Well I suppose most sports car designs do fall into unique looks, so I understand how they'd be able to patent the exterior design, but the machine inside would

Well I suppose most sports car designs do fall into unique looks, so I understand how they'd be able to patent the exterior design, but the machine inside would likely never hold up in court. If the guy had built an old sedan he wouldn't have a worry in the world about the exterior design as the amount of chassis sharing between companies they're all inherently the same. I do believe you're right though, the patents on the 'ornamental design' seem valid, but as you stated virtually any vehicle design patent seems invalid if it was made before 1994. I'm wondering if vehicle manufacturers allow these patents to die off after 14 years to allow people to rebuild classics. I mean what would the public reaction be like if Ford sued someone for patent infringement because they fixed up a classic Mustang and couldn't get all the Ford manufactured parts.