Those scammers deserve the guillotine shown on TV in my opinion. I've been hit twice but fortunately not that big. That Newport is so bitchin, I love it.
In 1965, I was 17 and already heavy into drag racing at Lions Raceway and some street racing. Our auto shop class built a rear-engine flathead dragster as a class project. I had some back issues due to be hit by a truck 3 years earlier and my chiropractor, Doc B and I often talked about fast cars. The next thing I knew, he went and bought a matching pair of 1956 Chrysler 300b cars that Chrysler had built in 64 to run at the Salt Flats and set some records. Both cars were 4-speeds. He paid what I thought was the outrageous price of almost $30,000 for the cars to be delivered to him in Placentia, CA. from a collector in Detroit. They had Salt Flat decals and documentation. One had run 154 and the other 148. Both were bright red with the 355 HP 354 ci. Hemi though we believed the faster one had a different cam by the way it idled. Doc B had fun racing a few guys on the street but when a Corvette beat him, he took the faster car to Keith Black and had them put in a 392 block that was bored and stroked to 426 ci. and bult to kick ass. He liked it so much he decided to take his other car to Keith and had him put in a second gen 426 Hemi that was built for the street, with a late model hemi trans, tubular K-member and control arms, rack and pinion steering Dana rear end and triangulated 4-link. That big old boat hauled ass. He was stopped by the California Highway Patrol late one afternoon for speeding going to Las Vegas and told the officer, "If I had known you were chasing me, I should have punched it and left you." The officer said, "Do you really think you can outrun me?" Old Doc said, "Sure!" The CHP officer said, "OK, let's see. If you can outrun me, I'll tear up this ticket, deal?" Doc smiled and shook his hand. They took off and the officer just saw doc's taillights getting further and further away until he disappeared. Doc loved telling that story. He never would race me when I got my 68 Roadrunner built up though. I had taken my father for a ride in it and scared the shit out of him and he had told Old Doc about it.