More fake cars

[Pistol Gripper]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080228/od_nm/italy_cars_dc;_ylt=AnEuXqXVJcfHbQ5hYQBWxrGs0NUE

I want to read more about this.

P.G.

[426HEMI]

Wow that is something.  Be interesting to see what comes of this. 

[Pistol Gripper]

WTF ??

The ring used mostly Pontiacs as their base, but also Mercedes and Toyotas, building a copy of a Ferrari body over the original car's engine.

Why not just do a VW kit ?

P.G.

[Super Blue 72]

Can you say "kit car"?

Very cool story, didn't know anyone was still doing that!

There used to be kit cars based on Ferrari bodies but Ferrari has some pretty good lawyers or something since all the older kit car companies had to stop making them.

FYI, the black Daytona Spyder Ferrari on Miami Vice was a Corvette based Ferrari kit by I think Tim McBurnie industries, they make kit '57 T-Birds.  Not sure about the white Ferrari on that show.

Factory Five Racing had plans to make a 250 GT California (Ferris Buellur's Day Off movie.) style kit but that got squashed by Ferrari in the early 2000s.  They ahd the molds already made.

In addition to those there were Ferrari GTO kits based on "scarab" kits, 240-280z cars with Chevy 350s in them.  Those companies were shut down too. 

[73Chally]

What's kind of interesting is a good friend of my father's has a car called the Pontiac Mera, which is a dead ringer for a Ferrari 308 built on a Fiero chassis.  He put some Ferrari 5-spoke wheels and badges on it and only a hard core could really tell the difference from 20 feet.  these were sold by dealers back in the early 80's I believe.

[Scatterbrain]

Can you say "kit car"?

Very cool story, didn't know anyone was still doing that!

There used to be kit cars based on Ferrari bodies but Ferrari has some pretty good lawyers or something since all the older kit car companies had to stop making them.

FYI, the black Daytona Spyder Ferrari on Miami Vice was a Corvette based Ferrari kit by I think Tim McBurnie industries, they make kit '57 T-Birds.  Not sure about the white Ferrari on that show.

Factory Five Racing had plans to make a 250 GT California (Ferris Buellur's Day Off movie.) style kit but that got squashed by Ferrari in the early 2000s.  They ahd the molds already made.

In addition to those there were Ferrari GTO kits based on "scarab" kits, 240-280z cars with Chevy 350s in them.  Those companies were shut down too. 

A copywrite is a copywrite.  The car's design is still protected.  Only kits that have an official license are legal.

[Super Blue 72]

What's kind of interesting is a good friend of my father's has a car called the Pontiac Mera, which is a dead ringer for a Ferrari 308 built on a Fiero chassis.  He put some Ferrari 5-spoke wheels and badges on it and only a hard core could really tell the difference from 20 feet.  these were sold by dealers back in the early 80's I believe.

Very cool!  I never heard of this!  

Here's a link to some info on the net.

http://www.fiero.net/mera/article.html

[Super Blue 72]

A copywrite is a copywrite.  The car's design is still protected.  Only kits that have an official license are legal.

Very true, but what about the Shelby Cobras?  Carroll Shelby tried to get Factory Five Racing to stop making kits and lost.  FFR is still making kits, along with other companies.   

I wonder how Ferrari did it but Shelby can't?   

[Scatterbrain]

Very true, but what about the Shelby Cobras?  Carroll Shelby tried to get Factory Five Racing to stop making kits and lost.  FFR is still making kits, along with other companies.   

I wonder how Ferrari did it but Shelby can't?   

Wasn't Shelby's design based off another car?  The Bristol or something?  Found this article on the subject

http://www.factoryfive.com/table/whatsnew/appealscourt/ruling.html

Looks like Carol didn't (or couldn't prove) that the shape of the car was his intellectual property.

[Super Blue 72]

Makes sense to me.