For Sale on Ebay

[Neil Cundy]

this car has now sold for €27k at Bonhams Monaco auction in May.

[ncundy]

It's back...and it's still being sold as a Fanalone.

http://www.artcurial.com/en/asp/fullcat ... 0&image=12

[fulvia a.i.]

with an aluminum sliding roof* ! wow, that is as rare as a Unicorn. * zo zays the text

[Ed Levin]

It would possible make sense as a event car, so as not to use up a genuine Fanalone. But it's a real problem that it's being sold as genuine, with a fake chassis plate. Does anyone know what happened to the real chassis 578?.

I just sent an e-mail to Artcurial to alert them that the car should not be sold as the genuine 818.540.001578.

[ncundy]

It was supposedly a works "recce" car that was written off in Sicily in 1971. Hence it being recycled in this car.

Not sure exactly how true that is but I was told this by someone very familiar with this car

[Ed Levin]

I can well believe that 578 was written off and became the "chassis plate donor" (though that's a repro chassis plate on this one). I can even believe that it was written off in Siciliy in 1971. But 578 doesn't show up in Altorio's list of works chassis, so I'm rather disinclined to believe any works history.

And if you intend to graft a "dead" 1,6 HF identity onto a new chassis, why would you use an S2 shell? (or, rather, a mixture of S1 parts on an S2)

In any case, selling this car as chassis 818.540.001578, without further explanation or qualification, is considered fraud--either civil or criminal--in many jurisdictions. I can't claim familiarity with French laws on the subject, so such legal niceties may be different (nobody ever confused Napoleon with Blackstone), but I rather doubt that it's legitimate there

[ncundy]

In the early 80's cars such as the fanalone were worth nothing, and people who went racing in these types of cars did what they could to keep their cars on the track. When a car was crashed, or somone wanted to go racing they would often look for the least expensive way around the problem. Also acceptence to the various series was not subject to the rather more strict and knowledgable controls that are in place nowadays.

I imagine that using the easiest available 'shell with a "phantom" identity was common practice to gain entance - as long as it fooled the vetting committee that was good enough. I know in this particular case the pre 70 identification was required to get a ticket for the historic championship. I also know that the car was not created for commercial gain (hence not using a Fanalone chassis) and indeed was sold on several times with the full provenance declared. It wasn't untill the mid 00's that the previous history was "forgotten".

As regards Artcurial - well times have moved on and the market is (hopefully) better informed. As a blind man on a galloping horse would have his suspicions raised about this particular car it I would question the service they offer their customers.

There are also alot of questions being raised about the replica D Type in the sale as well - along similar lines to this.

[Geoff]

For bemusements sake, there is the famous story of the C type which had.... a few clones. One had the chassis, the other the mech'ls and I think one had some part of the body - all claiming to be the original one. Someone may recall this story better than I but I think there were complex shennanigans on the parts of several, originally well intended, and then somewhat obscured people...

Or also the story of the pre-war Alfa that went into one Italian restoration shop and out came two....

Surprising here to see this with Fanalone, and one that is easily noticed. Ah well, the joy of sales.

[Ed Levin]

I have no argument with a reshell, either on a rally car or a road car, which is what I believe chassis 578 was. And I understand that these identity swaps don't always involve shells or other components that are correct for the assumed identity.

I do argue, though, that full disclosure of that history is legally and ethically required, and that absence of disclosure constitutes fraud. Whether that fraud is knowing or unknowing may change the auction house's own culpability, but it doesn't change the fact that the prospective purchaser would have cause to rescind the sale. At this point, the auction house has been put on notice that there are questions about the authenticity and integrity of the car.

And I clearly need to amend my Fanalone statistics. Not only do 2000 of the 1258 chassis still exist, but 600 of them are works recce cars that for some reason don't appear on the list of works chassis...

[fulvia a.i.]

hoos on 1st ? that is the Question my Dears ! ha ha ha