Bogus Yenko sighting at Carlise

[Vern B]

The answer to dealing with the fakes seems
fairly obvious to me. We need to get all the owners of legitimate cars registered with
the SYC club. I think the club should not ask
a fee to register the car, but charge a modest fee ie.$ 50.00 to release the inform-
ation to a prospective buyer-WITH WRITTEN
PERMISSION FROM THE SELLER. This makes the
information reliable to the buyer and creates a source of income for the club.
(not that that is the primary objective)
It would be absolutely essential that no
fakes get into the registery, as that would
ruin the registery's credibility forever.
It might require the club carry some type
of liability insurance, or at the minimum
a valid disclaimer.
One of my other cars is a 67 GTO and the
Pontiac registry charged $ 25.00 (a few years
ago) to provide info on my car, which included the build sheet.
I understand there are others out there
trying to make money off of the data they
have accumulated and that is fine. The club
can do the same thing and provide what the
public wants, but still protect the current
owners interest. It would be a large undertaking to get all of the cars registered
and an even larger one to inform the potential buyers about the registery, but I think the word would spread fast. I would
think the large auction company's and legitimate dealers, would pay the fee themselves, just to maintain their credibility in the buyers eyes.
Would something like this work? Or is it too
large and undertaking for a club like SYC?

[Yenkofan]

Vern and others:
I agree with you about the registry.
When I bought my 69 camaro I immediately registered it with this registry and the COPO site. I provided as much info as I knew, for historical purposes, (like that the vinyl top had been removed).
Providing the info and keeping it updated can only add value to the cars.
Previously I owned a Yenko camaro replica.
I asked If I could register it with the club (as a replica of course) and they said yes.
Registering known replicas might also be a good idea.
Gary

[Chevy454]

Yenkofan & Vern B:

Those sound like some excellent ideas! We have a Shelby, and have dealt a little bit with the Shelby Registry, but I am not sure exactly how it (or toher registries, ie the Pontiac Regitry) works. It might be worth finding out, as they have been at for a while. Anyone else have any dealings with any other registries? How do THEY operate?

------------------
LS-6 Chevelle
(450hp, M-22, 4.10 posi,
AM/FM 8-track, red w/black stripes)

[COPO]

How would you stop "clones/fakes" from registering as "real" cars? Without someone VERY knowledgeable scrutinizing the car and all of the documentation it becomes an honor system and we all know there is a lot of misrepresentation out there. There is also the strong possibility of an honest owner registering a fake/clone believing it to be a "real" car. There have been a number of fairly knowledgeable collectors that have been duped into buying replicas that were represented as original. Unless an uncorruptable source can be found like the Pontiac Historical Society which uses the factory documents a clone/fake could be registered as a real car by both honest and dishonest owners. Ideas?

[Edited by COPO (05-09-2000 at 11:09 AM).]

[sYc]

Gentlemen; Congratulations! You have just discovered why the various clubs have not released to the public information on the Yenkos and other supercars. If someone contacts us, thay have to give us the VIN #, and, if we have a doubt about the car, we ask for trim tag #'s and other info. Right now we can take this trin tag info and compare it to other records and get a good idea if the car they are looking at is legit or not, or if they just came up with the VIN number somewhere. This is how the SAAC does it. They publish the Shelby numbers and current owner, but, if you call, they will ask you for the Ford number(which they do not release) plus they ask who the previous owner(s) was. Hopefully in the future we can put together a registry along these lines. Tom

[Yenkofan]

SYC and others:
Of course the registration process and validation is the key here.
We can't let just anyone say they have a supercar and register it as such.
There must be sufficient info provided to validate the authenticity of the car.
Perhaps a knowledgeable group can set standards for each type of car.
If we can accomplish this the club will be providing a most valuable function.
I will be glad to help, but I'm new here and less knowledgeable then many.
Gary

[Vern B]

I'm not sure how many cars Tom has registered
at the moment, but maybe what we do is go back and re-register the cars and ask the owners to provide whatever documentation they
have as to the authenticity of their particular car and register it as such. If
the information is deemed undeniably reliable, then a prospective buyer is informed of that. If the information is questionable, then a prospective buyer is
informed of that. Reliability on a scale
of 1-5 with 1 being the most reliable and
5 being the least and reasons why? I have
the original title application and all title work in between and have talked to the original owner of my car and
have a notarized/signed document from him
as to it's authenticity. I've never paid the
$ 150.00 fee to the COPO Connection to
document it any further, as I am satisfied
beyond a reasonable doubt that it is correct.
Is it possible we could do a one time buy
from some of the owners of that info ie. the
COPO Connection, Deuce Registry, etc to get
it in one file? As I said last night,I understand that they probably have untold
hours in getting that info together and are
now trying to capitalize on that and I respect that. What would be nice, however
is to somehow try to get that all into one
registry. I don't have the answer, just thinking and typing it out. The more discussion on this topic there is, the closer we will come to a solution. Keep the
wheels spinning!!