Classic Motor Carriages

Classic Motor Carriages—usually badged or abbreviated CMC—was a South Florida kit-car and specialty-vehicle manufacturer that became one of the industry's largest mail-order operators. Its origin is unusually tangled. Published histories trace the enterprise to Tiffany Motor Cars/Bay Products and the Gazelle kit around 1973, while Florida corporate material places a Classic Motor Carriages incorporation in 1978; design rights to the Gazelle passed to a Classic Motor Carriages company on 8 September 1976. George Levin acquired or took control of the business around 1978 and expanded it with intensive national magazine, airport and show advertising. At its peak it operated a roughly 160,000-square-foot Miami-area facility, reportedly generated $15–20 million in annual revenue and sold hundreds of kits monthly. CMC supplied fiberglass bodies, chassis and component packages, and in some cases completed automobiles. A replica's visual inspiration does not make it an AC, Bugatti, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, MG or Porsche product, and donor engines do not change the CMC badge identity. The range combined original neo-classics with replicas. Gazelle evoked the Mercedes-Benz SSK and accepted shortened Volkswagen, Ford Pinto or Chevrolet Chevette architecture. Tiffany, Royale and later Destiny were original 1930s-style luxury designs. Classic Bugatti referenced the Type 35; Classic Cobra the AC/Shelby roadster; Classic Speedster, Speedster C and 359 the Porsche 356 family; Classic MG TD the British roadster; and 33 Vicky and 34 Classic reproduced Ford hot-rod idioms. Engine, gearbox, chassis and completion details often depended on the customer's donor, so they are configurations rather than fabricated trim-year models. CMC purchased Fiberfab and registered Fiberfab International Inc. on 27 May 1983. It then sold some CMC designs under Fiberfab names: Gazelle as a Fiberfab SSK, Classic Speedster as Speedster 356, Speedster C as Californian, and CMC's MG TD through the acquired badge. Conversely, earlier Fiberfab designs are not automatically CMC models merely because the corporation owned their producer; the catalog includes only families explicitly documented as CMC offerings. In 1994 Florida's attorney general sued on behalf of hundreds of customers, alleging false and misleading representations about kit quality, delivery and assembly time. Production ended by 1996 after the resulting judgment. Later enterprises and names associated in sources with the same principals—including Auto Resolution, Innovative Street Machines/Street Beasts, Classic Auto Replicas, C.A.R.S., Champion Auto Works and GGL—are successors or disputed aliases, not years silently appended to CMC. A later inquiry to Levin reported that owner and manufacturer-certificate records were retained seven years and destroyed, explaining why precise serial totals, kit/completed splits and exact annual model availability cannot now be reconstructed. Twelve rows account for the complete defensible CMC-branded family list, with model-specific dates labeled according to the strength of surviving brochure, corporate and collector evidence.

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