AB Rally

[tdoran]

I answered this in another post. The broker in question told me he was aware of the history on 3038 but dismissed it as just a story. There are plenty of Arnolt-Bristol enthusiasts that have known our story for many years. Lee Raskin, Mike DiCola, Kenneth Andren, John Schefflin, I'm sure there's more.
For that matter, according to past registries the car was in Wesport and at Chinetti motors. Very close to where it is now. The names in the registry would've been a good place to start his research.

[Geoff Kingston]

Unless the purchaser knew the people you refer to there is little chance they would have picked up on this matter, the Indy Star report is recent, do an internet search for stolen Arnolt Bristol and this forum and the Indy Star report is all that comes up.
This is not a high profile 'Stolen Car' , in the UK a registration document does not prove ownership , is it different in the US and if so in all States. There must be countless people all over the world who hold old registration documents or title documents for cars long gone, sold or scrapped, that does not give them the right to claim ownership of a vehicle still in existence. What also weakens your argument in my view is the recently obtained title document referred to in the Indy Star feature, this should in my view never have been issued as the car was not in your possession or at the time owned by either you or your father.
Nobody in their right mind is going to hand you this vehicle back without a hell of a legal fight no matter how hard you use this and other forums and social media sites to state your case and I doubt very much if you would be making such a fuss about this if it was a $100 Ford.
Your father lost $3000 as a result of a deal gone bad , you need to focus on that and the protection given to buyers who purchase a vehicle in good faith, the time elapsed since the original sale, the number of times the car has changed hands and where it has been since your father sold it.
The only conclusion I draw from the Indy Star article is that if this matter does eventually go to court the only winners will be the Lawyers.

[tdoran]

Full disclosure of the situation was made when we updated the title. I was actually advised by local law enforcement to do so. You are correct, there will be a hell of a fight but I do intend to see this through. And yes I would still pursue this regardless the value of the car. Money means nothing really to me.

[Geoff Kingston]

Consider this then and it might be a very bitter pill to swallow, If the car is with a dealer and for sale would it not be better to purchase it back rather than spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on a legal fight you might not win.
If you loose you could end up paying the other sides legal costs and the whole lot could easily exceed the value of the car even at today's high values.
Money might mean nothing to you but that won't feel so good if you get landed with huge legal bills and still don't get the car back.
We were in a very similar situation many years ago although the car in question was nowhere near as rare as an Arnolt , we took legal advice, there was no way we were going to get the car back and no way we were going to get any more money out of the purchaser.
I must say that your law enforcement people were right in suggesting full disclosure of the situation but advising you to renew the title on a car which was not in your possession!
And the licensing department likewise for issuing you new documents, over here that would cut no Ice as they would contact the current registered keeper if they were in the UK and in most cases inspect the vehicle in question, but then we have a national rather than a state system for vehicle registration.

[tdoran]

The bitter pill would be not seeing this through. I do appreciate your view on this based on the knowledge you have on this. I wish I could share more details and I will when the time is right.

[tdoran]

Since we've covered all the ways I'm wrong and going to lose, let's play Trent wins for a while. Since the Indy Star article I've found lots of new information. Shipping records,old registries, correspondence from other enthusiasts, and so on. Obviously this broker wouldn't have access to my personal documents from Dad but if he was truly interested in finding history on the car isn't it safe to say he could uncover the same info I have found?
Or if this info wasn't in his favor, decided to ignore ?

[John Simmons]

I would like to try to clear up a few misconceptions. First of all, there isn't an Arnolt-Bristol Club, just an informal group of owners and enthusiasts. We have no officers, no structure, no dues, and no publications. We do have a former owner in our group who maintains a registry on line.
The recent rally was an informal event, and included a number of other collector cars in addition to 6 Arnolt-Bristols. Someone seems to have expected media coverage, but this was just a group of enthusiasts gathering to drive and enjoy their cars. The purpose was not to try to make a spectacle for the media, nor was this an underground event.
Please note in this regard that the Arnolt-Bristol was given the honor of leading the race car parade last year at the Lime Rock Historic Festival and had plenty of coverage, including media coverage by the "Chasing Classic Cars" team. Wayne Carini was there and even brought one of his Arnolt-Bristols. And yes, 3038 was there, so the record indicates that we are not adverse to publicity, regardless of what the OP believes.