The best barn-find Ferraris ever

Even the priciest cars get forgotten sometimes

When you buy a Ferrari, it’s only fair that you’re cautious about driving it. After all, you wouldn’t want to prang your pristine Prancing Horse.

You can go a little too far the other way, though: these Ferrari owners all stored their Italian stallions in the garage and, well, forgot about them.

Left to gather dust, these poor ponies were discovered decades down the line – often worse for wear – having not moved an inch since the day they were laid up.

Yes, all of these Ferraris were found in barns*. Here are their stories.

* By 'barns' we also mean fields and garages and the like

Buried Dino 246 GTS unearthed in LA

Making any car disappear is no easy task. When it’s a Ferrari Dino 246 GTS? That takes some effort.

In December ’74, a California man reported his two-month old 246 stolen. Police believed the Ferrari vanished and the owner claimed the insurance money.

Four years later, two boys digging in their backyard hit a metallic object. Further excavation revealed a roof and, after police were called, the missing Dino was exhumed – and it was remarkably well-preserved.

The car was subsequently restored and can now be seen driving around with the custom plates 'DUG UP'.

Unlikely Texas trio hits eBay

Dusty but otherwise pristine, this trio of Italian sports cars had long been rumoured to exist in Texas – but only in 2011 did they finally come to light.

Besides a Maserati Bora Coupé, two fabled Ferraris were found in the garage: a 1974 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS and a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona.

Unlikely Texas trio hits eBay (cont.)

The owner? An old friend of Luigi Chinetti, Italian racer and founder of the USA’s first Ferrari dealership.

The all-original trifecta went to auction at Mecum’s Monterey auction in 2011, after a good dusting – though not before an attempt to shift them on eBay.

Land of the rising Daytona

Ferrari built just one aluminium-bodied 365 GTB/4 Daytona for the road – and for years it was thought lost, having last been seen in the ’70s.

Then, in the summer of 2017, after almost 40 years hidden in a Japanese garage, the fabled Ferrari was found.

Land of the rising Daytona (cont.)

The Daytona's first owner had been Luciano Conti, founder and publisher of Autosprint magazine and a close friend of Enzo Ferrari.

Several sales later, in 1971, it arrived in Japan – where it again changed hands several times.

Eventually, in 1980, it was acquired by local car collector Makoto Takai, who promptly hid it away for nearly 40 years. 

Land of the rising Daytona (cont.)

When discovered in 2017, the Daytona was covered in thick layers of dust. However underneath all that grime it remained in close-to-original condition, with the interior in particular virtually untouched.

The spare wheel had never even been used and it showed just 36,390km on the clock.

Land of the rising Daytona (cont.)

Going to auction as a matching-numbers example of one of the rarest Prancing Horses – the only roadgoing alloy-bodied Daytona ever made, in true barn-find condition and ripe for a restoration – chassis 12653 predictably garnered a lot of attention.

Oh, and a €1.8m sale price.

Baillon’s Spider among friends

French entrepreneur Roger Baillon had dreams of establishing a classic car museum in the ’50s, but the finances didn’t hold up.

Instead, some 50 of his beloved motors were sold, while the rest were consigned for decades to shelters and shacks around the family home in France.

Baillon’s Spider among friends (cont.)

Until 2014, that was, when the haul of rare machines was rediscovered – including an ultra-rare Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider found beneath piles of magazines.

Baillon’s Spider among friends (cont.)

The classic, which was first owned by comedian Gérard Blain and was later stabled with actor Alain Delon, eventually sold with Artcurial for a staggering €16.3m in 2015.

Pininfarina in pieces

As the saying almost goes, the best laid plans for Ferraris often end up in pieces. So it was with this 1960 Ferrari 250GT Coupé Pininfarina .

Chassis 1689GT originally went to the US, before shipping out to Australia. At some point in its life, the body was prepared for removal but the project was abandoned and left in pieces for some 20 years.

Restorer Oliver Maxfield heard of the sorry 250GT, flew out to Australia to see it and bought it on the spot – complete with extracted engine and a host of extraneous bits.

Doctor’s forgotten GTE

The Ferrari 250GTE 2+2 was the Italian marque’s first production four-seater – and this 1961 example enjoyed quite the life.

Sold new to a resident of Rome, chassis 2647 then found its way into the possession of Italian movie producer Agostino ‘Dino’ De Laurentiis – the man behind such classics as Flash Gordon and King Kong.

Doctor’s forgotten GTE (cont.)

When Dino sold up, the Ferrari found itself in the hands of Eva Michelson, who in turn sold it to her doctor, Hector John Anderson, in 1967.

He used it for eight or nine years before laying it up, complete with expired tax disc and 48,700km on the clock, for more than three decades – until it re-emerged to be sold at auction with Bonhams in 2012. It made £100,000.

West coast Dino tracked down

You’d think it would be hard to lose track of a Ferrari Dino with a storied racing career spanning Le Mans, Monza and Daytona events, but that’s exactly what happened to chassis 0834.

Following an active life with Ferrari’s factory racing team, the 206P sports prototype was campaigned by a privateer outfit until being parked in 1971 – after which it spent some 26 years out of sight and untouched.

