A body shop in Brazil got busted for building knock-off Lamborghinis and Ferraris that look surprisingly real.

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Brazil Phony Ferraris Itajai Civil Police

  • Police in Brazil shut down a factory making fake Lamborghinis and Ferraris on Monday.
  • The sham cars were being sold for 1/5th the price of the real exotic supercars.
  • The shop was offering the cars on social media for $45,000 to $60,000. The Italian automakers notified police.

Brazilian police have shut down a covert factory making knock-off Ferraris and Lamborghinis on Monday, following complaints from the two Italian automakers.

Police arrested a father and son duo who owned the workshop in Santa Catarina, about 840 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro, according to the Associated Press.

The shop was offering the cars on social media for $45,000 to $60,000, which is far less than what the genuine exotic supercars cost. The least-expensive 2019 Ferrari model is the Portofino with a MSRP of $214,533 and the Lamborghini Urus has a base price $200,000.

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The sleek vehicles looked similar to the authentic ones and included badges and seats embroidered with the car companies’ logos.

Police delegate Angelo Fragelli told Folha de São Paulo that the mechanical parts came from old cars, such as the engine of a Chevrolet Omega. Authorities are still looking into how many sham vehicles were made. 

The raid comes just a few weeks after an Italian court recognized the Ferrari 250 GTO as a work of art, protecting it from reproductions, according to The Telegraph. Only a few dozen of those cars were made during a two-year period in the early 1960s. One Ferrari 250 GTO sold at auction in 2018 for $48 million.

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Source: Business Insider – bchang@businessinsider.com (Brittany Chang)

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