Cars in the barn story
 

A friend of mine sent me this email today. I don't know how true it is but it makes for a good story. Here goes:

"How would you like to have brought this property? Imagine you're going to live in Portugal. You find a lovely farmhouse set on a decent plot of land. The place has been empty for 15 years... While exploring your new property you find a large barn. The door is padlocked and welded shut and it's all rusted solid. So you grind the padlock and the welds off and.........

http://www.intuh.net/barnfinds/afa70.htm

Some of these cars are worth more than the plot of land."

Oh my gosh!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:




Can you imagine how long it is going to take to wash all of those. :o :o :rolleyes:

Wow, that is incredible. I would probably die of shock.

The 'Unknown' is a Sunbeam Rapier ( Late 50's thru 61) They were a 2 door sedan version of the Alpine. ( had one). Maxwell Smart had a 'tiger' which was an Alpine with a 289 Ford from the factory. The Sprites in the pics were discontinued in 1965 and started production in 62. 61 was the last year for the 'Bug eye'. I have in my possession a 1960 'Bug eye' and have spent many years under the 'bonnet'.

I would say that barn is probably owned by a collector.

:rolleyes:

Nice! :cool:

Quite impressive. The buyer of the property got more than he bargined for i guess. Registering those cars though might be a little difficult though.

The story I got is that these photos were taken as a means to inventory the ill-gotten gains of a prolific theft ring. Doesn't really look much like a "barn," does it?

dcb

looks more like a warehouse to me.

...Even has formula 1 cars...

It's the sort of story that catches the imagination, but is obviously not true.

From Sports Car Market:
<<<<
I was eventually able to contact the photographer who was contracted by the cars' owner to shoot the photographs that would ultimately appear on millions of car-guy computer monitors beginning on January 20.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Manuel Menezes Morais shot the photos, but he was sworn to secrecy about the cars' location and the owner's name. However, he was able to obtain permission from the elusive owner to give me the following information:

The owner of the cars was a car dealer in the 1970s and 1980s, and decided to save the more interesting cars that came through his doors. When the barn was full, he padlocked and "soldered" the doors shut. (Perhaps welding was too permanent.)

Web sites varied on the number of cars: 58, 100, and 180 were speculated. According to Morais, there are 180 cars in the barn.

And, aw shucks, none of the cars is for sale.

Clara was able to determine that the cars are located somewhere in the area of Sintra, near Lisbon.

I asked Morais if he could ask the owner if he had a favorite car. "He has lots of good cars in very good condition," he says, "but he loves the Lancia Aurelia B24. He has two."

I would ask that a European-based SCM subscriber pick this story up and help fill in the blanks. And let me know what you find (tomgcotter@roadrunner.com). I'd like to include the true story in a future In the Barn book, as well as in SCM.

>>>>

The guy is obviously a Lancia fan, there are quite a few Lancias there.

I wonder if he leaked it to drum up interest for an auction? Although the barn is good, they are not stored in a proper fashion. if not cared for they will rust and moulder away.

Joe

I shuddered when I saw the windows open on some of them and all of the dirt and dust all over them. :(

Batteries
 

Just think how much it would cost to buy batteries for all of them. :eek:

Lee

Alot of Italian and french cars. They won't start anyway, fresh battery or not. :cool:

i would imagine they would be seized up regardless of how dirty they are to begin with