (201) 792-1918; needless to say, I contacted DataPipe re the scenario described below:

One of our readers alerted me to this scenario: the KitKars.com website's home page boasts "We Specialize in building Factory Five Cobras." That same home page displays (at the time of this writing on Thursday, 24 October 2002) a big/beautiful broadside shot of a red & white (presumably Factory Five) Cobra parked alongside a lake. Nice photograph.

It oughta be. I shot that photograph (of a MidStates Cobra) in Ohio in 1991, and it has since that time been Crown's (federally) copyrighted property, covered in various copyrights in both our printed buyers guides and on our CobraCountry website. That photograph was copied illegally from the CobraCountry.com website... from a page that displays a clearly-posted and (trust me) unambiguous federal copyright notice.

If that federal copyright infringement isn't enough to command your attention, there's more: the caption beneath that photograph boasts: "The exquisitely-detailed  red Cobra you see pictured above is my  personal car... I drive it daily." Sigh. Do I discern a blatant falsehood here?

There are other images on Mr. Collison's site similarly copied from CobraCountry, notably a photo of a Unique Motorcars red Cobra burning rubber at a drag strip... again, copied from yet another page that clearly manifests CobraCountry's federal copyright notice.

I phoned Mr. Collison on Thursday, 24 October 2002; I advised said scofflaw that he was illegally using my copyrighted photos on his website... indeed including at the top of his home page... whereupon he first acknowledged that he used that photo "Because it looks just like my (Factory Five) Cobra." When I advised him that nonetheless, it's in flagrant violation of federal copyright law to use (without my permission and without copyright acknowledgement) copyrighted materials, and further, that his claim that "it is his personal car... that he drives daily" is certifiably false, he bristled and proceeded to raise his voice and object, shouting that he didn't deem copying a photo to be a federal case... whereupon I assured him that it is by definition a federal case. He protested angrily "Well then, why don't you file suit against me in federal court," followed up with a shout of "F--- you" and slammed the phone down in my ear.

Sigh. It's was entirely predictable that this copyright violator and falsehood fabricator would opt to display anger and indignation that anyone would dare to challenge his indefensible actions... it's in the DNA of folks who illegally copy and use copyrighted materials. Been there... been treated to this adolescent display of rage and false indignation before.

Curt Scott

Exoticar Kits/Josue Sandoval 

Exoticar Kits, at the residential address of 2220 North Bryan, Mission, Texas 78572 (county of Hidalgo), phone (956) 583-1009, residence of Jesus M. & Rosalinda Sandoval. Email of the website's administrative contact: domain.tech@yahoo-inc.com. Principal Josue Sandoval. Mr. Josue Sandoval's commercial website has since Thursday, 3 January 2002 displayed more than twenty copyrighted photographs of two NAERC exoticars copied from North American Exotic Replica Cars' website on kitcar.com. The photos are deceptively displayed as representing for sale NAERC exoticar replicas that Mr. Sandoval neither possesses nor owns nor produces nor represents as an NAERC dealer. On 22 January 2002 a sharp-eyed replicar enthusiast alerted us to this unauthorized, unlawful and deceptive use of these images. So it appears that another bozo has enlisted into the ranks of copyright violators. Let's see: two dozen images X $150,000 maximum federal fine per willful violation = $3,600,000. Put this shell game up to your ear and you can almost hear the roar of copyright attorneys pushing and shoving to get in line...

25 March: update on "Exoticar Kits/Josue Sandoval": Ken Esler, President/CEO of NAERC phoned Mr. Sandoval, posing momentarily as a prospective customer; Sandoval assured him that he had a car in stock, and that if he sent a $10,000 deposit, he could have it. When Esler identified himself as the owner of NAERC and was preparing to file a lawsuit, Sandoval gushed out with "I'm just a 17-year-old kid trying to earn a buck!" Sigh. Not yet old enough to vote, but old enough to crank up a flim-flam operation.

Esler also heard from a fellow Canadian who had sent a large deposit to Sandoval and had received nothing for his money; he was concerned that he'd been sucked into a scam. Yep, that about sums it up.

And, incidentally, after getting the call from Esler, this artful dodger was thus inspired to promptly remove his fraudulent enterprise from the Internet. You read about it first here on kitcar, folks.

Saturday, 17 July, 2010
CSW Speedsters/Camden Sportscar Works
Jerry Sweet

CSW Speedsters/Camden Sportscar Works (Jerry Sweet, President). A KitCar.com visitor informed me about this firm first in 2008, then again in July, 2010. The second caller informed us that he had some difficulty getting in touch with the firm, then in eliciting a returned phone call. So on or about the first week of July 2010 I phoned and left a CB message on Sweet's answering machine, explaining that I was phoning to gather information in reference to our readers/website visitors who had inquired about his firm. Not at all to my surprise, Mr. Sweet never bothered to return my call. Now: the Sixth of my “Ten Golden Rules for Selecting and Purchasing your Kit Car” includes this caveat: “... Apply the ‘telephone test’ of character: Don’t even consider doing business with anyone who can’t exhibit the simple courtesy of returning your telephone calls (personally, I remove any manufacturer from our database after he has failed to return two phone calls.)” So: forewarned is forearmed.

