Everyone knows that when you travel to say, China, and someone offers you an amazing deal on a Swiss watch, you might not be getting the genuine article. Buy a discount Ferrari in Italy though, and you can safely assume you are getting the real deal, right? Wrong. The International Herald Tribune reports that Italy's financial police (?) have broken a ring of Ferrari counterfeiters who had built 14 fake 360 Modenas using, get this, "mostly Pontiacs as their base, but also Mercedes and Toyota." While visions of the notorious "Fiero-rrari" body kits are probably racing through your head, these fakes actually were fairly well done (if equally targeted at the chest-rug sporting crowd). Authorities say that seven of the faux-rraris were sold to people who knew the cars were fake, and simply wanted to impress the neighbors. Said neighbors were sadly unavailable for comment as to the full glory of a late-model Ferrari with the exhaust note of 20-year old Pontiac V6.
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hmmm, MR2 Spyders for the Toyota conversions, I presume?
Latin at its best :)
Heh, the MR2 exhaust note would be even harder to explain… it’s, um… a special model, with… um… an MV-Agusta sourced 4-banger. Yeah, special limited homologation model… that’s right. Hear that clattering? Those are the desmodronic valves!
The absolute worst “kit” copy of a nicer car I’ve ever come across has been Chrysler Lebaron Convertible = Mercedes 500, 600 SEL. I’ve seen 3 of these in my life, and they’re pretty decent copies (to the average person), unil you look inside the Mercedes and see a Chrysler Dash, Radio. Chrysler symbol on the steering wheel.
I always thought it would be fun to do a V8 Archie…a Fiero with a small block v8 in the back.
http://www.v8archie.com/v8Archie/home.htm
With the right exhaust it’d be one heck of a sleeper.
The inspiration for their scam:
http://www.blert.net/ai/4.html
Who remembers the Black Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4 from Miami vice? Wasn’t a Ferrari, it was a ‘Vette with fake Ferrari body panels. It was built by McBurnie Coachcraft. McBurnie offered kits for DYI motorheads until Ferrari’s US liars-for-hire hit them with a “cease and desist”.
I wonder if they came with fake Rolex watches.
The car in that picture looks pretty good to me. Maybe GM should take note what can be done at Pontiac.
Oh, the travesty!!! They were selling ferrari kit cars to people who knew they were fake and did not care. It’s not like they are trying to pass them off as the real thing. The only thing that is hurt in this process is the ego of 360 modena owners. Frankly, I’d prefer a ferrari 250 GTO or porsche 356 kit car.
Check out this replica:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/236622
quasimondo
Thanks for the link to Automotive Idiocy. Really enjoyed it. Ha!
There maybe a lot less to this story than was apparent from the newspaper articles.
Wikipedia says:
“Currently the Fiero has a cult following of owners and customizers. Because of an abundance of replacement parts available from other General Motors vehicles, there are many upgrades that can be done to improve performance and reliability of the cars. Additionally, a multitude of different General Motors engines have been installed by enthusiasts, from the Quad-4 engine to the Chevrolet small-block V8 to the Cadillac 4.9L and Northstar V8s. Installation of the 4.9L V8 or smaller engines is possible with few modifications to the car itself, because Fiero prototypes were tested with a similar small aluminum V8 prior to production.[2] As a result, the engine bay is large enough to accommodate engines of that size.
“A large following of owners still exists with many web pages, groups, and clubs devoted to the car, and the basic chassis is commonly used as a kit-car platform from wild custom rebodies to Ferrari F355 replicas.”