2 weeks Ago By Matthew Guy
Article content It seems the crew at an outfit called Streethunter Designs aren’t familiar with the term “copyright infringement.” After showing off a custom Ford Mustang at the recent SEMA exposition in Las Vegas – and chronicling the car’s three-month build on a YouTube channel belonging to influencer TJ Hunt – the company was told to pack it in and remove it from the show floor after stern-faced lawyers from Ford caught wind of the car. The saga began earlier this year when Hunt, founder of Streethunter, which produces body kits for a wide array of vehicles, trotted out digital renders for such a kit, intended to fit a current-model Mustang.
This is not usually a big deal, since aftermarket companies produce body kits for factory-built vehicles on the regular. What emphatically was a big deal, at least in the eyes of Blue Oval litigators, was the uncanny resemblance this kit had to its bucks-deluxe Mustang GTD . As reported by a number of outlets south of the border, Ford actually managed to block the display of this Streethunter build at SEMA , alleging a violation of intellectual property rights.
The automaker has a point, given the similarities between Hunt’s creation and a factory GTD. It probably didn’t help that the Streethunter team chose to slather the car in a close-enough facsimile of the hero paint hue in which Ford has been showing the GTD. Would lawyers at Ford have gotten their knickers in a knot if Hunt’s car was fire-engine red? Probably — but the mimicry would have at least been a bit less obvious.
Car companies are understandably particular about someone else ripping off their work. Efforts by Ferrari to stamp out copycats are often held up as over-the-topiary examples of doing so, with Maranello going so far as to issue press releases about how many pairs of fake-news Fezza shoes it destroyed in the run of a year (it was 17,438 pairs, if you’re wondering, along with 60,903 watches and 57,503 wallets amongst a raft of other items). As for Streethunter Designs, they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
With this fracas, they arguably got their kit in front of more eyes than ever would have seen it whilst tucked away in a corner booth at the sprawling event that is SEMA. Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on Instagram , Facebook and X to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice..
