mystery box

[John Mcgraw]

Bob,
Correct you are sir! 400 horsepower on todays engines are a lot more than in the old days when they used a different method to set the Horsepower rating!

The VIN on the engine remains, but GM has just pulled the MSO back on these cars so that they can never be titled. The last thing GM wants is for one of these cars to be put back together and sold to an unsuspecting buyer. This would mean nothing but bad customer relations for GM. Contrary to what many people think, these cars are not routinely crushed. They are usually sold for salvage with no possibility of ever being rebuilt and titled. I understand that over 20 cars were scrapped from this derailment, and I know of at least 6 people who have purchased one of these drivetrains. Most of the drivetrains were sucked up by some high performance engine resellers, and are already starting to show up on the market again. I know that Southern Performance Specialists has already been marketing at least two of them. No warranty from GM on these engines, but I am willing to take my chances!

Regards, John McGraw

 

[Tyler Townsley]

Bob,
but GM has just pulled the MSO back on these cars so that they can never be titled. The last thing GM wants is for one of these cars to be put back together and sold to an unsuspecting buyer.
Regards, John McGraw

I have a question on MSO's. Lets say a car used for testing escapes the crusher but is certified as destroyed or doanated in the GM system and 10 years later resurfaces. What is to prevent the car from being titled and liscensed? I know some of the midyear styling cars escaped in the 60 and were 'brought back', what about later cars. There were some ZR1s that returned from the grave several years ago that are still in private hands, however none of them were ever titled. Not sure if they had a MSO but they also were just a shell of the original car, the two that were reconstructed are probably 90% donar car.

In the some states you can register a car without a MSO. If you request a title and have the local law enforcement check the vin in their computer system and it comes back with no stolen notes or other ownership they will issue a title. To my knowledge their system does not validate against the mfg MSO system. Once a car has a title and registration does the mfg have any recourse to the vehicle?

Tyler

 

[JohnZ]

In the some states you can register a car without a MSO. If you request a title and have the local law enforcement check the vin in their computer system and it comes back with no stolen notes or other ownership they will issue a title. To my knowledge their system does not validate against the mfg MSO system. Once a car has a title and registration does the mfg have any recourse to the vehicle?

Tyler

Yes, they do - if the car wasn't legally sold by the manufacturer to a dealer and first-titled without an MSO to back up its existence as a legal motor vehicle, it's considered to be a stolen car.

At Viper Engineering, we had a contractor that handled crushing of prototypes and non-salable pre-production and Pilot vehicles. One of our '96 Viper GTS pre-production test vehicles went to the crusher contractor in 1998, and popped up six months later at a wholesale auction about 300 miles away - still had the Chrysler Engineering "Emission Exempt" stickers under the hood. Turns out one of the contractor's employees snuck the car out of their facility in the middle of the night and certified that it had been destroyed. He's now in jail, the car has been crushed, we have a new contractor, and every Engineering car that's crushed has that event videotaped by a Chrysler employee, who comes back with the car's VIN plate.