Researching any info re: Paul Cunningham, Competition Cobra privateer

[USC_COWBOY]

Here's some photos of the cars and races we are involved with....

[Nedsel]

Ah. As soon as I saw the name Lance Coren, I knew we were in for a bumpy ride. All I can suggest to Michael is, don't rely on whatever Coren says. Did Lance tell you he attempted to claim 2049 was his many years ago? Did Lance show you the photograph of another Cobra that he claimed was his restored CSX 2049? Did Lance admit that he surrendered his phony CA title to Lanse Hasselrig because the courts made it clear he, not Coren, was the legitimate owner? Probably not. I am aware that Lance Coren saw the remains of Hasselrig's Cobra as well as the 2049 VIN on it at an early SAAC convention, after it had been stolen by the manager of the storage facility where Hasselrig left it. And he was angry, as it cast a shadow on the claim Coren had made that he owned the car. Please do not expect me to accept anything Mr. Coren says, as I have already been down that road way too many times.

[USC_COWBOY]

Ned, I am so discouraged by this whole situation. Everyone is pointing fingers of blame on everyone else, I think now people involved in this mess are protecting their own turf.

I was directly involved in Paul's racing, every car from the AH Sprite in which his racing career started up to his death in the Cobra.

I can only present my memories and experiences.

I am going on 75 years of age and have survived death twice, once due to total blockage of my lungs due to DVTs and PEs, and Stage 4 stomach and liver cancer, which is in total remission.

I have no axe to grind, all I am attempting to do is clear the air about Paul and his ownership of the Cobra.

In the entire time we had the Cobra, there was never a person known as Ann Abidin or her son involved with our family, never at a tech inspection, never at a race or event. A person who buys a state of the art race car and hires a driver goes to the events. Paul never was paid a cent by her or her son.

The entry application for the various races we were in involved a registration where the owner, driver are specifically identified; the race programs always showed that information, and if you look at them you will see that she or her son were never shown as owners, they show Paul Cunningham as owner and driver.

Wesselink may well have a piece or pieces of the wreck so that he can incorporate it into the newly built chassis, as the car was cannibalized for identifying features, the wrecked car went to Shelby for post wreck examination, and our family never was contacted or any effort to return the car to us. That action did not sever the ownership from our family.

People simply took parts and claimed ownership for their personal projects, as evidenced by the air-car in the Netherlands (they contacted me to try to extract information to add to their supposed history, again to increase the worth of their air-car) as they laid claim to CSX2049); also, the car being reconstructed from parts in Encinitas by Wesselink.

Those involved in nefarious activities will eventually meet their demise and will pay the dearest price for the harm they did to the victims.

I will continue my search for truth until my dying day, that is the least I can do to in an effort to correct the ownership and history of Paul Cunningham, Privateer Cobra pilot.

[Nedsel]

I wish you well in your efforts. Please allow me to append a letter from May of 1980, written to me by Lance Coren, in which he explains that he has sold "his" 2049 (which never existed except on a fraudulent title) to Lanse Haselrig, and he explains further the ownership chain he found doing research at the CA DMV. It may alter your perception of his claims regarding the car today:

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

This statement needs further clarification as to what I highlighted in red. As far as I can tell at this time, you have a cut up AC Ace chassis, and not that of a Cobra, real, replica, or continuation series.

Bill S.

Originally Posted by Nedsel

Ah. As soon as I saw the name Lance Coren, I knew we were in for a bumpy ride. All I can suggest to Michael is, don't rely on whatever Coren says. Did Lance tell you he attempted to claim 2049 was his many years ago? Did Lance show you the photograph of another Cobra that he claimed was his restored CSX 2049? Did Lance admit that he surrendered his phony CA title to Lanse Hasselrig because the courts made it clear he, not Coren, was the legitimate owner? Probably not. I am aware that Lance Coren saw the remains of Hasselrig's Cobra as well as the 2049 VIN on it at an early SAAC convention, after it had been stolen by the manager of the storage facility where Hasselrig left it. And he was angry, as it cast a shadow on the claim Coren had made that he owned the car. Please do not expect me to accept anything Mr. Coren says, as I have already been down that road way too many times.

I was just thinking about Lynn Park's CSX 2259 replica because that car was created apparently with some left over cut up pieces of the frame allegedly removed from the Shelby dumpster. And I would assume that there was no title to create the car with. I was thinking that would be similar to the case of the CSX 2049 air car in Europe as it was based on a cut up original frame and an illegitimate title.

Keep in mind that the 2018 registry classifies Lynn Park's CSX2259 "as a vintage racer that mimics the original 2259 in appearance and features".

So anyway, I took a glance at my 2018 registry. And interestingly "Lance S Coren" purchased the unfinished CSX 2259 replica from Lynn Park in 1983 and sold it back to Lynn Park in 1987.

And it occurred to me, is that the same Lance Coren mentioned in this thread? Interesting. Could it be that this Lance Coren fellow was trying to somehow create an legitimate title for CSX 2259 to attach it to the replica CSX 2259 to turn it into a real CSX 2259? Maybe when he failed to create a title through some slight of hand he sold the unfinished car back to Lynn because Coren realized the car would never be considered the "real" 2259? That is just speculation on my part, but if Coren tried to create a "real" CSX 2049 in the past, perhaps he also tried to create a "real" CSX 2259 in the past as well.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by Nedsel

Ah. As soon as I saw the name Lance Coren, I knew we were in for a bumpy ride. All I can suggest to Michael is, don't rely on whatever Coren says. Did Lance tell you he attempted to claim 2049 was his many years ago? Did Lance show you the photograph of another Cobra that he claimed was his restored CSX 2049? Did Lance admit that he surrendered his phony CA title to Lanse Hasselrig because the courts made it clear he, not Coren, was the legitimate owner? Probably not. I am aware that Lance Coren saw the remains of Hasselrig's Cobra as well as the 2049 VIN on it at an early SAAC convention, after it had been stolen by the manager of the storage facility where Hasselrig left it. And he was angry, as it cast a shadow on the claim Coren had made that he owned the car. Please do not expect me to accept anything Mr. Coren says, as I have already been down that road way too many times.

Now coming back to this. What is the car that Lance Coren was claiming to be CSX2049? Was it the car that ended up in the Netherlands that Fran Kress had built? Did Lance Coren get it from Fran Kress? Or is Lance Coren's car yet another CSX2049 out there somewhere? I think Ned said that the Kress car had a PA title when sold to the Netherlands, but this post mentions a phony CA title. I am confused about how many phony cars and phony titles there are at this point.

[Nedsel]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

Now coming back to this. What is the car that Lance Coren was claiming to be CSX2049? Was it the car that ended up in the Netherlands that Fran Kress had built? Did Lance Coren get it from Fran Kress? Or is Lance Coren's car yet another CSX2049 out there somewhere? I think Ned said that the Kress car had a PA title when sold to the Netherlands, but this post mentions a phony CA title. I am confused about how many phony cars and phony titles there are at this point.

Lance Coren claimed to own CSX 2049 and sent us a photograph of it. However the photo was actually that of CSX 2147. I still have it, complete with Lance's address stamp on the back. He actually owned nothing but a bogus title he managed to obtain by submitting phony facts to the CA DMV. He relinquished it when they started asking questions. There is only one legitimate title to the car, and it is the one listing Lanse Hasselrig of CA, who is the same individual who was pictured in the photos taken in 1967 when the wrecked car was sold.