Be careful where you get yours from and who built it. Unique Performance from Texas, who built most of these clones, is a disgrace.

http://www.google.com/search?q=uniqu...ient=firefox-a

 

Unique is a disgrace and put owners in a bad position....but....and maybe im just bias because i own one, but they are realy fun cars to drive.
I've owned an original-restored gt500 and gt350. They commanded all the money and looked original. Your true lover of the originals probably enjoys the Eleanor but wouldn't take the car overly serious.
On the other hand, I find my eleanor VERY approachable, very driveable. Safer, more modern. Runs great. and is quite a gorgeous cars.
u can see some photos at 911flatnose.com

And, you can find them cheap, once and a while. Mine was just about perfect, the Ebrake and clutch the only things where we scratched our head and said "what the f was Unique performance thinking about?".

There are other really nice eleanor look alikes out there; yet, i kind of think atleast with the Unique performance cars you have a fully licensed car with some history, som understanding of the quality of fit and finish...and, maybe down the road they keep or exceed current valuations because they are licensed shelbys. They were originally selling for 150 to 225k. You can buy them, IF you can find one, for, well atleast when i bought mine last year, 100k.

IMO, the best cars at Barrett, atleast from what i can see on TV were those Boss429s. Wow. insane.
and whil ei know its not a car the purests would love...that Sin City Shake which i think was a 1969 mach1 if i recall, was silly.

good thing i wasnt there. could be a costly visit to vegas.
sick cars.
but overall, some weakish prices. as a no reserve auction, it might be good pickin's

 

I don't doubt they are fun cars - mid to late 60s Fastbacks actually to like Fords. But Unique was a terrible company who were lucky to pull in Shelby and Foose and get them on their team. Both of them pulled out at the end and left the cops and Feds to clean up the mess with all the VIN tag issues, etc. It's all easily found online - actual news reports, not just hearsay on forums and such.

Not sure which version of theirs you got, but hopefully you got one of the top versions for $100k, because those cars can be built very cheaply. I can't believe the morons who were paying $200k for those (I remember Jason Giambi paid $225k or something for the supercharged Super Snake version, but that is pocked change for him). I can't begin to believe the profit margins Unique was making on these cars. They look great, sure, but are not really special. Just bolt on cars with some shoddy work done. It is WELL documented by current/former owners of several cars who purchased directly from Unique before they folded.

You can build a very similar car to this for under $100k easy. I know first hand.

And there are a million Mustangs and Shelby related cars out there with his name engraved on the dash. That really isn't all that rare. It's amazing many people don't know about Unique's situation.

Hope your car does well and stays together and is safe for you. Got more details and specs? Which engine option do you have?

 

No doubt Unique was a disaster of a Company. But your characterization of the cars in total as being shoddy is incorrect. I've owned/own several high qualty cars and have owned a dozen various american muscle cars from various manufacturers , builders, restorers . I think the story of Unique would show that they WERE (past tense) a good company; they were high quality enough to be granted a shelby licensing deal (its not just car with a shelby insignia. its a shelby continuation series licensed product. its a shelby. its not a mustang made to look like a shelby.

I dont think Foos and others would have hitched their wagon to a disaster, and i think they actually were building good cars. They got way ahead of themselves, mos likely because they were terrible business persons. its one thing to have success building 3, 4,5 cars/year. its another when you plan to do 30, 40. if you dont have good process, structure and business mechanics, stuff starts unraveling, and thats what you have here. i think they fell behind and started using the deposits of one customers' car to satisfy another, to pay bills. and you can only borrow against deposits like that for so long. sooner or later, it has to unravel, which it did. i feel so bad for all those who had big deposits with them , only to later learn they lost them all. i would bet that towards the end, they were FLYING thru builds trying to get them done, whatever the quality, cutting corners, etc. just so they coudl get the final, residual purchase price payments.

when i had a chance to get a nice. clean, well built, early series example, at cheap money, i jumped.

but remember, these werent mustang and shelby look-alikes, so the 100s of cars on ebay you reference. These were shelby's. they are promoted on shelby's website, they are licensed shelby cars, just like when shelby licensed its name to ford for its 1967 and later (i think thats when ford handled the production), and nowadays with these new 2008 mustangs. people had a vision of owning a legitimate, licensed shelby mustang.
fraud stinks.
the Unique story is easily researched, and well, its no different than you and i put forth. Whats bothersome is that it seems the Feds will do nothing to Unique's owners who ran away with the deposit monies.

 

Historically, poor results in the collector market (art, wines, antiques, cars, boats, etc.) always lags a slow economy by 3-9 months. I'd agree that Scottsdale will be the first true test, but I believe that the entire year of 2009 will be the better test.

The last time I looked, there is $15 trillion in money recently lost from the stock, bond, and housing markets. Unemployment is raising and taxes are soon going to increase.

I think the market for million dollar cars will hold steady. After all, a guy that pays $5M for a Ferrari to add to his collection is probably not very concerned with a slowing economy. I think the low end will be the soft area ($100K and below).

We'll know by the time Las Vegas rolls around next year.

 

We can build you one.

We don't have a "famous" name yet... but we're working on it. We built a 69 Camaro for Rob Dyrdek (Rob and Big)... awesome car fully restored with every nut and bolt being brand new... Procharged 383.. pretty sick car... we are in the process of building another 69 Camaro for DC shoes and I forged wheels... complete with custom fenders, bumpers, splitters, and a twin turbo LSX 6 ltr...running about 1000hp on pump, 6 speed tranny, 3:55 gears...ect.
Again fully restored.

We have a "all in one" shop.. including paint and body... a full machine shop right across the street...and the best painter in West Michigan.

Anyway... thought I'd let you know.....
If your interested.. send me a pm.

(the guns in the red are paint.. not a decal... also there is no photoshop on these photos)