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.

  • Theflyersfan OK, I'm going to stretch the words "positive change" to the breaking point here, but there might be some positive change going on with the beaver grille here. This picture was at Car and Driver. You'll notice that the grille now dives into a larger lower air intake instead of really standing out in a sea of plastic. In darker colors like this blue, it somewhat conceals the absolute obscene amount of real estate this unneeded monstrosity of a failed styling attempt takes up. The Euro front plate might be hiding some sins as well. You be the judge.
  • Theflyersfan I know given the body style they'll sell dozens, but for those of us who grew up wanting a nice Prelude Si with 4WS but our student budgets said no way, it'd be interesting to see if Honda can persuade GenX-ers to open their wallets for one. Civic Type-R powertrain in a coupe body style? Mild hybrid if they have to? The holy grail will still be if Honda gives the ultimate middle finger towards all things EV and hybrid, hides a few engineers in the basement away from spy cameras and leaks, comes up with a limited run of 9,000 rpm engines and gives us the last gasp of the S2000 once again. A send off to remind us of when once they screamed before everything sounds like a whirring appliance.
  • Jeff Nice concept car. One can only dream.
  • Funky D The problem is not exclusively the cost of the vehicle. The problem is that there are too few use cases for BEVs that couldn't be done by a plug-in hybrid, with the latter having the ability to do long-range trips without requiring lengthy recharging and being better able to function in really cold climates.In our particular case, a plug-in hybrid would run in all electric mode for the vast majority of the miles we would drive on a regular basis. It would also charge faster and the battery replacement should be less expensive than its BEV counterpart.So the answer for me is a polite, but firm NO.
  • 3SpeedAutomatic 2012 Ford Escape V6 FWD at 147k miles:Just went thru a heavy maintenance cycle: full brake job with rotors and drums, replace top & bottom radiator hoses, radiator flush, transmission flush, replace valve cover gaskets (still leaks oil, but not as bad as before), & fan belt. Also, #4 fuel injector locked up. About $4.5k spread over 19 months. Sole means of transportation, so don't mind spending the money for reliability. Was going to replace prior to the above maintenance cycle, but COVID screwed up the market ( $4k markup over sticker including $400 for nitrogen in the tires), so bit the bullet. Now serious about replacing, but waiting for used and/or new car prices to fall a bit more. Have my eye on a particular SUV. Last I checked, had a $2.5k discount with great interest rate (better than my CU) for financing. Will keep on driving Escape as long as A/C works. 🚗🚗🚗
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