[Chrysler300] Lake Tahoe controversy

["John J. Hertog" <crossram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rob Kern, 

Your question is certainly a valid one and deserves an answer.  I am going
to try to formulate one. Perhaps it will clear the air somewhat, and the
membership should be aware of the issue at hand. Unfortunately, this
listserver only reached about 400 out of the 1000 total members - too bad
all cannot be included.  So here goes, and bear with me 'cause it ain't
simple. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to invite Mr. Michael Burke,
whose yellow Windsor / alleged 300 is the subject of this controversy, to
set the record straight. He's on this listserver too. 

For many years, the subject of revinned / rebodied / fake / cloned 300's has
reared its ugly head. Some decades ago, David Glassel, in Texas, specialized
in chopping up hardtops, be they NewYorkers, Saratoga's or 300's, and
creating fake convertibles. He did this for profit. He switched VIN tags
from one shell to another; he was caught. The Club was involved in a
lawsuit. Glassel lost. This was before the time I became involved in this
Club. 

Many Glassel cars (fake converts) still exist today. Unfortunately for our
Swedish friends, most of them are in their country. But there are also
plenty in the USA. The Club has compiled a list of those cars. 

A couple-three years ago, some of the officers and directors became
concerned that our Club did not have a policy to deal with such fake cars.
Namely, if one should show up at a meet, how should we treat it?  As a real
car? Give it an award? Judge it in Concours? Without an official Club policy
in place, without any rule, we felt that we couldn't really deal with such
cars in an appropriate manner. I then proposed an amendment to the Club's
constitution, whereby any vehicle known to the Club as having had its VIN
tag switched / tampered with / replaced would NOT be recognized by our Club.


At the same time that this amendment was proposed and being discussed,
Michael Burke was building himself a "clone" 300F. Unfortunate timing. Mr.
Burke took a very, very rusty white 300F hardtop purchased from Bob
Donatucci, and took a nice, solid 1960 Windsor bodyshell; he transferred all
of the 300F components to the Windsor, including the VIN tag. He painted it
yellow and started to drive it to meets, beginning with the one in
Allentown, PA. ; please note that this car is NOT Michael Burke's original
yellow 300F, that he used to drive to meets in years past. It's another
vehicle entirely. 

At first, Mr. Burke was quite open about what he had done - used a '60
Windsor to rebody his 300F . Then, all of a sudden, the crap hit the fan. An
officer of this Club didn't want to include the Burke car in the official
car count at the following Detroit, Michigan meet, stating: "it's not a real
300". 

Fast forward to the Tahoe meet. By now Michael Burke has heard that there is
a proposed amendment to "outlaw" clone cars. He takes it personally
(whereas, actually, the amendment had been proposed way before anyone ever
got wind of the Burke clone car). Various threats are made. In the interest
of keeping the peace and not spoiling Mr. Jett's wonderful meet, the
Executive Committee and Mr. Burke agreed, prior to the business meeting, to
let the matter drop entirely.  Subsequently, Mr. Burke accepted a Long
Distance award for having driven to the meet in his yellow '60 Windsor (to
which a 300F Vin tag is attached). 

And that, Mr. Kern, is my version of the facts and my explanation and my
reply to your question. You and your fellow members certainly deserve it. 

I would like to quickly add the following personal comment:  as per our
Constitution, our Club is dedicated to the PRESERVATION and RESTORATION  of
1955 thru 1965 Chrysler 300 Letter Series, and the 300 Hurst.  

As an officer of this Club, I do believe that our Club should encourage the
restoration of authentic cars, and discourage rebodying and the switching of
VIN tags.  I believe that the vast majority of our members are good, honest
people who own real, authentic, correct automobiles. Do you all want to
recognize cloned / rebodied fake cars ? 

Simply put, I believe that the Chysler 300 Club International, Inc. should
NOT RECOGNIZE any vehicle whose VIN tag is known to have been tampered with
and/or switched to another bodyshell. Michael Burke, of course, opposes such
a rule. That's were we stand today. Status quo. 

John Hertog 




  




 

      






 





To send a message to this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/