Now, GM decided to formally hire Lutz as an advisor to provide counsel to the senior leadership team of the company.
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From the vulgar depths of eBay Hell comes this...thing...this yellow-painted monstrosity that wants to pass as a Lamborghini. There are kids in Nepal, kids who have never seen a car before that would spot this fake from a mile away. Let’s run down our eBay Bad Buy™ checklist, shall we?
What makes this all the more funny is when one looks at his 2007 Pontiac Solstice-based Faresi Concept Car that’s currently advertised on eBay. The seller expects this Frankenstein monster of a car to “be very collectable in the future, maybe even worth millions.”
Mr. Faresi, who’s unknown to the internet except in this ad, has been designing cars for donkey’s years and is an automotive heavyweight. His Solstice-based creation takes, “ideas from the most beautiful super sports cars in the world”.
Among these beautiful cars are the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, Koenigsegg Agera, BMW Z8 and 1950s Corvette. Sadly, the Faresi Concept Car is not in the same class. Heck, it could very well be in a class of its own.
With less than 2,000 miles on the clock the Faresi features a rebuilt engine (always a good sign), turbo intercooler, custom headers, competition shocks, custom exhaust, factory alarm and “James Bond style Alarm” (whatever that is – maybe it fires missiles?).
The mighty 2.4L 4cyl is said to give the Faresi Concept Car a 0 to 60 mph time of 4.9 (0 to 100 km/h) seconds, which is on par with many modern sport models.
“This car gets more attention than many $300K+ super sport cars,” though probably not for the reasons the seller imagines.
If you have the stomach for it, you can check out our complete gallery of images below.
By Tristan Hankins
Editor's Note: The designer and eBay seller of the 2012 Faresi Concept No 00001 sent us this email describing the car and the idea behind its creation in his own words:
I believe that everyone is entitle to it's own opinion, but calling it a "Frankenstein Monster" is too funny! to each it's own I guess!, most people think is a very beautiful cool looking car, that is why people take pictures of the car and take pictures with the car also!
You can see more pictures of the car and pictures of the super sports cars, from witch Mr. Faresi was inspired by in the making of his first Faresi concept shown here!
How the Faresi car was created; Have you ever looked at the best cars in the world and said, (for example), I wish I had a car with a Ferrari front that has Koenigsegg head lights and Lamborghini doors with Alfa Romeo rear, with Aston Martin side look, and a BMW side Vents, but that has an American reliable engine that is fast but economic on gas, that I can drive every day and is low in maintenance, that is also exotic and beautiful, and I am not going to see someone else driving one on the next block....... and the next block after that, and that I do not have to spend over $300K for it.
I'm sure you have, well that is what Mr. Faresi also said, after owning just about every brand of sport car out there, (has owned more than 350 cars) and now has created the \"Faresi Car\" a sports car that was born by being inspired by the best super sports cars of the world, put in one......to make the # 00001 Faresi.
Every were the car goes people love it! this is one of the reasons why, this car was made inspired by a few sports cars, and this 3 were included and they were voted the 3 most beautiful cars in the world"
Mr. Faresi has been doing something right, and it looks like he is in the right track! He is already working in building his first production car, this one will have it's own chassis and body!, once is in production, then this first concept car based Solstice could become very collectable!
Sincerely,
Mr Fuad Faresi
The 29-year old man from Iowa, whose birth parents gave him up for adoption when he has was just four months old because they couldn’t deal with the idea of raising a child with special needs (or so they thought), just recently qualified from the U.S. Olympic team in archery!
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While most physicians would prescribe a local LS V8 transplant, this doctor went for something more exotic, to be precise a 2JZ, which is a code name for the Toyota Supra’s twin-turbocharged inline-six.
This time, the car is supposed to resemble a Gallardo Spyder in a Superleggera outfit. The Lambo replica is finished in the usual for this type of conversions canary yellow and while the builders ditched the scissor door solution, they did add power controlled doors and a hood, which automatically open at the touch of a button – you know, just in case some of your friends weren’t already impressed […].
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Now, Ford and GM are desperately trying to hold onto these “brand-less” customers. Accoriding to a report from the Wall Street Journal, in this year alone, 70% Pontiac owners, 71% of Saturn owners and 65% of Mercury owners who traded in their vehicles left with something other than a Ford or GM product.