Financial Vision/Big Boy Toys/
Anthony Garrison

Financial Vision, dba "Big Boy Toys," at the gated community/residential address of 16845 North 29th Avenue, Suite 1302, Phoenix, Arizona 85053, phone(s) 602-980-4300, 623-582-2300 & 623-516-8697. Principal Anthony Garrison. Mr. Garrison's commercial website is displaying copyrighted photographs copied from Exotic Illusions' website on kitcar.com. The purloined photos are displayed to purport that Mr. Garrison's company offers for sale an (Exotic Illusions) exoticar replica that his firm neither possesses nor owns nor produces nor represents as an Exotic Illusions dealer nor has any dealings with whatsoever. On 7 January 2002 a sharp-eyed replicar enthusiast alerted us to this unauthorized, unlawful and willfully deceptive use of these images.

10 April 2002: update on "Financial Vision/Big Boy Toys/Anthony Garrison": Mr. Anthony Garrison (hereafter referred to as 'AG') appears to be conducting a scheme of advertising (on eBay) replicars that he doesn't possess and cannot possibly deliver... and furthermore, he's using photographs (no doubt in violation of someone else's copyright) of an original McLaren F-1 and purporting it to be the replicar he's advertising. (No surprise there, since we've already nabbed him for purloining copyrighted photos off this website to promote his smoke-and-mirrors exoticar sales). Randy Berry of Marauder, in Potomac, Illinois, who produces a replica of a (vintage 1969 or '70) McLaren M6 GTB Coupe, was contacted recently by AG. It seems that AG, who had been advertising for sale (on eBay) an F-1 McLaren replica, apparently had a fish on the line, and was desperate to get his hands on an F-1 replica he could deliver. Sighhhhhh. Randy explained to AG that his (vintage 1970) M6 GTB replica doesn't even vaguely resemble a McLaren F-1, and that in any event, he had no intention of involving himself in AG's embarrassingly self-evident sleight-of-hand. So here it is, folks: The mere fact that you see a replicar (or anything else) advertised on eBay doesn't mean that you can rely upon what you see and read there. It might not be a McLaren F-1 replica, but an Anthony Garrison/ Big Boy Toys Charade instead...

unknown entity roster
These firms may advertise in the kit car magazines and/or once maintained a website. In any event, we know little or nothing about them. Marked with a triple asterisk (***) are those firms of whom we’ve in the past requested information, or left telephone message(s) for, and received no reply.

2001
Sunshine State Shenanigans
From the "Remember Where You Heard it First, Folks," department...
Readers of our kit car and Cobra publications have for years been been witness to our admonitions that the state of Florida has long been a safe port for this continent's white collar (and ring-around-the-collar) criminals. Witness Florida's unabashed embracing of kit car & street rod telemarketer consumer atrocities for over 25 years, as only one example of The Sunshine State's enthusiasm for winking at crimes perpetrated on out-of-staters. Not only does Florida provide a safe port for a disproportionate share of the nation's telepredators, it also offers the continent's only unlimited homestead asset protection, which means that no creditor and no victim of your previous criminal endeavours can touch that 160-acre, $750,000,000 Florida jetport that you've declared as your "homestead." In 2000 it was in the news that O.J. Simpson moved his home(stead) to Florida. Sigh. If that news item caught you by surprise, then you haven't been paying attention...

02 April 2002
Ck3 Design
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2 April 2002. Over the past several weeks we've continued to receive VERY SERIOUS consumer complaints and allegations of fraud about Ck3/Blaine Kennedy, from as far away as the Netherlands. And the Calgary authorities continue to play their fiddles and ignore the pleas-for-help of Ck3's endless parade of casualties. If the Calgary, Alberta, Canada authorities and regulatory agencies are striving to displace Dade/Broward counties, Florida as The Consumer Predator Capital of the Universe... they're succeeding.

18 July 2001. Today we received a copy of (hotlink) an article that appeared in the Calgary Herald newspaper. The article reads:

Calgary Herald, Tuesday, July 17 2001
TRIO CHARGED OVER ALLEGED FAILURE TO PAY WAGES
Three Calgarians face 22 charges for allegedly failing to pay their employees. Blaine Russell Kennedy and Annette and Conrad Cini, as directors of Ck3 Design Corp., are charged with five counts of non-payment of wages. Kennedy, as director of C Corp. "N.A. Ltd.," has been charged with six counts of non-payment of wages. Kennedy is also charged with one count of non-payment of wages as director of C Corp. "Automotive Design Inc." A trial date will be set today (17 July 2001). The maximum penalty for such an offense under the Employment Standards Code is $50,000.

22 June 2001. Sigh. We continue to receive MAJOR consumer complaints about Ck3 and principal Blaine Kennedy. One unlucky Colorado customer of this outfit alleges to have forfeited over $40,000 USD; yet another Virginia affiant (affidavit filer) alleges to have forfeited over $16,000 USD. And the municipal, provincial and federal authorities in Calgary do nothing. Nothing. In fact, the Calgary RCMP advised one of the affiants "There's nothing we can do to help you; hire a lawyer." With increasing evidence of a "Let 'em eat cake" attitude such as that, Alberta appears to be vying with Florida as the continent's epicenter of official/bureaucratic indifference to consumer allegations of fraud.

