This message is in response to a recent question on this forum about who
cares what a VIN Tag is applied to. This _personal_ statement by me, is
designed to answer the question and should not be considered a personnel
attack on any individual.
I care! And for some reason, I feel compelled after due thought, to
respond to this inquiry on this forum. Sorry, ahead of time, to those
of you that don't care for the continuation of this touchy subject.
Normally I stay out of discussions involving the STOA TAC program and
VIN transfer, but some Marque enthusiasts seem to have little regard for
applicable laws and other reasonable conventions. I met Ian Garrad in
the late 60's after his separation from Chrysler. From that time until
his untimely death, he was a personal friend of mine and I am honored to
own a few examples of the special vehicles he essentially created. I
have no problem with the assembly of a replica of this design. I do have
a problem when an individual feels justified in applying a VIN Tag from
a Tiger to a replica.
To many of us owners that feel that Tigers are "something a little
special", this is more than a little offensive and regardless of recent
rants to the contrary, likely illegal in most states. A lot of this has
to do with what I'd call "intent". Once you remove the rivets from one
chassis and knowingly move the VIN Tag to another and replace the
rivets, this becomes "an intent to defraud". This is _not_ repair and
restoration. One can make all the claims one wants about how "Norm" and
everybody else in the Tiger world were informed. The vehicle ID
"applied" stands on it's own.
That's exactly what's going on here in California, in my town, with a
similar replica. What's going on is that someone else did what was
suggested, moved the Tiger VIN to a new chassis, and now a lot of people
want to know why this is not a Tiger, because to most observers it
appears to be a Tiger, complete with a Tiger VIN. I am very familiar
with this car as it was an early challenge to our TAC program. So here
we are, almost 20 years later facing the same problem. The owner has
confirmed to inquiries, that it is not a "real" Tiger, but it is so
labeled by it's VIN and he's clearly asking Tiger level dollars. It's
never going to get a TAC sticker because we (the collective Tiger
Authentication Committee) can't identify the chassis as a Pressed
Steel/Jensen product.
So this is why I care, and why other owners and potential owners care,
and in most cases, the government cares. The proper way to identify a
replica Tiger is to leave the Alpine VIN in place or at least get a
state issued ID that identifies the true origin of the chassis. To do
otherwise is just plain wrong. The prevention of this misidentification
was the basis of the development of the STOA TAC program many years ago.
We hope that this program has made a difference in how the public
perceives this Marque, by helping protect it from fraud. Saving an
otherwise damaged or destroyed example of the Marque by moving the VIN
to another chassis is not an OK activity in our world. We have
Authenticated over 10% of the original production of Tigers at this
point, all over the world, almost 50 years after production was
initiated. As anyone can clearly see, our work is clearly ongoing.
--
Tom Hall
TAC Senior Inspector # 1
ModTiger Engineering LLC
www.tigerengineering.net
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