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