NOTICE - Dallas Area Classic Chevys Message Board Will Soon Be Deactivated

[David Graves]

From the Dallas Morning News 11/7/07

Police have confiscated more than 60 vehicles as part of a criminal investigation into a well-known custom car manufacturer based in Farmers Branch.

No charges have been filed against the owners of Unique Performance, but police allege the company has been altering vehicle identification numbers on customized cars that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Police say the company uses frames from limited-edition vehicles – mostly Mustangs from the 1960s – to build its custom versions. But the titles on many of those frames have been deemed "salvage," meaning the car has been declared a total loss, police Cpl. Chad Taylor said.

That categorization alone severely lowers the value of the vehicle, Cpl. Taylor said. Police allege that in order to hide the salvage status, the company swapped VINs from similar model cars that didn't have salvage titles.

"What we believe they're doing is purchasing a Mustang of the same year, buying Mustangs around the same year that don't have salvage titles" and replacing the VINs on the cars that had salvage titles, Cpl. Taylor said.

Officials with Unique Performance could not be reached for comment Monday night.

According to the company's Web site, Unique Performance "builds small volumes of handcrafted, limited production vehicles ranging from vintage Shelbys and Camaros to a custom version of the current Ford Mustang."

Police confiscated 61 vehicles from two Unique Performance facilities in Farmers Branch, two in Dallas and one in Grayson County, Cpl. Taylor said. The vehicles are being kept at a storage facility in Carrollton, he said.

Cpl. Taylor said charges are likely, though the investigation is still in the early stages.

"We don't have any charges on anybody as of yet just because the vast amount of evidence we have," Cpl. Taylor said. "Pretty much time is on our side now. We believe we have most or all of the cars. We can kind of sit back and look at what we have."

Charges against the company could include placement of serial number with intent to change identity, a third-degree felony, he said.

[David Graves]

apparently the Eleanor Mustang they produce has been a car that cost lots of money but has poor quality ... it appears that Unique Performance is simply a bunch of used car salesmen trying to pass themselves off as quality mechanics selling overrated cars to people with no idea of what they are buying .. also it is reported that Carroll Shelby has cut ties with UP .. to bad ..

http://fixeleanor.com/

http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=22553@ktvt.dayport.com

[Jemo]

I don't know if any of you saw but Unique is having a bankruptcy auction on Tuesday at their place in Farmers Branch. It appears they're liquidating everything in their shop, including all those car hulls.

Jeff

[David Graves]

in case you might want to aquire bits and pieces of Unique Performance
http://www.maxanet.com/cgi-bin/mndetails.cgi?rosen
some nice equipment listed...