Multiple Skylines Lost In Fire At International Vehicle Importers (Updated 5/12/16)
I'm sad to relay the news that International Vehicle Importers, the company I bought my Nismo R32 from, suffered a catastrophic fire at their Ontario, California warehouse last Monday that resulted in the total loss of 24 cars including several Skylines.
It's unclear so far exactly what cars were involved but when I toured that facility last year it housed the spare chassis for the R34 race car that Sean Morris, the owner, helped run in Speed World Challenge as well as another Nismo R32 and a Motorex R33. From what Sean told me those cars were in long-term storage there and were likely still present at the time of the fire - hopefully I'm wrong about that. From the pictures posted online I can see R32s and at least one Nissan Cefiro were definitely involved.
As gearheads it's certainly sad to hear this kind of news due to the loss of some cool cars but what's even more disheartening is that two of the company's dogs died in the fire. I went to IVI several times last year and played around with several of the many dogs they had at the warehouse so I'm very sad to hear about that. Cars can be replaced but a loyal animal's life can't.
At least no people were harmed. Sean was apparently out of town at One Lap of America when it happened. IVI also has several other locations such as at Long Beach and in their newer Seattle location so they still have many cars that were spared from harm. Hopefully Sean and IVI will bounce back soon from this incident.
Pics and more info here at TheGentlemanRacer.Com.
UPDATE: Road and Track just posted more news about the fire and unfortunately the R34 race car and the Nismo R32 that I mentioned were there were indeed lost in the fire as well as a rare 1994 Eunos Cosmo that a friend of mine was thinking of buying. At this time suspicions are being raised that the fire started because of overloaded wiring from a possible illegal marijuana growing operation next door.
Road And Track
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| Image credit: Sean Morris |
It's unclear so far exactly what cars were involved but when I toured that facility last year it housed the spare chassis for the R34 race car that Sean Morris, the owner, helped run in Speed World Challenge as well as another Nismo R32 and a Motorex R33. From what Sean told me those cars were in long-term storage there and were likely still present at the time of the fire - hopefully I'm wrong about that. From the pictures posted online I can see R32s and at least one Nissan Cefiro were definitely involved.
As gearheads it's certainly sad to hear this kind of news due to the loss of some cool cars but what's even more disheartening is that two of the company's dogs died in the fire. I went to IVI several times last year and played around with several of the many dogs they had at the warehouse so I'm very sad to hear about that. Cars can be replaced but a loyal animal's life can't.
At least no people were harmed. Sean was apparently out of town at One Lap of America when it happened. IVI also has several other locations such as at Long Beach and in their newer Seattle location so they still have many cars that were spared from harm. Hopefully Sean and IVI will bounce back soon from this incident.
Pics and more info here at TheGentlemanRacer.Com.
UPDATE: Road and Track just posted more news about the fire and unfortunately the R34 race car and the Nismo R32 that I mentioned were there were indeed lost in the fire as well as a rare 1994 Eunos Cosmo that a friend of mine was thinking of buying. At this time suspicions are being raised that the fire started because of overloaded wiring from a possible illegal marijuana growing operation next door.
Road And Track
Glad no people were in it when it happened, however I hate to see two dogs lose their lives.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that part totally sucks. Sean posted on his Facebook that at least one dog that was there made it out okay at least - just scared out of her wits.
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