Shelby's latest lawsuit, involving the supplier of $20,000 GT500KR carbon fiber hoods, makes us wonder if expected legal fees are included in their prices. The original cost of those carbon fiber hoods? $4,000. Now that's one serious up-charge.
Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, get sued on Tuesday — is that the Shelby way? You can check out the legal papers here, but it breaks down to a few key points.
1. According to the lawsuit, Shelby was so anxious to get the new carbon fiber hood for the GT500KR they offered Plasan Carbon Components (the supplier) a bonus of $50 per set if they were delivered early. It wasn't possible so they, the suit claims, agreed to half the amount when the products were delivered a week after the deadline. The hoods arrived but they were never paid.
2. Plasan created five Knight Rider hoods, of cheaper quality for stunt work, and were never paid for these.
The most interesting fact? Those $20K replacement hoods cost only about $4K to make according to details in the suit. Shelby will explain this away by saying they had to develop and test the new hoods, which is true, but they're still amortizing the developments with their customer's checkbooks.
Lawsuits are an old tradition between manufacturers and suppliers and this one, like most, will probably be settled out of court.