Outraged Italian police set to crush fake Ferrari
Posted Oct 27th 2009 6:00PM by Jonny Lieberman
Right up front, we must state that there is a very high likelihood that the following is not entirely true. With that said, here's the skinny on what we think we know: Thanks to local copyright laws, cops in Ostuni, Italy have reportedly confiscated a Toyota MR2 cut to look an awful lot like a Ferrari 355 Berlinetta. And they intend to crush it.So much so that the British-made phony Italian was being touted as the real thing -- an obvious scam. As to why the authorities intend to destroy the car, let's listen to what one of the cops involved had to say: "It was a good fake but just a fake, Ferrari is one of Italy's crown jewels. We can't allow cheap copies."
Yes, well, we guess that makes sense. But are the cops allowed to crush the car out of some odd sense of damaged Italian pride? Looks like it. We here at Autoblog feel it's our duty to go ahead and give you a surefire tip on how to keep your faker from meeting the same fate – nobody suspects a Fiero-bodied Ferrari 308. Hint, hint. Thanks to Cosmin for bringing this to our attention!
[Source: Austrian Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gruv 6:05PM (10/27/2009)
Poor MR2.
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BoxerFanatic 6:15PM (10/27/2009)
Take the ferrari badges off as a copyright infringement.
Otherwise, pride is no reason to destroy property. That is insane.
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I'm Italian 6:17PM (10/27/2009)
I'm Italian, and I can say police isn't allowed to crash or destroy private properties, except when, considering a car, it was used to illegally race other vehicles on the streets, or by copyright-laws infringements.
AFAIK this car was referred to as a real Ferrari, hence the infringement.
They can now confiscate the car and sell it, destroy it or just keep it.
The papers of the car would be canceled, sot hat it couldn't be registered again even after an auction held by the police itself.
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Fara 6:19PM (10/27/2009)
I saw a Ferrari Dayton spider today. It was pretty. I was dissapointed when it turned out to be a replica.
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cool_ozzyfromkalush 6:23PM (10/27/2009)
Thats what I call patriotism...
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JC 6:30PM (10/27/2009)
So is this one of those ones that Top Gear was using to do donuts?
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fobunited 6:34PM (10/27/2009)
Is it any different than the confiscation and destruction of fake LV purses?
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RMN 6:36PM (10/27/2009)
No way, unless Ferrari protested and took this to court. Seems like a freedom of speech issue as the owner should be able to put anything he wants on his car unless he is making a profit out of someone else's intellectual property.
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Joey Mazz 7:07PM (10/27/2009)
I'm not sure if the Italian constitution has the same guarantees of free speech that ours does, and if it does nobody seems to be complaining here. Than again, copyright infringement is never considered to be a proper use of free speech even in the usa.
ForgedInternals 6:50PM (10/27/2009)
Was he selling the car? I can see it being destroyed if it was being sold as a Ferrari.
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PumaGTO 6:51PM (10/27/2009)
that reminds me of that Audi add where they ride a red R10 fsi through Maranello and everybody looks extremely crossed. One thing is for sure: You don´t mess with ferraris on Italy
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Some Dipshit 6:59PM (10/27/2009)
If it is based off of an MR2 then we know that it is EXPONENTIALLY more reliable than any "real" Ferrari!!!
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P.V. 7:07PM (10/27/2009)
It seems that the owner was calling this a real Ferrari. However, if that wasn't the case, there should be no case. The owner has the right to do whatever he wants with the car, as first sale is already done, so the original owner has no more control over it. Thus, unless he was advertising it as a Ferrari (more than just badging the car as such), Ferrari would have no right to do this.
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Joey Mazz 7:10PM (10/27/2009)
I feel sorry for the owner of this car who is loosing his property but anyone who spends the money turning a mr2 into a fake ferrari and then flaunts it as such at least deserves a "douchebag of the year award".
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Paul 7:17PM (10/27/2009)
You're very wrong and need to study up if you go back there! A few years ago, a re-creation of an historic Maserati 250F, using many original parts, was seized and destroyed by the Italian authorities. Despite a court battle they crushed the irreplaceable parts of historic Italian racing heritage.
Yes, they actually destroyed the original priceless diff, engine components and drive train bits, all because the chassis and body were recreated to serve those parts.
Draconian stuff.
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humppa4ever 7:27PM (10/27/2009)
customs are allowed to destroy confiscated stuff like pirated cds, tobacco etc. why not allow to destroy fake cars too?
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Kaveh 7:29PM (10/27/2009)
If you click on the links you can see pictures of the car, that is really funny. I wanna know who bought such a thing.
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jonnybimmer 7:36PM (10/27/2009)
Perhaps they could take care of that "Saleen S7" posted earlier as well. In seriousness though, and this is if this post itself is serious, crushing one-off replicas just isn't right. Emphasis on the "one-off" part, just a single garage-built replica made by some guy with a lot of passion and creativity isn't hurting anyone. Consider this though: If it's right to crush this replica for being fake, would it then be right to crush anything Factory Five Racing produces? Yeah they're more modern, high performance cars underneath, but they still replicate the spirit of the original Shelbys. Personally I don't care for those sorts of cars, I wouldn't bother looking at them unless I can obtain an original. But there are many, many folks who'd disagree.
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MONTE 7:59PM (10/27/2009)
I doubt they would care as much if it was a copy of Mondial, since that would be an improvement.
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Venom 8:18PM (10/27/2009)
When I was in undergrad this kid at my school decided to make a fake Ferrari out of an MR2.
He however did not go to the lengths this guy did.
All he did was put the Ferrari badges on the front and back and the Scuderia shields in the side.
That sad part was that there were people that thought it was real and would argue that it was a real Ferrari.
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