From: ecrover@midcoast.com (Mike Smith)
To: Land-Rover-Owner@uk.stratus.com
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 10:30:33 -0500
Subject: Ace ventura Rovers, you can't murder the already dead
Dear All,
A recent email said the Ace Ventura MURDERED Rovers. Well in the we
must save them all way of thinking maybe they did. But the real story is
that all but two of the 88's supplied to the movie company were utter
garbage! How do I know you ask, well I'm the one who built them. When the
call came in from the movie company, we had two weeks to put together 5
88's. My memories of those two weeks are a blur of welding on flat steel
rear cross members, cut to look like a real cross member from the back,
trying to get engines to run just a few more miles, making entire door
bottoms and bulkhead floors from bondo and cardboard, paint jobs that
covered everything, etc, etc. Two of the 88's were even RHD versions that
were converted to LHD. Man those trucks were a mess. Three of them still
survive, a gentleman in SC bought them.
The majority of the trucks were non running wrecks we pulled out of
our field, not one of the ones that got wrecked cost more than 300 dollars.
So if you thought nice Rovers were being sacraficed, I've got quite a few
more like it here rusting into the ground that are the same quality. BTW,
the film was shot in Texas and South Carolina too, not Africa. Movie magic
can do wonders, I guess it fooled you.
Mike Smith, ECR