The Rumor Thread

[mini magic]

I figgured i'd just make a new thread because i didn't know where to put this

- Dan Kennedy's old F1 is now aparently in Washington State:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpos...4&postcount=24


Anyone else heard anything new? I found the name of an ex-owner yesterday. Problem is that the news site i found it on seems to be down. I'll post it up as soon as i can get back on it

[mini magic]

Copyright 2004, Financial Mail on Sunday, London. Distributed byKnight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishingthis content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914(worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected].UKpound preceding a numeral refers to the United Kingdom's pound sterling. To see more of the Financial Mail on Sunday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.financialmail.co.uk.
Jun. 27--Paul Davidson can barely conceal his disgust as he peels off UKpound 20 from a wad of notes -- held together by a paper wrapper that says "UKpound 1,000"-- to buy a round of drinks in his favourite pub, the Admiral Rodney, just down the road from his UKpound 2.5 million six-bedroom home in the Cheshire stockbroker belt. "That's this week's pocket money," complains the man nicknamed "The Plumber."
"UKpound 1,000! How am I meant to live on that?'
It is immediately obvious he can't. His pocket money significantly fails to cover the costs of running six houses in England, including his home in Prestbury, Cheshire, and a Spanish villa where it takes ten minutes to walk from one end to the other. And then there is the 100-foot yacht once owned by Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, a 40-seater Rave Bus equipped with bar and plasma screen and 11 other cars, including a Bentley Arnage that goes from zero to 60 mph in six seconds and is driven by John, his one-legged chauffeur.
"He's got a disabled parking badge," boasts Davidson. "We can park anywhere. It's brilliant. I drive him on Monday nights, though, so he can have a drink." Davidson, 48, once owned a UKpound 550,000 McLaren F1, but sold it after it had done only 700 miles following a whopping UKpound 25,000 service bill.
So it comes as no surprise to learn that the flamboyant entrepreneur usually spent about UKpound 40,000 a month. His straitened circumstances began in March when the High Court froze his assets in a prolonged battle over the ownership of the patent of a pipe-fitting joint that he invented to make his fortune. The judge limited him to spending UKpound 1,000 a week.
The situation worsened after the Financial Services Authority, which has fined Davidson UKpound 750,000 for a controversial spread bet on the movement of shares, preventing him moving his funds around. "I can spend up to UKpound 1,000 and borrow money from my wife, but she can't pay my bills," he says.
Davidson, who has a grown-up son and daughter with his wife, Karen, claims to be worth "between UKpound 60 million and UKpound 65 million." He says the two rulings have cost him "hundreds of millions of pounds" after he was forced to sell six developments, including a hotel conversion in North Wales and an industrial estate and two office blocks in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
"I expected to make a profit of about UKpound 50 million on them, and I lost an option on a hotel complex in Madrid where my profit share would have been about UKpound 60 million," he says.
But he still owns a secure car park used by Manchester United players. "I've got their mobile phone numbers somewhere," he says. "Do you want them?' Davidson has also closed two companies and pulled out of three others.
He adds: "I'm the best inventor in the world. England should be proud of me. Why am I being treated like this? If I'd been to Eton or Harrow, I wouldn't have the problems I've got."
Those problems started more than two years ago and relate to a UKpound 5 million spread bet on Cyprotex, a bio-tech company Davidson founded. The bet helped the successful flotation of Cyprotex by pushing up the price of the shares, but the FSA concluded that it constituted market abuse. Davidson, who claims to have been ignorant of the bet, says he was not even interviewed before being fined.
"I said I'm not coming to talk to you unless I'm compelled," he says. That would prevent his evidence being used against him. The FSA refused to compel him. But the situation now looks brighter.
As Financial Mail reported last week, Christopher Fitzgerald, head of the FSA's Regulatory Disciplinary Committee, which sets penalties, had spoken to Terence Mowschenson QC, a neighbour and deputy chairman of the independent tribunal considering Davidson's appeal, during the hearing.
Both have now resigned after admitting that it was not their first chat. But their accounts differ on how many times they spoke and what they talked about, though Mowschenson admits on one occasion indicating the views of two tribunal members who appeared to sympathise with Davidson.
"I'm supposed to remember what I did over two years ago, and these two monkeys can't remember what they said a few days ago," snaps Davidson. "This tribunal is a poodle of the FSA.
"This lot are totally and utterly contemptible. This is a complete abuse of process. It feels like the result of the tribunal had already been decided. Under article six of the Human Rights Act, I'm entitled to a fair trial and I intend to get it."
The tribunal resumes tomorrow, but the FSA wants a change of members. Davidson is demanding transcripts of any taped conversations between Fitzgerald and Mowschenson, details of any connections between tribunal members and the FSA, details of which clubs or masonic lodges they belong to and, under the Data Protection Act, all information relating to himself.
"How can they reject it?" he asks. "I want to know what they have been up to, then I'll decide if I want new members."
Davidson is also considering suing Mowschenson for "UKpound 1,000 more than he has." He says: "He sat on the tribunal knowing he was chatting about the case. He isn't allowed to do that. If a jury member spoke to a witness, even to say 'Hello, what's the weather like?' that would be the end of a case.
"I don't know why the FSA just doesn't do the decent thing and give up. It has done everything else to get me. I am going to sue the FSA for a huge amount. This has damaged my health -- and you can't put a price on that."
Credit: Financial Mail on Sunday, London

