Last week, Spanish authorities arrested eight individuals for running a supercar replica business, where mostly fake Ferraris were built using humble Toyota parts and then sold for upwards of 40,000 euros (approximately $53,000).

We have no doubt the people buying the fake cars knew they were fake, but as Ferrari points out, this wasn’t like a reproduction of fine art but just forgeries pure and simple. The practice, says the automaker, is akin to those “fake Hermès bags sold in the streets.”

While most fans of the Prancing Horse are unlikely to be fooled by the replicas, to the casual observer we wouldn’t be surprised if the cars were believed to be the real deal.

Don’t agree? Just take a quick look at this video from the Spanish National Police, which was posted up on World Car Fans. It shows just a handful of the 19 replicas that were seized last week (17 Ferraris and two Aston Martins) and shows just how deceptive the cars actually were.

Not only are the cars’ styling and proportions accurate, their exhausts have been tuned to sound like a genuine supercar.

Our only question now is: Who were actually buying the cars?

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