nascar thief

Car intact or stripped?

lots of speculation that the thief's just saw a truck and trailer … and stole them, without having any idea what they were getting … open up the trailer … surprise surprise (say that with Goobers voice )

DeadSkunk wrote: ...and in October we get to see a little orange Miata with a NASCAR engine at the Challenge. Win!!

Mwahahah.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/stolen-nascar-sprint-cup-race-car-found/story?id=29290663

Before police found the car, Kvapil told ABC News that he thought his race team was playing a joke on him when they called him about it.

Surveillance video shows a black pickup truck speeding off with a 15-foot trailer, which had the car inside. Team Xtreme racing owner John Cohen said today he believed the thieves were only after the trailer and did not realize the car, an extra engine, and $100,000 worth of spare parts were also inside.

Despite finding the car, Kvapil will not be able to race in Sunday's Sprint Cup race. His team was forced to withdraw when it missed NASCAR's mandatory inspection on Friday.

wbjones wrote: lots of speculation that the thief's just saw a truck and trailer … and stole them, without having any idea what they were getting … open up the trailer … surprise surprise (say that with Goobers voice )

The news report I heard yesterday said perhaps the thief "didn't know the car was inside".

Apparently, some reporter has never towed a car trailer. There is a pretty significant difference in the tongue weight and the towability with and without a car.

And NASCAR cars weigh about 3400 lbs.

In reply to fasted58:

You beat me to it.

i'm guessing they meant "didn't know such a distinct hard to unload to a fellow criminal car" was inside.

They probably weren't really concerned with what was inside. It seems pretty easy to strip off trailer vins and call it a homebuilt, which gets you a new vin, and a very saleable trailer. Any good stuff inside is just a bonus.

I bet there were some sweet tools in there to go with that 100k spare motor. I imagine they had insurance but - not for the missed race weekend and whatever the sponsors would be paying out for position. I hope someone finds these berkeleys fencing some of this E36 M3 and lights them up.

Cohen told ESPN.com that the car was located off Lenora Road in Loganville. Only the car was found; police did not recover the other contents of the trailer, which included a spare engine valued at $100,000 and racing equipment valued at $17,500.

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/12397756/georgia-police-find-travis-kvapil-stolen-team-xtreme-no-44-car&ex_cid=espnfb

i wonder if the thieves fired up the car just to experience the sensations of an 850hp naturally aspirated engine? then maybe they wanted to do donuts, but the lack of a lever that said "Drive" on it and the extra pedal on the floor confused and frightened them, so they decided to just gently roll it into a ditch...

Anyone think it was Busch's "assassin" girlfriend's "associates" behind the crime? Enquiring minds want to spread rumors...

Is that left front suspension damage or some sort of extreme oval camber?

In reply to aircooled:

Its extreme camber for the oval setup.

novaderrik wrote:

mndsm wrote:

gamby wrote: Dafuq does someone do with it??? I didn't think there was much of a secondary market for current Cup cars. The tools in the trailer, on the other hand...

Tell.you what I'd do- there's no vin, I'd skin it, put lights on it and tag it as a kit car.

they do have serial numbers on the chassis that the teams and NASCAR uses for tracking them, and maybe even a few hidden ones that they don't tell anyone about just for when things like this happen.. every major component of the engine, transmission, and rear end likely also have serial numbers, and they know exactly which parts were on the car at the time it was stolen.. in other words, the car is all but useless to someone that might want to do anything but cut it into small little pieces to take to the scrap yard..

They probably just thought they were stealing a trailer maybe with some tools in it.

Fun trivia - I lived on the same floor as Travis Kvapil's brother in college.

patgizz wrote: i'm guessing they meant "didn't know such a distinct hard to unload to a fellow criminal car" was inside.

That would make sense - they probably figured there was something in the trailer that was worth money, but didn't know exactly what it was, and then dumped the car as soon as they realized it was something way too easy to identify and way too hard to sell.

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

Probably. 10 years ago, Rad Rides (Troy Trepanier's hot rod shop) had a high-profile 37 Ford stolen while still in its trailer. It would have been impossible to sell, and to my knowledge, it's never been found.

So if you see it...

In reply to Will:

Wasn't that in the barn behind your house last week?

Will wrote: In reply to MadScientistMatt: Probably. 10 years ago, Rad Rides (Troy Trepanier's hot rod shop) had a high-profile 37 Ford stolen while still in its trailer. It would have been impossible to sell, and to my knowledge, it's never been found. So if you see it...

that reminds me of the 65 Impala that Car Craft built in 92 and 93, then had stolen from their locked project garage in 94.. then about a decade later, a few of the very distinctive body parts appeared in the back of a car parked across the street from one of the editors that actually built the car, over 100 miles away from where it was stolen all those years before..

the car was supremely bad ass for the time: it had a fuel injected 496" big block in it and more detailing than most street rod show cars.. unfortunately, my google fu is failing in finding an image of the car.

On the HAMB, it is not uncommon for cars to go missing in trailers. There has been more than a few that have gone missing with the tow vehicle as well the day before a big show. You get ready the day before hand and load everything up for a haul the next day and in the morning it is gone. I bet most hot rods end up in containers over seas.

How do you not secure your trailer with that much swag inside? Even my crappy HF trailer get a lock if it is going to be sitting empty for a while. You can put $100,000 worth of parts in a trailer but you can't swing $50 for a good trailer lock? Sounds like an insurance scam to me.

The news reported that the tow vehicle and trailer were stolen. Trailer and truck not found yet.

novaderrik wrote: the car was supremely bad ass for the time: it had a fuel injected 496" big block in it and more detailing than most street rod show cars.. unfortunately, my google fu is failing in finding an image of the car.

project heavy metal

i googled "car craft magazine impala project" and it was the first hit. but you're right, hard to find pix.

So, according to that news story they had a nascar and all it's assorted stuff in a 15' trailer?