- 20 Aug 08, 06:36#61149
Gilles Villeneuve: If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari.
I seriously think you would have to be a big fool to fall for it 
Faking supercars?
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080819/FREE/815812549/1506/THISWEEKSISSUE
In an unglamorous garage in London stands a fake 1967 Ferrari P4. The P4, Ferrari experts assure me, is one of the most beautiful Ferraris ever, with all of its curves in the right places. It also is one of the most expensive models in the Ferrari stable (estimated value: $15 million). Only three were ever made, but I own No. 4.
Fakes are my specialty. In the course of my work, I managed to meet with New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly, President Manuel Barroso of the European Union and high-kick wizard Jackie Chan. On each occasion, I dressed to impress: Armani suit, Alfred Dunhill shirt, Versace tie, Ferragamo belt, Louis Vuitton shoes, Givenchy socks. The commissioner wanted to arrest me, the president thought I was certifiable and Chan tore my outfit to shreds kung-fu-style and left me facing the press in my underpants. My entire ensemble was fake, and these gentlemen do not take kindly to counterfeits. Neither do I.
For the last 20 years, my job as an intellectual property lawyer has taken me from Paraguay's Ciudad del Este to Guangdong Province in China to Manhattan's Canal Street as I search for pirates of counterfeit goods.
Counterfeits often are associated with shady street vendors peddling imperfect copies. But in the last 18 months, I have witnessed a paradigm shift in the manufacturing of fakes. It is still only a ripple, but is set to become a tsunami. It will change the face of manufacturing and retailing, and it is fueled by a leap in technological engineering.
The story begins with the curvaceous Ferrari. I first learned of the car's existence after our investigators were tipped off during a counterfeit-watch investigation in central Thailand. Instead of timepieces, they found fake Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Lotuses. "Hogwash," I told the lead investigator when I got the report. Counterfeit supercars? Not possible. Their pride at stake, they returned to the workshop in the dead of night and sneaked a series of eye-popping pictures, which they sent to me in London.
I was intrigued. As a gearhead, I felt bound to broaden the scope of the investigation and asked the investigators to try to track down other cases. They found a factory in northeast China, which claimed to produce modern sports cars. Could they manufacture me a Mercedes-Benz SLR, I asked, even though it was not listed in their full-picture catalog? Within three days, I received a reply: No problem. I decided to raise the bar. How about a Maybach? The answer came back two days later by way of a question: Would I like a long or a short wheelbase?
But here's the problem with these fake cars: The gas tank could explode, the brakes might fail, the steering wheel is rickety, and, I am sad to report, the famous Ferrari red on my P4 is starting to peel. (By the way, I should make it clear that conscience keeps me from driving it, as well as the certain knowledge that my boss would kill me should I give in to the temptation of taking it for a spin.)
So, why has there been such a sudden surge and vast proliferation of almost copy-perfect fakes in the last 18 months?
First, there are two types of counterfeits. At the bottom of the pile, you find "genuine fakes." We are talking about the knock-off luxury watch, which, until recently, was sold on the street corners of New York, Milan and Hong Kong. Genuine fakes typically are made and sold by mom-and-pop enterprises. Both seller and buyer know the product is fake. A $20 Rolex? Yeah, right.
But a whole new wave of second-generation counterfeits has emerged: "digital fakes." The advent of digital technology has made perfect copies possible by the touch of a button on a keyboard. Never has copying been so easy, so quick and at such a high level. Digital fakes are immaculate in their appearance. Their packaging is superb and typically includes warranty cards of such high standard that they fool experts. Only upon closer scientific testing can the differences be distinguished between original and imitation.
I first came across this new way of producing fakes about a year ago, during a raid on a factory in southern China. In the midst of all the commotion--raids are noisy and disorganized and happen really fast--I spotted, quite by chance, a stack of innocuous-looking software disks. After analyzing them, we discovered that the counterfeiters had made smart use of digital technology and laser scanners to reverse-engineer highly complicated mechanical watches.
I was so fascinated by this ingenious use of technology that I visited Minolta's laser-scanner labs after my return home. I will never forget the moment I was invited to remove my watch from my wrist and place it on the laser-scanner turnstile. Within five minutes, eerily, a picture-perfect 3-D digital version of the outside contours of my watch was produced: the ultimate, undetectable copy.
Armed with this knowledge, our investigators in Hong Kong tracked and traced the sources of the software-not to China, surprisingly, but to Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The crime syndicates in these locations are "outsourcing" their counterfeit manufacturing to the less expensive labor markets of China, Vietnam and Thailand.
And Asia should not be singled out. Organized-crime groups in other parts of the globe also have joined the digital-fake revolution. Not just censored and luxury goods but every product known to mankind, including supercars, can be and is being perfectly copied. This is sure to have profound implications for many industries, including automobile manufacturing, in the future.
Buyer beware, indeed.
Gilles Villeneuve: If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari.
looks better than that enzo