Eventually, a San Diego dealership, Symbolic, tracked it down to the west coast of the USA – complete with original scrutineering stickers from several Targa Florio events.

YouTube hunter comes up trumps

Tom Cotter – host of Hagerty’s The Barn Find Hunter – made a surprising discovery when he unearthed this rarer-than-rare aluminium-bodied longnose 275GTB sitting beside an equally storied 1966 Shelby Cobra 427.

The owner had consigned the GTB to storage after his trusted mechanic passed away in the ’90s, and the magnificent machine had been left to gather dust for the best part of 30 years.

YouTube hunter comes up trumps (cont.)

A matching numbers example with just 13,000 miles on the clock, Cotter called it “the best barn-find on earth”.

It sold at auction with Gooding & Company in 2017 for $2.53 million.

Papal freedom for 250

Enthusiasts had heard of this low-mileage 1955 Ferrari 250 Europa, but most experts thought it was a scam.

Stored in a mountain village in Puglia, Italy, even when tracked down it proved tricky to shift: the 250 couldn’t be sold without the permission of the village Don, who’d only let it go with an order from the Pope – so Swiss-based sleuth Christopher Gardner was called in.

Helpfully, his brother – a member of the Special Order of the Maltese – was able to secure a request from the Vatican and the villagers turned out to wave goodbye to the time-capsule Ferrari.

eBay bodyshell proves a first

You don’t find many Ferrari 330 GT 2+2s going on eBay, but Mark Butler of Leamington Spa in the UK did well to spot this 1965 Series 2 body shell online and snap it up for a mere £420.

With a patchy history involving export to the USA in the ’90s, chassis 7663 turned out to belong to the first right-hand drive Series 2 car built – though it had lost its engine and floor along the way.

Back in 2006, Butler said, “I think the car is worth saving in some way, shape or form” – but how far he got isn’t entirely clear.

Luxe 330GT rediscovered

A hidden metallic-grey Ferrari 330GT 2+2 had become legend in Luxembourg, but for many years it seemed to be little more than a fairytale.

One Thierry Hilger proved otherwise, by finding the magnificent machine, which had been stored in an underground garage for 28 years and never viewed.

An Italian, Rodolfo Zilli, had imported it in 1975 and used it as a daily driver, before laying it up in ’82 and barely touching it since. It wasn’t until he passed away in 2010 that it came to light, and Hilger quickly snapped it up for a careful restoration.

Pininfarina classic found in Cali

Tall tales of forgotten classics are common, but for Ferrari specialist Michael Sheehan, John Andrews’ stories of commuting in Italian exotics fortunately turned out to be true.

Hidden in a garage in the LA man’s chaotic backyard was a rare Ferrari 250SWB – and not just any 250SWB: this was chassis 1849, a competition example that had never been raced.

Its engine and interior had been stripped and its dashboard airbrushed but, after an inventory of the parts and a quick deal, it was subsequently restored to concours standard.

Europa goes undercover

While the barn-find terminology generally refers to cars found in, well, barns, sometimes it can be applied to machines hidden in plain sight.

Take this Ferrari: Christopher Gardner bought what was reputed to be the last Ferrari 212 of 80 built, only to find it had far better performance than any 212 he’d driven.

He measured the cylinders and discovered a 3000cc capacity and, after spending a year trying to get confirmation from Ferrari, eventually discovered what he’d bought was a Europa – one of the first three 250 models – which had been mislabelled since the ’60s.

Camped-out Barchetta

One of the earliest Ferrari models, this 1950 Ferrari 166MM Barchetta started out in Europe as one of only 25 built.

A man called Reg Lee Litton reportedly asked a friend to buy the car for him and had it shipped out to California. Alas, at some point thereafter something broke, so the Barchetta was laid up in his yard and left open to the Arizona elements for decades.

Eventually the 166MM was discovered and sold – but by then the seller was clued up, so California-based Manny Del Arroz paid more than US$1m for it, even in its barn-find state.

LA Boano is a no go

Another Michael Sheehan find, this one lived high on the hills behind Los Angeles. A desirable Boano-bodied 250GT, the owner allowed Sheehan to see it but wasn’t interested in selling.

The machine was, in Sheehan’s words, “a real barn-find” and was in need of “the mother of all restorations”.

Apparently it had a habit of puffing out black smoke, the leather was ripped and the paint needed plenty of work. Still, as a period ’57 Boano, chassis 0741 GT was doubtless worth a pretty penny – though it's not clear whether it ever sold.

Cotter uncovers an Ellena

Tom Cotter has a habit of unearthing rare cars in barns, and this 250 GT was no exception: equipped with a Colombo V12 engine, the unrestored and all-original ’57 Ferrari was shipped over from Switzerland in the 1970s, run for a few years then parked.

Cotter uncovers an Ellena

Designed by Pininfarina, the Italian coachbuilder passed production to ex-Ghia man Mario Boano – who later gave the task to his son, Ezio Ellena.

The latter built just 50 models, making this one rare Ferrari, not least because it hadn’t been moved for some 40 years when Cotter lifted the garage door.