State of Hobby

[TimG]

I can understand the concern of publishing ID numbers. There are many rare cars that have their ID number published and it would be interesting to know if there are any negatives from this. The Special Collection at Bloomington has the ID numbers of each vehicle along with the owners name in the program each year. The Shelby Registry has the ID number of each vehicle and the owners name published in it. Many times, magazine articles have the ID number in the write-up about the car. Running a title search in my state, Texas, can result in the name and address of the owner of any vehicle. It is public information. This may be the risk of having a registry for supercars. Another risk is getting a fake on the registry, I am sure that there are cars that are not real that may end up on the list. This could actually help promote cars that are not real.

[NWYENKO]

Tim, I have a Texas car I would like to do a title search on. How far back can they go? What info is needed? Could you assist me? If so let me know what I need to provide. Thanks, Jim

[T Billigen]

I think it would be a good idea to have all know yenkos to have the vin posted. It would be great to have all COPO cars listed but I think much tougher to control, the Yenkos are a much smaller quanity to deal with, similar to the ZL1s which have all there vins listed. I think a list with the owners name and vin will discourage the people that purposely intend to deceive. I would be willing to e-mail my vin to Tom and have it posted. I also see Yenko Bart's point of view, he made a promise to someone that he would not post the vins and I think he is doing the right thing! (My Opinion)

[TimG]

NWYENKO, you will need a form 275 that can be printed out at www.dot.state.tx.us
Click on customer service and then click on forms. There are two sides to this form. The cost is $5.75 and they can go back to the inception of the title in Texas.
If you would ike to contact them by phone the number is 512-465-7611, they will provide this service even if you do not own the car from what I have been told.

[NWYENKO]

Thanks for the info, Tim. I don't see a problem with creating a registry of vin,s and owners much like Marlin has done with the Deuces. I don't see where this makes the owners more vulnerable. I don't see a big risk is a listed car being stolen from this info. What would a guy do with it? Strip it and the value is gone. Try to peddle it and everyone would know where it came from. I think it would be very interesting to see how many cars this group could account for!! Just my opinion. Jim

[AutoInsane]

I think the idea of creating a registry similar to the Shelby Registry is a very good one. I think all known 'Super Cars' should be included in the Registry. Even if the owner doesnt register the car, if it is a verified car, it should be included into the data base.

Who actually keeps track of the Registry here and how many cars are registered?

[Ed Cunneen]

I have given much thought about publishing VINs for all of the known cars. Only a few owners to date did not wish to have their VIN published. When I published a partial list in my book years ago, some people actually conducted title searches on all cars, and actually found at least one car. However, as a fall out to this, some owners did call me, mentioning someone tried to buy their car and my name came up as to the source of the information. I will take the lead in listing these VINs, unless there is a general consensus not to do so. Should owners be listed also? Let me know how you feel about this.