21 June 2001. Sigh. If you recall, in 1997 I exposed Ck3's "suite-sounding" address (1350 E. Flamingo Rd. Suite 704, Las Vegas 89112) as a mere "Mail Boxes Etc." post office box. I even provided you with a closeup photo of their deluxe "suite." The "suite" measured about 6"x6"x18" (or if you prefer, 15cm x 15cm x 46cm). They had been telling folks (including me) for many months that this address was their "research center." Sigh. Now it seems that there's yet another website with a "suite-sounding" Las Vegas address, allegedly selling Hummer parts and accessories (www.hummerparts.com). You guessed it: Network Solutions' reveals the contact information to be: Blaine Kennedy, c/o Advanced Definition Systems, Inc, 7649 West Lake Mead Rd. Suite # 200, Las Vegas, NV 89128. The toll-free phone number listed is 800-454-7627. I'd be willing to bet the farm that that number rings not in a shoebox-sized "suite" in Las Vegas, but in Calgary Alberta. Shucks, why not give 'em a (toll-free) call and find out for yourself. In any event, we haven't yet started to receive consumer complaints about "hummerparts.com."***

(***6 July 2001: Did I say that we haven't received any consumer complaints about Advanced Definition Systems/hummerparts.com? I spoke too hastily: with that brief posting above only two weeks ago, we've now been bombarded with customer complaints about that operation. Sigh. The saga goes on and on, and the Calgary and Alberta and Canadian federal authorities do nothing.

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14 April 2004
Precision Replicas Australia
(or Prescion Replicas Austrlia... take your pick)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Today we received an advisory from an Australian replicar enthusiast who shared with us the following observations about this firm:

1. There is a Melbourne-based operator (Scott Garner/Precision Replicas Australia) who claims that he manufactures Lamborghini Diablo and Murcielago replicas.

We have phoned him on numerous occasions, but he refuses to show us anything that he is doing; he does not provide an address of any sort (even his website (http://www.precisionreplicas.com.au) does not provide any address); he is contactable only by cell phone.

2. He is using real/authentic Lamborghinis on his website. But when you question Garner he assures you that the cars on his site are (his) replicas.

Curt Scott: When I checked out the Precision Replicas site, sure enough, there is no address provided, and indeed the two cars in the photos (the only two photos on the entire site) do appear to be genuine Lamborghinis; indeed, the Murcielago is without question the real McCoy. This is not a good sign.

Moreover, Mr. Garner cannot even manage to get his company name (or his country) correct on his site: the opening page of his annoyingly sound-accentuated site boldly displays his company name as "Prescion Replicas Austrlia." Sigh.

I've encountered these stratagems too many times in the kit car industry... especially since the advent of the Internet, where folks are free of all restraints to claim whatever they please.

My advice? This scenario evidences all of the earmarks of, shall we say, a less-than-bona fide enterprise. Bolt--don't merely jog or walk--for for the nearest exit.

Today we received a copy of an affidavit (a formal complaint) filed with the Canadian Justice Dept. and Canada's Ministry of the Attorney General, and with The New Jersey Attorney General's Office, by Gerry Perillo (of West Caldwell, New Jersey), regarding Prototype Research and Development (PR&D) and its owner David Carlaw.

Mr. Perillo is demanding a refund of $2,139 U.S. dollars for work and component parts to restore his MG-TD replica, that he alleges he paid for in advance, but was never executed. Briefly stated, his affidavit alleges:

Upon paying in full for work which Mr. Carlaw assured me would be completed, I received the car and found many of the items which Carlaw charged me for were never replaced or even worked on (Mr. Perillo provides an itemized roster of parts he contracted PR&D to do or and work he contracted the firm to install, that he alleges were not done at all, or (in some instances) used parts were installed even though his complaint alleges that he'd been charged for brand-new parts.

He also alleges that, based upon Mr. Carlaw's personal assurance that his car was ready, he spent $475 to fly to PR&D's shop in Campbellford, Ontario, Canada to inspect andd test-drive his MG-TD; when he got there he says his car was on a lift, with no interior and only partially complete... "My trip to Canada was a thorough waste of my time and money..."

Mr. Perillo sums up his experience with "My entire experience with PR&D and Mr. Carlaw was NOTHING SHORT OF A NIGHTMARE."

If you have had any experience with PR&D that you'd like to share with Mr. Perillo, you can email him at: perillos@comcast.net

York Sports Cars in Ashland, Virginia has years of experience in assembling (and applying corrective engineering to) these classic motor car kits. If you're the owner of an incomplete '33./.'34 Ford, Cobra, Porsche Speedster, MG-TD or Gazelle, or if you need replacement parts or assistance in re-engineering flaws in the design, visit John York's page on this site.

Another excellent source of parts and expert assembly work for owners of telemarketer
Speedster replicas is Vintage Speedsters of California. Ask for Kirk Duncan.