Grand Car-Making Plan Hits Reverse -- Bellevue Man's Designs For Lamborghini Replica Spur Charges, Lawsuits

BELLEVUE - Jay Lammers likens himself to Preston Tucker, the small carmaker dramatized in Francis Ford Coppola's movie, "Tucker: The Man and His Dreams."

The film was the saga of a little guy battling the automotive giants, the tale of the gutsy entrepreneur trying to build a car that was ahead of its time.

It also was one of the biggest box-office flops of 1988.

Critics called Tucker not a hero but a con artist. Many customers say the same of Lammers - and three of them, from Florida, Pennsylvania and California, have filed lawsuits in King County Superior Court claiming the Bellevue man defrauded them out of $132,000.

Meanwhile, Redmond police last week referred the case to the King County prosecutor's office, recommending first-degree-theft charges.

Tomorrow Lammers is to appear in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where he filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws, to meet with his creditors and a court-appointed trustee.

Lammers, 29, says he was a man with a brilliant idea: Make a car that's fast and sleek like the classic Lamborghini Countach, but for a third of the price. In 1989, he started Lammers' Engineering Inc.

He hired workers in his East Redmond garage to stretch and modify the GM Fiero frame and engine, over which he put a California company's kit car body - a Lamborghini Countach replica. He christened it the Lammers' Aggressor.

Lammers enticed customers with ads in upscale car magazines -

the DuPont Registry, Specialty Cars and The Robb Report - that promised the Lammers' Aggressor was the "finest American exotic available anywhere, with a price that won't bankrupt." People could order the basic car for $45,000.

There were options, too - a turbo engine, an alarm system, a rear-mounted video camera.

He assured customers the Aggressor was better-made than cars typically built from kits and less temperamental than the $180,000-plus authentic Lamborghini.

People called. Orders came. Business grew.

And Lamborghini noticed.

A screeching halt

Lammers' success came to a halt Feb. 22, when Chrysler, Lamborghini's parent company, sued, accusing him of trademark infringement. Lammers also had provided some customers with Lamborghini emblems for their cars, according to former employees.

The lawsuit prevented him from finishing his customers' cars, Lammers said. He was out of business. He said he couldn't give back their money because he had spent it on parts and overhead.

"When I saw the movie ("Tucker"), I didn't think it could happen," Lammers said. "But big business can push around a little business, filing lawsuit after lawsuit until they bleed you to death. I lost everything I earned in my life."

Kenneth Umans, whose New York law firm of Colucci and Umans filed suit against Lammers on Lamborghini's behalf, says Automobili Lamborghini, a subsidiary of Chrysler, has sued a number of businesses that try to confuse the public with replica Lamborghinis.

"Collectors aren't happy when everyone and their brother has a replica," Umans said. "It kills the image."

Problems began earlier

Customers say Lammers' problems revved up long before Chrysler got in the driver's seat.

Kaz Widuch, an insurance broker from Hackettstown, N.J., says his $61,000 car has been in the shop since he received it in November, and it's cost him another $7,000 in repairs so far - after two years and five completion target dates.

"The workmanship was totally inferior," Widuch said.

In many cases, Lammers never started building the cars, according to court allegations.

The three customers who have sued:

-- Florida businessman Nicholas Carolides paid Lammers $66,000 last August for a car that was to be completed early this year. On March 17, Lammers called Carolides' office to say his business had shut down and he was filing for bankruptcy protection.

Carolides was able to collect some of the car's parts, including a frame, engine and body.

-- Lou Galli, a Pennsylvania beer distributor, made partial payment of $42,000 in January and was told the car would be finished by early May. He planned to use the car to promote his business by displaying it in parades and malls.

"I wanted a car that when you pulled up to a gas station, people surrounded it," Galli said. On April 9, Lammers informed Galli he couldn't have his car or his money back.

Life savings gone

-- Dag Munck, a graduate student at UC San Diego, paid Lammers $28,500, his life's savings, in November for a partly completed car that he was supposed to receive by December.

He planned to finish it with his father, who has since died. He notified police in mid-March, after Lammers didn't return his phone calls.

Lammers won't say how many cars he sold.

"Once you get past 10 you don't keep track," he said. And he is fuzzy about how many satisfied customers there are. He provided only one: The Smith family from Birmingham, Ala.

Kevin Smith, the son of a mobile-home mogul, says he has put 2,300 miles on the new family car since January. Wherever he drives, people stop to look and even take pictures. As much as he enjoys the gawking, Smith, 20, doesn't drive his $65,000-plus, option-loaded Lamborghini replica often.

"It runs good, but you can't see out of it that good," Smith said. "It's not a car to be driven every day."

While Lammers says he can understand his customers' anger, he also claims to be a victim.

Since he filed for bankruptcy, he says, all he has left is his 1,100-square-foot Bellevue apartment and two old cars.

"I don't want to place the blame anywhere but on my own head," said Lammers, adding that the past months have been hard on his wife and their toddler son. "But this isn't uncommon when a big company comes down on you like this."

Anyone who examines the records of his bankrupt company, Lammers added, will see that the money was spent on the business, not on his personal profit.

"I genuinely wish there were something I could do to make things right," he said. "It's devastating to me to be put in a situation where I hurt someone else."