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some other cool articles:

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Copyright F.T. Business Enterprises Limited (FTBE) Sep 23, 1999In January this year, a new car racing team was launched amid much fanfare at an upmarket restaurant in Soho. The glitzy event bore all the traditional hallmarks of the car racing world. A fast car - a yellow McLaren F1 GTR - was rolled out for the waiting photographers. Caprice, the supermodel, posed in front of it wearing a white driver's overall. Veuve Cliquot, one of the new team's sponsors, supplied the champagne.
The person responsible for funding the team and its launch was James Munroe. As far as the motor racing world knew, the bespectacled, slightly chubby man was a self-made millionaire who was using his wealth to indulge a boyhood dream of racing fast cars.
However, the reality was different. Mr Munroe was actually working in the relative obscurity of the finance department at McGraw-Hill, the US publishing group.
Little more than six months after launching his team, the 35-year-old was under investigation by the Thames Valley Police fraud squad in connection with a multi-million pound fraud against his employer.
The fraud, revealed in the Financial Times last week, is understood to involve invoices submitted to McGraw-Hill by companies set up by Mr Munroe. He is then thought to have used his position as director of UK corporate accounting at McGraw-Hill to make sure they were paid. Although its auditors, Ernst & Young, have not yet determined the full extent of the fraud, the amount involved is believed to be £2m-£3m.
What is clear, however, is that Mr Munroe has been leading a double life for several years. While his colleagues at McGraw-Hill thought of him as just another employee, he was mingling with the exclusive club of wealthy "gentlemen drivers" who help to fund much of Britain's motor racing circuit.
Mr Munroe started racing in 1997, when he drove a Ferrari F355 in the Goodyear Maranello Challenge. By the end of 1998, however, he was ready to launch his own team.
He bought the McLaren F1 GTR and decided to enter a team for the 1999 GT championship, a series of 11 races. The McLaren, a highly specialised racing car which normally sells for more than £600,000, was not his first expensive car. Apart from the Ferrari, he also owns a McLaren F1 road car and a Benetton Formula One car once driven by Gerhard Berger.
In setting up the team Mr Munroe was aided by Paul Spires, an Aston Martin dealer and veteran of the racing circuit. His company, AM Racing, provided engineering and other support services to the team.
Last March, Mr Munroe hired Chris Goodwin, an experienced professional driver, and started driving in races. He appointed a public relations firm, Panic, to raise the team's profile. The result was a series of appearances on television shows, the most recent of which - BBC2's The Car's the Star -was broadcast on Monday.
He was also profiled in Boys & Toys, a lads' magazine. Under a strapline which read "James Munroe - he's filthy rich and owns a racing team", he was quoted as saying: "I've been into fast cars and racing since I was a teenager, but it's a difficult game to get into. I've never had the chance until now. Yes, this is a dream come true, definitely."
Anyone who asked about the source of his wealth was told that he had started a multimedia company that he had sold to McGraw-Hill. The terms of the deal, he explained, required him to carry on working there for several years.
However, that version of events is understood to be completely false. Biographies on Mr Munroe prepared for motoring journalists also claim he has a degree in accounting and finance from Bristol University. The university has no record of him.
During 1999 Mr Munroe's extravagance continued. He set up a company to provide corporate hospitality at sporting events and arranged for Paul Young, the pop singer, and his wife to entertain visitors during a day at Silverstone. The company is understood to have outstanding debts of £86,000.
At the end of June, Mr Munroe took some members of his team on a trip to Toronto to explore the possibility of racing in North America.
The party crossed the Atlantic on Concorde and spent several nights at the Marriott Hotel in Toronto. Mr Munroe later boasted that the trip had cost him £50,000.
However, time was running out. In mid-July, he went on a two-week holiday to Spain. While he was away Mr Spires and other associates learnt that Mr Munroe's assets had been frozen by McGraw-Hill's lawyers. Shortly afterwards, the police were called in.
Mr Munroe, who is refusing to comment, is currently awaiting developments at his mock-Tudor home in Wokingham, Berkshire, with his wife and young daughter. For the time being at least, it looks as if his boyhood dream is over. Copyright Financial Times Limited 1999. All Rights Reserved.


