Tales From The Cooler: Who Stole My Ford GT?

Virgil Hilts
by Virgil Hilts

The city of Rancho Santa Fe is located in the rolling hills north of San Diego. It claims, like so many other burgs across this country, to have the highest average family income in the nation. Wherever they rank, the little town of 3,100 residents boasts some serious bucks.

And one RSF resident just lost his or hers 2005 blue-with-white stripes Ford GT supercar.

Authorities report that the $200,000 car went missing sometime before July 10 while the owner was away for three weeks. They will not identify the victim (could it be RSF’s most famous resident, golfer Phil Mickelson, long sponsored by Ford?)

Something is rotten in Rancho. The police have at least two stories: they told one news outlet that the car was stolen from a “storage area.” They told another it was taken from a home while it was being burglarized. Neither tale rings true. There is clearly more to the story and that is where you come in.

The local Crime Stoppers line has offered a $1,000 reward for the return of the filched Ford but TTAC is upping the ante. Please predict the story and outcome of this caper for a chance to win a cool automobilia prize. Will the car turn up in a Tijuana junkyard sans engine? Was it owned by a drug lord? More infighting among Carroll Shelby’s heirs? You tell us.

The winner will receive this neat glass-and-granite desktop display honoring the One Millionth Honda Accord rolling off the assembly line in Honda’s Marysville, Ohio plant. This gift was handed out to Honda dealers in 1988.

The winner will be based on whose tale is closest to news reports as of September 1, 2012. If their are no updates on the case by then, the winner will be determined by whose prediction makes us laugh the most. Good luck!

Virgil Hilts
Virgil Hilts

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  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jul 21, 2012

    The owner's kid "borrowed" it and took it to the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area southeast of the Salton Sea, west of Yuma. He was racing a dune buggy with it when it flipped over and became buried in the sand. The kid hitched a ride home and claimed no knowledge, saying he last saw it in the garage, then in the storage area, accounting for the two accounts. It won't be found until October, when a Santa Ana wind uncovers it and a dune buggy nearly crashes into it. The insurance company that paid off the owner will take possession and sell it at auction. Steven Lang will buy it, not running, for $1500, and get it running by replacing the sand-clogged air cleaner, and sell it to an elderly couple for $500 down and $50 a week. The couple will only use it for grocery shopping and to go to church. Eventually, repairs will cost too much and Sajeev will advise them to dump it and buy a Crown Vic. With no takers for it, the couple will junk it. Later, Murilee will spot it in a self-serve junkyard completely intact, and before Jack Baruth can get there to buy it, it will be crushed. However, Murilee will have salvaged the clock and installed it in his A100, so at least part of the car will live on.

  • Goggles Piazno Goggles Piazno on Mar 19, 2013

    Stolen by Dennis Rodman for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to keep the crazy nights a secret.

  • Redapple2 I gave up on Honda. My 09 Accord Vs my 03. The 09s- V 6 had a slight shudder when deactivating cylinders. And the 09 did not have the 03 's electro luminescent gages. And the 09 had the most uncomfortable seats. My brother bought his 3rd and last Honda CRV. Brutal seats after 25 minutes. NOW, We are forever Toyota, Lexus, Subaru people now despite HAVING ACCESS TO gm EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT. Despite having access to the gm employee discount. Man, that is a massive statement. Wow that s bad - Under no circumstances will I have that govna crap.
  • Redapple2 Front tag obscured. Rear tag - clear and sharp. Huh?
  • Redapple2 I can state what NOT to buy. HK. High theft. Insurance. Unrefined NVH. Rapidly degrading interiors. HK? No way !
  • Luke42 Serious answer:Now that I DD an EV, buying an EV to replace my wife’s Honda Civic is in the queue. My wife likes her Honda, she likes Apple CarPlay, and she can’t stand Elon Musk - so Tesla starts the competition with two demerit-points and Honda starts the competition with one merit-point.The Honda Prologue looked like a great candidate until Honda announced that the partnership with GM was a one-off thing and that their future EVs would be designed in-house.Now I’m more inclined toward the Blazer EV, the vehicle on which the Prologue is based. The Blazer EV and the Ultium platform won’t be orphaned by GM any time soon. But then I have to convince my wife she would like it better than her Honda Civic, and that’s a heavy lift because she doesn’t have any reason to be dissatisfied with her current car (I take care of all of the ICE-hassles for her).Since my wife’s Honda Civic is holding up well, since she likes the car, and since I take care of most of the drawbacks of drawbacks of ICE ownership for her, there’s no urgency to replace this vehicle.Honestly, if a paid-off Honda Civic is my wife’s automotive hill to die on, that’s a pretty good place to be - even though I personally have to continue dealing the hassles and expenses of ICE ownership on her behalf.My plan is simply to wait-and-see what Honda does next. Maybe they’ll introduce the perfect EV for her one day, and I’ll just go buy it.
  • 2ACL I have a soft spot for high-performance, shark-nosed Lancers (I considered the less-potent Ralliart during the period in which I eventually selected my first TL SH-AWD), but it's can be challenging to find a specimen that doesn't exhibit signs of abuse, and while most of the components are sufficiently universal in their function to service without manufacturer support, the SST isn't one of them. The shops that specialize in it are familiar with the failure as described by the seller and thus might be able to fix this one at a substantial savings to replacement. There's only a handful of them in the nation, however. A salvaged unit is another option, but the usual risks are magnified by similar logistical challenges to trying to save the original.I hope this is a case of the seller overvaluing the Evo market rather than still owing or having put the mods on credit. Because the best offer won't be anywhere near the current listing.
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