APRIL 17, 2002

Off track competition...

AN unfortunate story has recently emerged in Germany about a group of Ferrari fans from Michael Schumacher's home town in Kerpen who decided to build a life-sized replica of the World Champion's Ferrari F399 Formula 1 car. The group, which included several mechanics, completed the vehicle but then made the mistake of renting it out for local exhibitions at the very reasonable cost of $550 a time.

Unfortunately this came to the attention of the Ferrari lawyers in Italy who felt that such activities could not be tolerated and so they took legal action against the Schumacher fans to stop them doing it again. The judge in the case agreed that the fake Ferrari makers were at fault and fined them $4500 for their fanatical support of Schumacher and Ferrari.

To add insult to injury (at least for Ferrari) the story came to the attention of McLaren-Mercedes and they decided to take advantage of the situation by commissioning the group to make a full-sized copy of David Coulthard's McLaren-Mercedes and so enabled them to pay the fine.

It is not known whether the group are still Michael Schumacher fans or whether their experiences with the lawyers has turned their support to McLaren-Mercedes.