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During 1993 I received several letters from Richard F Newton, Doylestown, PA soliciting FREE parts for a series of articles he was "authoring" for Corvette Fever magazine titled "Project 68". I ignored his repeated written requests and simply did not respond. He even provided a list of parts he wanted and went so far as to include an invoice from Paragon, to ensure I would not duplicate those parts that they sent him. Even when he later called, I informed him I was not interested in being apart of his project.
One of the FREE items he wanted was the reproduction 1968 Headlights and Wiper Door Vacuum Hose Kit that we distribute. At that time, ten years ago there was no else supplying this reproduction part. When I did not provide any FREE parts, including these vacuum hoses he wrote utterly fictional material about my reproduction kit in the April 1994 Corvette Fever installment of "Project 68". I will quote him below.
QUOTE from Richard F Newton: "The large vacuum hoses for instance, have a single White stripe that's painted on the hose" He was falsely implying we painted the stripes on the hoses, and did not even know that the White stripes are only on the very smallest hoses - never on the largest vacuum hoses.
QUOTE from Richard F Newton: " Some of the reproduction hoses use colored tape for the stripes. Once again, why pay good money for parts that are totally wrong?" This lying SOB was fabricating complete nonsense to diminish our repro. None of these colored stripes were made from tape.
QUOTE from Richard F Newton: "When you buy your parts, ask questions of people who have been down this road before." This phony load of dung was further establishing himself as an expert on these parts.
Following this I wrote to the editor of Corvette Fever to expose this phony Corvette expert, however they never responded. The following Corvette Carlisle in August 1994, Richard Newton actually came to my booth wearing a name tag on a Corvette Fever embroidered shirt. He was again trying to solicit more FREE parts for another project about 1963-1967 and even tried to sell me upon carrying the book that subsequently developed from the "Project 68" articles.
I confronted him about his false statements and he denied that he was referring to my reproduction parts, and instead was referring to another's. But I knew he was a phony liar because there simply was none other being marketed. I was the only supplier of this product to the marketplace, both retail and wholesale.
This series of "Project 68" dung evolved into one of those cheap glossy books titled "How to Restore and Modify your Corvette 1968-1982" by Richard Newton. Amazingly, even the NCRS sell this "book" for $22, but you could save that amount, as this fellow doesn't know Corvettes from a hole in the ground and I would not trust his judgements based upon prior experience. If you provided free parts, he praised them, if not he denigrated them. Richard Newton is a prime example of the Peter Principle, or shix rises to the top as I believe he is now the esteemed editor of one of those glossy monthly Corvette magazines. Later I heard they canned him from that position. Perhaps "Trading Places" needs someone for their renovations.
Geoffrey Coenen
PS Long ago, I learned that if you tell the truth and have documented evidence you don't need to fear exposing malicious trash like him. I still have several of his letters, four of the Project 68 solicitations, reprints of the articles they included, all in the postmarked envelopes. And of course those "technical" articles. What literary dung.
Save your time and money, this book is terrible and this phony author knows very little about Corvettes. If you want to build a Hot Rod maybe it would be appropriate. I can't believe the NCRS would even market this crappy book; must be the profit motive since it's of little value to NCRS devotees. I could not make this up if I tried. Now this phony author is deriding others for accepting FREE parts or services. This is directly from the VetteNet chat room December 19, 2003 What a flip flop phony. He has the integrity and honesty of a bad politician.
QUOTE:
Richard Newton rfn026@YAHOO.COM wrote:
I probably need to explain myself before things get personal. We have a way of doing that here. I don't want that to happen.I really don't like picking on Hib - it's just that I've been all over every magazine editor on the issue of full disclosure lately. I really feel strongly about this issue.
If the financial scandals of the last few years have taught us anything it's that we need to be honest with each other. Disclosure takes place every day on MSNBC. Reporters for the WSJ have very strict rules for accepting gifts and free trips. The same at the New York Times. That's why you never see these newspapers on any of the traditional GM junkets. If they attend the newspaper reimburses GM for expnses.
Autoweek recently praised the new BMW they tested in Spain. They neglected to mention that BMW paid for the flight, the food and the lodging. They got one of my letters on that issue. They replied and said something to the effect that they could grab the freebies and still be sorta honest.
Most editors reply to my letters with something to the effect of "Everybody knows we take freebies and free junkets - it's no big deal." I think it's kinda a big deal. We need to be totally honest with our readers I think it can be handled with a simple line such as "BMW provided food, transportation and lodging for this article."
Over the years I've recieved a ton of free parts - but the world has changed. The magazines have turned into Infomercials as a result of this free parts mentality. Good solid information has been compromised in the grab for free parts and advertising dollars.
In my current book I won't accept any free anything. Every item is used, photographed and then returned. I just feel better doing this. After all I don't want to end up like the guys who ran my mutual fund. Remember when we thought the stock market was honest?
Just doing my little insane thing for the world. Who knows - it might catch on. I really don't understand why editors have so much trouble with one simple line.
"Travel, food and lodging were provided by XYS to help us prepare this article."
Richard Newton
END QUOTE
I suppose he'll be writing a Religious Book next.