The teaser renderings and photos of the faux-Pontiac reveal a bespoke front end with a split grille and a revised hood with air scoops, while at the back we find new tail lamp and bumper designs as well as a restyled trunk sporting a prominent wing. The characteristic profile side stripes, quad tail pipes and the newly styled alloy wheel options round off the exterior changes. There’s no word yet if there will be any kind of upgrades to the interior and the mechanical hardware of the Camaro.
Before the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, the subsequent bankruptcy GM and the disillusion of the Pontiac brand, as many as half of the Holden Commodores built in Australia were destined for the U.S. and the world in the form of the Pontiac G8. A thinly disguised Holden Ute even made a showing at the 2008 New York Auto Show as the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck.
Blurring the line between cars and trucks, the Holden Commodore-based sport pickup comes from a long line of Utes dating back to the middle of the previous century. The Ute almost made it to North America when Pontiac revealed the G8 Sport Truck at the 2008 New York Auto Show, but GM’s growing financial troubles at the time put a stop to that plan, and eventually the brand itself which was discontinued in 2009, and finally shut down in 2010.
Our seller’s “Carriero GT” features a rebuilt engine and transmission (never a good sign in this sort of car) with the car said to have covered 6,900 miles since then.
The seller will have more than enough once he sells this beautiful and quality replica for the low, low price of US$21,500. Don’t believe me? The seller himself says, “THE PICTURES SHOW THE BEAUTY AND THE QUALITY BUILT INTO THIS REPLICA.” And you can really see it too, from the awkward body mouldings, botched-together interior and Costco brand fog lights.
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A new survey from RL Polk & Co. suggests that most Pontiac owners who bought a new car in 2010 chose a product from General Motors. More specifically, of the 57,641 Pontiac customers looking to replace their car, GM was able to recapture 53.3% of them, with 33.5% being a Chevrolet vehicle, 11.7% a GMC, 6.7% a Buick, and 1.5% a Cadillac model. A significant percentage of buyers defected to the Ford brand, which ranked 3rd overall with 10.5%, while the Chrysler Corporation saw the Dodge brand ranked 9th, capturing 3.2%. Jeep and Chrysler together were able to capture the interest of 1.7% of Pontiac owners looking for a new vehicle in 2010.
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Part of its awesomeness is due to the fact that Archie, the man behind the project, went to enormous lengths to make it as accurate to the original as possible, but without spending a fortune.
If you have the patience to read all 19 pages of the thread on Pennock’s Fiero Forum, you’ll learn that Miura parts aren’t exactly cheap nor abundant, so Archie did a lot of fabricating and scavenged all over the internet for suitable donor parts.
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Whatever you may think, the Fiero-based Ferrari replica is here to stay. And, much like David Hasslehoff, there’s nowhere these things are more popular than in Germany. At least, that’s the impression that I get. Presumably built in Belgium (as it is registered there), this replica has 71,000 km (44,154 miles) on the clock, a manual transmission and a whopping 123 hp. That’s only 349 hp short of a real F40!
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1. It’s a Pontiac Fiero. Yes, it’s mid-engined and built in the good ol’ U.S.A., but it was built in the good ol’ U.S.A. in the 1980s and has a body made of plastic. That’s like saying, “She’s Latino and has a great body, but she has rotten teeth and herpes.”
When the Holden-derived Chevy Caprice Police Car was revealed for the North American market twelve months ago, rumors of a reborn G8 in the form of a Chevrolet were rife. Now, Aussie motoring website Drive is reporting that U.S. exports of the Holden Commodore SS are "imminent", with a launch expected before the end of the current model's lifespan.
LupiniPower, a local tuner from South Africa, has taken upon itself to introduce a hotted-up version sporting a 6.0-liter supercharged V8 with 535-hp and a massive 590 lb-ft (799 Nm) of torque. That's an increase of 173-hp and 200 lb-ft over the stock Ute with the naturally aspirated V8 engine.
Thanks to the added power, LupiniPower's SportUte completes the 0 to 60 mph (96km/h) sprint in 4.4 seconds instead of 6.0 seconds, while 0-100 mph (160km/h) goes by in 9.9 seconds, close to 4 seconds faster than the standard Ute.
