ccolley68 said:
This type of stuff is what I come to Texags for, its greatness.
That said, just a couple of observations from the outside looking in, and I have no knowledge of the high performance car world.
- it would be very silly if this guy is Barnes to continue to use screen names that so closely tie him to MFBarnes, with the similar initials in MBUSA. But Barnes has proven through the years that despite having been caught and called out, to continue drinking from the same wells, using the same names, aliases, and sites to post on.
- OP never said the place in Dripping Springs was where the cars were, just that he ALSO had that place, recently purchased. The transaction data on the CAD may not show that transaction, but it's also highly possible that in just a couple of months, in a small county, they just haven't gotten around to updating the website. Or maybe it's just an annual thing and it will be updated to the new owner at the turn of the year. Just a possibility.
- There are different names on the cars, but I don't see where he ever claimed to be the driver, just owner. Penske's name isn't written over the door of his NASCAR's, just the drivers name. Maybe MBUSA just owns them and has a team of drivers that do the racing? On one of the cars y'all were pointing out the names, it looks like there was a name, it was covered over and another name sticker placed below it, as if a driver originally slated for that car couldn't so they had an alternate that day or something. My folks have a friend with a pretty impressive car collection. Nothing close to what OP is claiming, but nice. And he owns a couple of little racecars they run at Texas Motor Speedway that look like little 30's era gangster cars with a glorified go-cart engine. He owns them, but his adult sons drive them, and those are the names on the cars. The last names at least match, but like I said, OP may hire professionals to drive his race cars. Just one possible explanation for the name issue.
I agree, there are a lot of holes in this story, but some seem like merely coincidences. I'm not a photoshop expert, but all the exterior photos of the Dripping Springs shop seem consistent, and again, he hasn't claimed to have included any of the interior shots from that location, just an unnecessary claim that he also has that place in the works.
I will be eagerly awaiting a conclusion to this if it ever comes, because this sort of stuff is just hilarious. I hope the OP didn't get jumped on for nothing.
I'm the one who actually sort of "broke" this story and I agree with you. If it's a troll by MFBarnes (and I believe it is), then it is an extremely deep and involved troll job. Especially if you dig back into his many posts here on the auto board and politics board.
- he said the building is in Dripping Springs. It is.
- he has a photo of what appears to be the same Mercedes (at least very similar color and year model, tag which might be shopped in) in front of the building in Dripping Springs, and in a parking garage in Dallas. The photo from Dallas was also used on a Mercedes owners forum.
- that tag number is for a used Mercedes lease which seems odd for a high roller like MBUSA is posing to be, but whatever.
- there are tenuous clues that lead to an Austin attorney who (you guessed it) owns a restaurant, hotel, and has patents for medical billing stuff. The Dripping Springs building is owned by a med billing related company.
If it is MFBarnes, then he went deep into assuming this dude's identity, I think.
But go all the way back to the first post that made me suspect MBUSA was Barnes..... He hijacked ezmoney's rule 1 thread and inserted bragging photos of his Mercedes DD and his multiple McClarens. That is such Barnes behavior.
Then after I posted my suspicions on the Outdoor board, he follows up with his own thread about his shop and race cars. Classic Barnes m.o.
The behavior is uncanny.
I don't know how he got the photo of the Mercedes at the dripping springs building and matched it all up, but he did. It's Barnes.
