Is it just me or do any of you see the same thing? I'll admit that when I see stripes or a hipo badge I give a closer look (same goes for Shelby's)but why is that?
Have we gotten to the point as owners that we assume a car is not what it appears to be until we determine otherwise?
To this point, has the eveloution of "Clones" hurt the "real thing"?
Granted, a large majority of show goers would walk past a hipo simply due to the fact that they don't know what it is in favor of a shelby. (clone or not)
Obviously Shelby's are more well known, but do they, as well as hipo's really benifit from a "clone culture" or does it hurt them as well?
Thoughts?
6f09k
came with everything good about the GT package anyway, with the exception of the disc brakes.It would be a rare individual indeed that liked those stripes and the gas cap enough to cough up the extra money for them when he already had the special handling package, 4bbl, dual exhaust and 4 speed tranny.For a long time my stance on that was that if you don't have an original window sticker, build sheet or buck tag then you don't have a factory GT K code, but with the way printing technology has taken off over the last few years even those items aren't a slam dunk anymore.I've seen too many people cut the dash out of a 66 model six cylinder rust bucket, weld up the extra dash pad holes from both sides and grind them flat and put it into their late 65 model A or K code, take a minute with swiss pattern files to turn their foglight wire holes in the radiator core support into 'stamped' holes and presto, they have a factory GT. People assume that the car is bogus because it almost certainly is. It is also possible that I have simply become a little too jaded from having looked at a whole bunch of mustangs over a whole bunch of years.When people are telling me about the car they are trying to sell I don't listen to anything they say.I don't believe it, I don't disbelieve it. I just don't hear it.I'll nod and say 'Really? Cool.' but I'm not even paying any attention to them.I listen to the car, not the guy trying to sell it, but that's just me. When someone tells me that they have just bought a 65/66 factory GT I just congratulate them on the acquisition of that rare and special classic and move on. If he believes that he has a factory GT, then, for all practical purposes, he does.The objective reality doesn't really have any effect on how much he enjoys the car if no one ever tells him.That's why the bogus cars are a lot easier to move then they should be.The buyer wants to believe that he has found that rare bird that he's been searching for and is more than willing to dismiss any inconsistancies as abherations resulting from sloppy manufacturing procedures. As long as people keep buying them like they're real, there will always be that sorry individual that will produce one on demand.