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A $1.1 million sports car owned by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG of Germany was reduced to junk in a crash with BMW Chairman Bern Pischetrieder behind the wheel. Of just five of the McLaren F1s on German roads, another crashed during the week of May 22, 1995 while being driven at 170 miles per hour.

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Copyright Crain Communications, Incorporated Feb 23, 2004[Headnote]IF YOUR POCKETS ARE DEEP ENOUGH, McLAREN WILL SELL YOU A BRAND-NEW F1
A FERRARI ENZO, A MERCEDES-Benz SLR McLaren and a Porsche Carrera GT, or the last new unregistered McLaren Fl? That's what £1 million or about $1.89 million will buy you.
A couple of miles from the stunning new McLaren Technology Center in Woking, England-where workers are ramping up production of the Mercedes SLR sports car in anticipation of the first spring deliveries-sits a piece of automotive history.
Eleven years since the first Fl was made and five years since creation of the 64th and final road version, McLaren Cars is releasing one last unregistered example of the world's fastest road car and is offering it for sale at a recordbreaking £1 million. Except at an auction, no other essentially new production road car has been priced so high.
For almost a decade, chassis No. 65 (McLaren has a strange numbering system) has been window dressing in McLaren's flagship showroom on London's Park Lane. Millions of tourists gawked at the silver dream machine as their open-top buses pulled up outside. But in late 2003, McLaren replaced chassis No. 65 with XP5-the record-breaking version that achieved 240.1 mph on MarchSl, 1998.
"It's like something frozen in time. A brand-new Fl put on ice, if you like," says McLaren Cars' head of customer care, Harold Dermott.
"Although we have to be careful how we use that 'new' because it is clearly five years old, but here is an Fl with delivery mileage only, never been registered, never been sold by McLaren."
Delivery mileage for a McLaren Fl is about 130 to 200 miles. Each example was exercised at a proving ground before hand-over to the owner. There is a lot to exercise, most notably the 6.0-liter BMW engine that propels the carbon fiber monocoque chassis car from zero to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds and to a top speed of 200 mph.
"When you pick up your A-Class or your Smart, it is likely you're very keen that it's got less than 10 miles on the clock-to make sure that someone hasn't been using it," says Dermott. "With the Fl, that is not a concern as 140 miles is typical, and that ran the car through a comprehensive range of sequences including some high-speed running."
For a while McLaren deliberated what to charge for this historic machine. A typical price for a used version is about £700,000 ($1.32 million). Some have been sold secondhand for close to the £1 million mark-based on previous owner, specification and chassis number. Prices suffered after 9/11.
"We think it's a very reasonable price," says Dermott, who reveals that the car has actually been available since before Christmas. he thinks that the car has not yet sold has nothing to do with price.
"Each car has a price. That price might be realized in two weeks, two months or two years. There is no requirement to sell the car quickly. We are not car dealers. We are saying that this car is available and the right people know it's for sale.
"We have interest from current owners. You have to understand there are several people who own more than one Fl. It's not unusual for someone to own more than one Fl. One person has three."
One-quarter of all FIs are in the United States. The Tonight Show host Jay Leno has chassis No. 15, but says he is not tempted to trade his in for the more historic chassis No. 65.
"I like the one I have," says Leno. "It is arguably the greatest car of all time. It does everything better, faster than any other car from 1900 to 2000. Nothing touches it. Even if the Bugatti Veyron ends up being faster, there is no comparison. The McLaren is a dancer; the Veyron a girl with big boobs.
"As for the price, I think it is fair. Legally, economically, it would not be possible to make a car like that again. Any of the modern supercars are at least 1000 pounds heavier."
A handful of McLarens have been damaged in road and racing accidents, with a few having been destroyed, but Dermott hopes chassis No. 65 will be driven by its new owner. Although not before the transaction is completed.
"We don't actually expect the purchaser to drive the car [before buying]. Either they want an Fl or they don't," says Dermott. "[Once sold] we always like to see them run, but there are cars that will never turn a wheel, which makes us sad. But if that's what the owners want to do with them that's fine.
"The exciting thing is what lies ahead of it. Who will buy it, how will they use it, where will it go? Somebody now has an opportunity to make his or her own piece of history."


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[McLaren F1 Guy]

Hmm...5 F1s in Germany. Interesting.

[Peloton25]

That article that mentions the German F1s is approximately 10 years old.

I had heard the same thing about #038 btw.

>8^)
ER