Barn Finds

For some classic car restorers, no wreck is too far gone. Where most see a pile of rusted metal, they see potential. Because with enough money and skill, any old car can be made like new again. Or sometimes even better. The 1961 Jaguar E-Type you see here was barely more than a stripped chassis...

An old, unloved BMW M1 stored in a barn in Germany was recently listed for sale on eBay, and according to the seller the car was the first very M1 ever built. We’re not talking about the first M1 built and sold to a customer but the very first of several prototypes built prior to the start of...

The original Dodge Charger Daytona was never a huge hit but today examples can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Getting a six-figure sum for this one, though, could be a tough task. The car is set to go under the hammer at a Mecum Auctions event in Kissimmee, Florida next month and the...

Tomorrow, September 30, is the 60th anniversary of the death of actor James Dean in a Porsche 550 Spyder. And on the eve of that fateful day, there are rumblings the car Dean died in may about to be found—half a century after it first went missing. ALSO SEE: Porsche Faces Lawsuit From Paul...

Though it's oft repeated, it's repeated for a reason: the Jaguar E-Type remains one of the greatest looking vehicles ever made. On top of that, it's a joy to drive. Especially if you can get your hands on one equipped with a 4.2-liter straight six under the long hood and a convertible roof to let...

The Jaguar E-Type needs no icing on its cake of sultry vintage speed, but this find has some anyway. Once owned by a Bugatti race driver, this E-Type was worked over by a race mechanic at Bugatti’s shop in Molsheim, France, to extract more power—enough for an extra 7 mph of top end...

Lagonda used to be one of Britain's finest luxury car marques, but cars wearing the famous name have been few and far between over the last few decades. Interest in the brand has renewed in the last few years though, as owner Aston Martin readies the name for use on its upcoming SUV, just as it...

A person's passing is never a time for joy. Nonetheless, silver linings do exist, and in this case, it's a silver lining that was put away and preserved for us by Larry Brown. It's a one-owner 1969 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 428 Cobra Jet with just 8,531 original miles, and it's in amazing shape...

Who doesn't love a good barn find story, even if it takes place in a garage?

While the first Porsche to officially wear the badge was the Type 356 from 1948, the first Ferdinand Porsche design actually hails from much earlier times--a whole half century before the famous four-cylinder, rear-engined 356. Known as the P1--and also by its longer name, the "Egger-Lohner...

The term "barn find" gets thrown around a fair amount these days. It originally referred to vehicles that were quite literally found in barns, but it has quickly evolved to refer to a vehicle that's been discovered after hiding away from the public eye for a long time. MUST WATCH: Hennessey...

After a stellar performance in the first season of the Discovery Channel’s Fast N’ Loud series, the crew from Gas Monkey Garage is back for another action-packed season, the first episode of which aired on Monday night. For those unfamiliar with the series, Fast N’ Loud sees motor...

The problem with most barn find stories is that they generally start out with “I knew a guy who’d heard of a guy whose neighbor bought a mint-condition Cobra at a garage sale for $500.” The further away from the point of origin, the taller the tale generally gets. In reality that...

True "barn finds" are getting rarer and rarer, but this one is about as close as they come: a 1966 Mini Cooper found in storage 36 years after it was parked. While the car itself isn't exactly the stuff of gloss-book legend, the Cooper holds a definite place in the history of motorsports--and the...

Back in 1960 Briggs Cunningham, a manufacturer and avid racer of cars and yachts, as well as a co-founder of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a trio of racing Corvettes built by him and his team. No one knew then what his efforts would mean to the...

When a California man passed away recently, he left behind a barn full of stuff. Amongst the stuff was a 1963 split-window Corvette (pictured below) in what appears to be fairly good, if neglected, condition. There is, of course, the usual three-decades coating of dust, and what looks like a fair...

Our experience tells us that when something sounds too good to be true, it often is. Take this 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL coupe, for example: it’s only got 31,000 miles on the odometer, and is a two-owner car that’s being offered for sale on eBay. Call us paranoid, but that would be our...

Last year, Howard Kroplick, a vintage car collector from Long Island, New York, acquired a significant piece of Chrysler history. Purchased from the Vanderbilt Museum, the 1937 Chrysler Imperial Town Car was originally ordered (to custom specifications) by none other than Walter P. Chrysler. As...

The term “barn find” generally applies to cars found in barns, garages and outbuildings, not buried beneath them. Necessity is the mother of invention, though, prompting one doting MG 14/40 Mk IV owner to dismantle his car and bury it beneath a newly-constructed cowshed, rather than...

Barn finds are often the stuff of urban legend, and tales usually begin with, “I knew a guy who knew a guy who had a friend with a 13 mile 1978 Corvette parked in his garage since new.” Connecting the dots to find the car often proves to be impossible, or the tale has been handed down...