OK, now that I seem to have gotten your attention and for sure P.O.ed a few of you. Matt you are very correct. This is not the place to air our laundry. Then again if this is where they are being soiled so it is the best place to start. Now you all can understand how it feels to be judged and talked about with out knowing what all the facts are.
If you read this subject from start to finish you would more than likely felt as Valerie and I did. By the end of what I read, it sounded as Valerie put a gun to peopleís heads for money. Not one time did Kevin ever speak up. His talking was all done on hearsay from someone else. Some of you may not have seen it this way, however, you are not looking at it from our point of view.
To start with, Valerie never asked for a penny. She did however tell Kevin if who ever bought it wanted to use the Dick Harrell name they had to sign an agreement would be necessary as more than likely the car owner would also want to produce DH merchandise. She was trying to explain this to Kevin so the new buyer(s) did not have big merchandising ideas. Some of you are stating that she wanted money for using the DH name on original cars, this is not true. Porterfield being spiteful, took the DH name off the 69 ZL1 on his own. After telling Valerie she should be paying HIM. In fact, Porterfield ran the DH name for years & Valerie never protested this. Due to his merchandising it became a legal issue.
As to license agreements, they can cost from one dollar to one million dollars. In these agreements, there are limitations of use. Moreover, if a DH car is started or run anywhere and a person gets injured, they can and do sue all parties on the car. It has been going on since the 60s when Houston Platt had an accident in the south and is still done that way today. There was a die cast car made a few years ago with Fred Gibb and Dick Harrell on it. No one ever contacted Valerie on this. Helen had her contract; Valerie had to fight for herís. How would you feel? She has never interfered with any of the Novas, Camaros or any of the true cars that were built at the Dick Harrell shop. She has been more than cordial and helpful to anyone that has called or emailed her.
Copolocater, I emailed you off line, and as of last month I am still tracking where your car came from. I used your car as a reference. FYI, you may not remember, but 2 years ago that same car was offered to Valerie as her fatherís old car for about $150,000.00. When we told the guy it wasnít close, the seller still offered it as maybe an old DH car on many different sites. I guess this should be known as buyers beware. As far as Matt releasing any anxiety by finding the 69 car, from the past experience he could sell you any 69 funny car and you would believe it to be. There is a nostalgia funny car class coming about this next year at the Good Guys races. It could show up there.
This brings me to the Kirby car. For all of you that do not know how race operations work I will explain it as best I can. Jim Kirby would race this car painted and looking like Dickís car. Clyde Morgan and Larry Christopherson did the same thing. Lets say Kirby had 10 bookings all year and Harrell had 50. Kirby running for Harrell could get more bookings. What was here for Dick Harrell? I am just going to make up numbers, but I bet they would be close. Kirby could only get $700.00 a race where with Dickís name he would get $1000.00 and Dick would get 10 to 20%. If Dick drove the car it could get another $200 to $300. In most cases, the ads would read Dick Harrellís Camaro. I did this with a few owners myself and almost with Dick. A few years back when teams still match raced, John Force would get less money with Tony going to a race than if he was there. I hope this helps on the sponsor ideas. Seeing as one of you know Kevin and has posted he was selling the car to buy another and his wife wanted him to. Someone is not telling the truth. He told Val a different story.
I hope all will take notice when you are buying a racecar and the owner is telling you a story check it out with others involved with the story. As we get older we see our past sometimes as being different than it may have been. There may be a lot of pictures and papers. I am sure Bojie can tell you we have more than the average Harrell collector and he only saw a bit of them.
Dave Libby posted on the
www.dickharrell.com site some of the past of the Kirby car (as he remembers it), which is very close to the way two others explained it also.
Matt, I have to come back to Lansing I think next month. Are you near there? Maybe we can do lunch. If youíre near Pontiac we could go to Foxes. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] What I said was uncalled for and I hope you can now see why.
Sincerely,
Dale Pulde aka Menmyfcs