PART 10:

The room was quiet in that particular way rooms get quiet when they’re not sure yet whether to be respectful or skeptical and are hedging between the two. I’ll be upfront about one thing before I start, he said. Sinclair Automotive examined this vehicle 14 months ago and concluded it was a standard production unit with modifications.

I understand and respect the process that led to that conclusion. I’m also going to demonstrate this afternoon why that conclusion was wrong. He heard from the second row a very slight shift in posture. He did not look at Victoria. He clicked to his next slide. He spent the first 10 minutes on the physical evidence. He walked them through the frame geometry with engineering precision, the rear suspension pickup point configuration, the crossmember fabrication, the weight differential from production standard units. He showed dimensional

comparisons. He showed the undercarriage photographs annotated with measurements. He showed the VIN plate and the factory undercoating applied over it. and he showed a metallurgical analysis he’d had run at a university lab in Lexington that confirmed the undercoatings composition was consistent with factory application rather than aftermarket treatment. The room was listening.

That much he could feel. He moved to the documentation, the factory employment records, the university archive letter, which he put on screen in full and read the critical passage aloud, the production log pages, the partial paper tag from inside the door, the laboratory analysis of which had dated the paper stock and ink composition to within a range consistent with the vehicle’s estimated manufacturing period.

He talked about Gerald Callaway without dramatizing it. Just the facts of the man’s employment, his position in the program, the documented details of the program itself, the timeline. He let the documentation carry the weight. He did not editorialize. He did not say what Gerald had been thinking or feeling.

He just said what Gerald had done and what the evidence showed. Then he talked about what had happened to his research files. He said it directly without accusation. His documentation had been stolen from his workshop in December. He had rebuilt it. He had distributed copies in ways that made it impossible to suppress.

He said this calmly, looking at the room, and he let the implication sit there without underlining it. Several people in the room shifted in their seats. Raymond Hollis, he noticed from his peripheral vision, had uncrossed and recrossed his arms. He ended with the letter from Dr. Patricia Ash, who had reviewed his documentation independently and provided a written assessment, which he read in full, concluding that the evidence was consistent with the vehicle being a factory constructed prototype from the program in question and that a full

independent technical inspection was warranted. He turned off his presentation. I’m not asking you to take my word for this, he said. I never have been. What I’m asking is that the industry convene a proper independent technical inspection using qualified examiners with no prior position on this vehicle and that the results be made public.

That’s all. He paused. Thank you. The Q&A started immediately. The first three questions were from people he read as genuinely curious technical questions about the VIN analysis methodology, about the archive materials, about the metallurgical test. He answered them fully. The fourth question was from a man in a blazer who identified himself as a senior appraiser at a competing auction house.

And his question was not really a question but a statement structured as a question that factory prototypes from this era had been comprehensively documented by the automotive history foundation and that the absence of this vehicle from those records argued strongly against Ethan’s conclusion. The Automotive History Foundation records are based on information provided voluntarily by the manufacturers.

Ethan said the program in question was not voluntarily disclosed by anyone. So, the absence of the vehicle from those records is not evidence that it doesn’t exist. It’s consistent with the history of deliberate concealment that I’ve just documented. The man in the blazer said something under his breath to the person next to him.

Ethan heard the word convenient and chose not to address it. The fifth question came from Raymond Hollis. He didn’t stand. He spoke from his seat, which was a choice. “Mr. Walker,” he said, and his voice was the particular smooth of someone who had spent decades in rooms where smoothness was a competitive advantage. “I think everyone here appreciates the effort you’ve put into this.

It’s clear you care deeply about this vehicle, but the reality of this industry is that cars attract stories. People want things to be extraordinary, and that desire sometimes leads very capable, well-intentioned people to see connections and documentation that, on closer examination, simply aren’t there. He paused. No disrespect intended.

The room waited. Ethan looked at him. Not the way you look at a threat, but the way you look at an engine that’s making a sound you’ve heard before. Mr. Hollis, he said, “You worked adjacent to the performance division program in the early ‘7s on the corporate side. Is that right?” A brief stillness.

I had various industry roles during that period. Do you recall the program I’ve described? I recall a number of internal programs. Do you recall this specific one? I recall various internal programs, Hollis said. And the repetition was smooth, but the smoothness had something tight underneath it. Now, the factory letter I’ve shared this afternoon, Ethan said, references the program by an internal designation.

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