Vintage Car Fans ...Guy hits Jackpot in Unwanted Barn!

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I saw this

in one of the London papers a few years ago. I wonder what ever happened to the automobiles?
 
I wonder why the doors were welded shut. Surely somebody somewhere knew what was inside that bard!
Man, that Mini Cooper S alone(looks like a 64-66 or so) would go for about $25-30K here in the US if it was near mint condition.
I wonder how many years those cars had been sitting for? I imagine all the gas has gummed up the fuel systems, animals probably inhabit the interiors, etc.
But what a find!
 
"The owner was an automobile dealer in the 1970s and 1980s who had built up his assemblage of cars over the years and stashed it in the barn (locking the structure up when it was full) and who simply hired a photographer recently to document his collection."

Maybe this story was just a way to line up potential buyers?
 
Very interesting story.

A similar instance happened down near Fairfield, IA a few years back. An old farmer died off and left around 150 classic automobiles from the 40's through the 60's - most notably a fairly complete collection of Corvette's from 53 through the mid 60's.

Unfortunately most of the cars were in similar condition from sitting around for decades. The auction was announced all over the country - but the story goes that the family didn't get near the cash they were expecting due to the decay.

Ben
 
Ben, years ago we went to see a guy who lived in Fairfield, and had a bunch of collectable cars. Lived on a farm, advertised in Hemmings. Had some nice stuff he was keeping, but wanted a mint for the not so nice cars he was selling. Fred was his name. Wonder if that's the same guy.
 
Hey Ken -

Yep - that was old Fred. He had a black 64 post coupe tri-power Goat that my dad was interested in - but it needed a ton of work and he wanted a fortune for it as well. Nice guy - but the 'junk' cars certainly didn't have gold hiding in their quarters. I took a bunch of photos years ago when I first found his collection - if I find them I can scan and post for ya.

Ben
 
We also went to look at 64 GTO's. He advertised in Hemmings a 64 GTO, 64 Lemans, and a 62 Bonneville convertable, $1500 for all three, with the premise of putting the GTO, and Lemans together, the engine from the Bonnie in it, and going cruisin'.

When we got there, if you put the LeMans and the GTO together, you MIGHT get a good parts car. And the 62? It had been sitting next to a corn crib, that caught fire. From the firewall back, it was burned to a crisp. But the engine compartment was pretty much untouched. But it hadn't run in about 15 years. Needless to say, we left with an empty trailer!
He had a nice 64 GTO, like you said, a couple of Pontiac Safari 2 dr wagons, some nice Mopars, all not for sale.....
 
I saw some early VW and Porsche rarities in a local private collection last night: a Rometsch cabrio, a "bent window" 356 Continental, and a 356 Carrera. I especially enjoyed the Rometsch - it was black and very presentable.

Regarding the Portuguese collection, as noted this has been around for awhile and the "barn find" part of the story is romantic but untrue. It's a nice collection however. I like the fact that many of the cars aren't high-level exotics, but are either smaller limited production rarities such as the Matra D-Jet and Abarth Scorpione 1300 (or Giannini or Francis Lombardi, several small Italian companies used this pretty body), or they are special versions of quality mid-range cars like the Alfa Sprint Speciale. The Lancia Flaminias are lovely too - a buddy of mine has a Pininfarina coupe similar to the one pictured. The Flaminia Zagatos have gained quite a bit in value in the past few years; a smart choice by the guy who put this collection together.

A few cars are misidentified in the photos: If the "Baroque Angel" BMW sedan is a V8 model then it's a 502, not a 501, and the Bristol sedan is a 405, not a 404. The 405 is the only four-door sedan Bristol ever built, and while the nose is similar to that of the two-door 404 the rest of the car is longer. The 405 is totally cool and quite rare, not only because of the initial limited production (Bristol never releases production numbers so one can only guess), but many 405s have been broken to supply parts for other early Bristols as the value of the sedan is less than for similar coupes. Hopefully this 405 will meet a better fate.
 
I have had the pleasure of ..

visiting John O'Quinn's auto collection. It is open by invitation only. What a collection! Over 600, YES 600 cars under one roof.
All makes and models, i.e. a Rolls Royce for every year made since the beginning. A few of Joan Crawfords cars, the best is her 1947 purple Dodge convertible.
All kinds of British cars, French Cars, even a Lipstick Red 56' Cadillac convertable that was owned my none other than Marilyn Monroe. Quite a few Jaguar XKE models, Hollywood cars such as the Batman cars, dune buggies. GTO's. A bunch of 1950's Fords. The list is endless.
The main thing about the place is that each and very car is in perfect mint condition, and EVERYTHING on each car works! The cars are driven periodically by John and his staff. He employs a bunch of people just to run the place. It is just amazing.
But when you have cars that are super collectible or rare, you have other collectors who want that car too. They often check to see if a particular car is for sale. So I am sure that a lot of other collectors knew about the "barn collection" in this thread.
When you go to John's museum you MUST present an invitation at the check in desk. Security is VERY HIGH. It's as high tech as you can imagine. I think it would be easier to steal the Hope Diamond than to break in this place. Your cellphone must be checked at the desk. Absolutely NO PHOTOS are allowed. But the place is decorated perfectly with some rooms having mirrored walls, some rooms have diaramas on the walls. The place is just amazing.
One can imagine the liability of having multi-million dollars of autos under one roof. So he is planning on having several auto museums around the country that will be open to the public and the cars will be periodically rotated between the museums so everyone will have an opportunity to view his cars.
 
Out here we have the Behring Auto Museum at Blackhawk, Danville. A wonderful place - black granite floors, dramatic spot lighting, and some very superb cars (one of the four remaining 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrows, and in excellent shape). There's also the car auctions at Pebble Beach/Monterey every August, where some cars go for millions (esp the rare race cars from the '30's).
 
Thanks for reminding me about that Blackhawk Museum, Rich. I haven't been there for about 15 years or so and have been wanting to check it out again.
 

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