A few months ago you may have read about the 1965 Chevelle that was purported to be a Z16 396 yet it was quite obvious that the amateurish owner changed the data plate and VIN. We now have another high profile muscle car where the authorities have gotten involved. The difference with this car on eBay is that the old VIN was on eBay a few years before – read more about how a few subvert the hobby for the almighty dollar.

When the Dodge Challenger was introduced in 1970, it was late to the Ponycar game but it also had the time to survey the market and bring something new to the segment. It was available with everything from the “Leaning Tower of Power” Slant Six all the way up to the 440 Six Pack and 426 HEMI. With a longer wheelbase than most Ponycars plus quad headlights (all other Ponycars save the Mercury Cougar had dual headlights), its persona was classier, and still even classier with SE (“Special Edition”) equipment. If you wanted to go fast, there was the R/T (“Road/Track”) which started with the 383/335 and went up from there; for Trans-Am fans, you had the Challenger T/A with a 340 Six Pak.

Thanks to Barry Washington and a host of other hobbyists supplying the elbow grease, a red flag appeared on a recent eBay auction. If you visit Barry’s Hamtramck Historical website, you can view a page full of broadcast sheets/invoices, window stickers, and more. Among these are VINs of cars that have been parted out or even those that have appeared on eBay. Playing around with VINs is a major felony for a number of reasons, but the obvious one in this case is that anyone can get a low-performance Challenger and turn it into a hi-po R/T and reap the benefits of its higher market value. That’s outright fraud!

As related in a Mopar forum, the VIN and fender tag (the plate with the options listed in code) were sold on eBay in 2008. The FJ5 Sublime Challenger R/T that appeared on eBay didn’t look suspicious so far, but its VIN “JS23N0B141390” matched that on Barry’s site. Per the fender tag, the Challenger was originally a 383 Challenger R/T painted in FC7 Plum Crazy with a sequence number of 141390. Someone reported this car to the authorities, who seized the Challenger and are currently trying to figure out what the donor car was.

There’s no saying whether the current owner is the guilty party, but a little detective work will show who perpetrated the fraud. Regardless, this story is a reminder that there are people who are motivated by greed, and if you are in the market for a pedigreed muscle car, you may find yourself looking at a rebodied car and not even know it without the efforts of a select group of hobbyists with integrity.