MundoMotorizado.com

As with all my posts, I must apoligize for my use of English but I am sure I would offend many more with my poor use of Spanglish!

For those not familiar with my situation...I shipped my race car (needing to be completed before racing) in 2004 to Costa Rica. Since it has arrived I have filled over 300 pages of documentation, worked through 4 customs brokers, visited nearely every government office, and invested hundreds and hundreds of hours of time trying to get my race car onto the track here. I have also spent thousands of dollars fighting to get the car in.

During this process I have done the following things:
I am now the ONLY official racecar importer in Costa Rica (this I find very interesting since there are so many running here allready).

I succesfully blocked the Goverment auction of my car to the highest bidder.

I have the largest storage bill ever seen by the bonded warehouse.

I have lost most the value of the car since it is completely corroded top to bottom.

The engine is destroyed.

The chances of me racing for the next 6 months is very remote.

I have now sold my other race car that I was going to bring here and will never bring another car ever again to Costa Rica.

My racing trailer was broken into and all my race tools, race spares, equipment and other items were stolen.

I have also not paid even one colon to anybody to help move the car into the country.


Despite all this I am still without my car because unlike a Toyota or Chevy, my car was built by hand from tubes and fiberglass and therefore has no basis for evaluation for the Hacienda. The value is very low because that it what it cost me in materials and such. The Hacienda expects the car to be worth what the Almera car or Jaguar is worth when I did not pay that much or even close. I have the invoice for the cost of the car signed but they wil not accept it. I have sent numerous listings for race cars of similar design and material construction and have met personally with the Hacienda. I have been promised that they will rule next week.

I can only guess what they will use for a value. Will they find a F1 car for sale on the internet and say that my car is worth $3,000,000, or a German Touring car for $1,000,000? I just don't know. All I can ask is that all my fellow racers and race fans collectivly pray for a fair and just evaluation based on the facts.

Here are a couple of pics for those interested....

Dude! what a shame..
This is so frustrating and embarrasing...

I think I have seen your car, I was very impressed when I saw it though it was covered in plastic and could only see very little of it... how could this happen?

Import/Export processes in this country are ridiculous... I think your vehicle fell into a system hole, no one had done this before or maybe those that did found a way around the system (which is completely possible if you have the right connections)

I am sorry your car got lost and your racing goods stolen... you must be very angry, I would be as well.

We have a good racing scene, try to build a car down here, get a regular car and prepare it, so you can make it to the track...

As far as the Porsche goes, hope you get what's left of it.

How did you find out the engine was destroyed?

I appreciate your sympathy. The engine is completely corroded and is no longer able to turn over. I have been regularly going to the car to recover it and try to minimize the damage done to it. Unfortunatly any car, especially one with no real protection from the weather, will not survive two years outside. The chassis has significant corrosion which looks to be unrepairable do too the severity of it. Once the car is out we can see what can be used to rebuild thge car or not.

Derrek