The 35 greatest barn-finds of all time

Lost, forgotten and now worth a fortune

For most car enthusiasts, barn-finds hold an irresistible appeal.

Whether it’s the years of sleuthing, the unravelling of complex histories or the thick layers of dust, there’s something riveting about forgotten classics unearthed after decades.

And, while most of us would be content to pull an old Morris Mini out of a warehouse, the most fabled barn-finds involve vehicles so valuable it’s barely believable that they were forgotten in the first place.

Whether found by intuition, a tip-off or sheer accident, these are the 35 greatest barn-finds of all time.

1. Dino buried in a Los Angeles yard

In December 1974, a California man reported his two-month old Ferrari Dino 246GTS stolen. According to the police report, the car had vanished without a trace – and, because the story checked out, the owner claimed the insurance money.

Some four years later, two boys playing in the dirt in their backyard hit something metallic. Further digging revealed a car roof and, when the police arrived, the missing Dino was exhumed – and it was remarkably well-preserved, all things considered.

The car’s next owner restored it and it’s still on the road today, wearing a vanity plate that reads DUG UP – no joke.

2. Junkyard Mustang is missing Bullitt

Bullitt is rightly regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time – not least for its iconic chase scene through the streets of San Francisco.

The movie made the Mustang famous – and two were used in filming: a ‘hero’ car and a 'stunt' car. The latter had long been thought lost, a victim of the scrapheap – until a rusting white Mustang turned up in a Mexican junkyard.

2. Junkyard Mustang is missing Bullitt (cont.)

Sitting out in the sun and salty air had done the old Ford no good. Barely recognisable, it lacked an engine or transmission, and restorer Ralph Garcia almost made it over to resemble the Eleanor Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds.

A few tell-tale signs made him pause for thought, though: reinforced strut towers and holes drilled in the body – presumably for additional lights during filming – suggested there was more to the story.

Its chassis number was sent to Ford specialist Kevin Marti and he was able to confirm its provenance as the long-lost Bullitt 'stunt' car. It’s now undergoing restoration.

3. Second Bullitt Mustang found by Ford

The better-known ‘hero’ Mustang used in the filming of Bullitt fared better than the ‘stunt’ car.

First sold to a Hollywood studio exec then to a New York detective, it was bought in ‘74 by Mustang fan Robert Kiernan for US$6000. Steve McQueen himself reportedly tried to buy it twice in the late-’70s but was rebutted.

3. Second Bullitt Mustang found by Ford (cont.)

Garaged in 1980 after a breakdown, it then stayed there for more than 30 years, until Kiernan’s son inherited the fastback and began restoring it.

Ford got wind of the plan and agreed to help, displaying the car alongside the new Mustang Bullitt at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show.

3. Second Bullitt Mustang found by Ford (cont.)

It’s since become something of an automotive celebrity, appearing at car shows and concours around the world as befits its status as one of the most famous movie cars ever.

It’s now set for its next adventure – it’ll be sold by Mecum at its massive Kissimmee auction in January 2020 and although it’ll cross the block with no reserve, we suspect it’ll go for big bucks.

4. Mercedes-Benz 300SL in a Cuban garden

Is this the world’s only barn-find 300SL? 

When Chris Renwick alerted C&SC’s longtime contributor Michael Ware to the existence of an abandoned Gullwing in Cuba, the hunt was on. 

Ware travelled to the island in 2005 and, with help from Richard Bebbington, discovered the engine-less classic alongside a coupé version – they couldn't be sold due to export laws in the communist state. 

The Gullwing then disappeared, but after an extensive search was rediscovered by Miguel Llorente, who published a wonderful YouTube video about the car.

Later, automotive photographer Piotr Degler also located the dilapidated Gullwing rusting under a banana tree, and published shots of the astounding find in his book, Carros de Cuba.

5. Huge 81-car French haul including a Miura

An 81-car barn-find needs a seriously big barn, which is possibly why this eclectic French collection was discovered spread around several fields and outbuildings, under rubbish and overrun by brambles.

And as if the vast size of the collection wasn’t notable enough on its own, even more incredibly there was a Lamborghini Miura among them.

5. Huge 81-car French haul including a Miura (cont.)

The cars’ owner, a compulsive buyer called Henry Ruggieri, barely used them, and kept each minus a vital component, to ensure they couldn’t be sold, which is how they were found in 2018 by auctioneer Henri Adam from Adam Encheres.

5. Huge 81-car French haul including a Miura (cont.)

The Miura, number 118 of 275, turned out to be a rusty, muck-covered, matching-numbers 1968 Miura P400, with non-standard wheel nuts, a broken crank handle and 77,886km on its odometer, which had joined Ruggieri’s collection in 1996.

It reached €560,000 when it sold in January 2019.

5. Huge 81-car French haul including a Miura (cont.)

While the Miura was clearly the standout lot, there were some other desirable cars in the collection, such as, this 1953 Porsche 356 Pre-A.

Granted, it’s super rusty and doesn’t have its original engine – instead, it has one from a 1959 356B – but it fetched €48,000 at Adam Encheres’ sale.

6. Dodge Charger Daytona in an Alabama barn

When car restorer Charlie Lyons visited Glenwood, Alabama, with a view to buying a 1970 Chevelle, the last thing he expected to come across was a rare 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona – a car developed to win NASCAR races and built to the tune of just 503 examples.

6. Dodge Charger Daytona in an Alabama barn (cont.)

Owned by that gentleman since 1974, it had spent decades in a barn, out of the elements but within reach of various animals – which happily chewed up the front seats.

6. Dodge Charger Daytona in an Alabama barn (cont.)

An all-original, matching numbers example equipped with bucket seats and centre console, the owner was eventually convinced to part with the Daytona – and it later sold at auction with Mecum in 2016 for US$90,000 (half its estimate).

7. Porsche 901 in a Brandenburg barn

Porche’s 911 might have been called the 901 had it not been for a copyright complaint by Peugeot. So it was that the Stuttgart legend became the 911 – but not before 82 were built with 901 designation in 1964.

None were officially sold to the public and they’re so rare that even the Porsche factory didn’t have one in its collection.

7. Porsche 901 in a Brandenburg barn (cont.)

When Porsche factory staff heard rumours from German television station RTL2 of a 901 standing at the back of a barn on a former farm in Brandenburg, they hopped to it.

Chassis 300.057 was in a very poor state, with both front wings missing, a lot of rust damage and a rough interior – but Porsche still wanted it, shelling out €107,000 to add the 901 to its fleet.

8. Baillon’s museum dream

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

Some 50 of his 200 or so beloved motors were sold, while the rest were consigned for decades to shelters and shacks around the family home in France.

8. Baillon’s museum dream (cont.)

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

It sold with Artcurial for a staggering €16.3m in 2015 – alongside the likes of a Bugatti Type 57, a 1956 Maserati A6G 2000 and many worse-for-wear pre-'50s cars, in a sale that broke 10 price records.

9. Ferrari 166MM in the Arizona sun

One of the earliest Ferrari models – and arguably the car that made Ferrari – 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.

10. One-off Ferrari Daytona found in Japan

Ferrari built just five aluminium-bodied 365GTB/4 Daytonas for the track – and only one for the road, which was found in Japan just last year.

After being sent to a Bologna car dealer, the 1969 Daytona was bought by its first owner: Luciano Conti, founder and publisher of Autosprint magazine and a close friend of Enzo Ferrari.

10. One-off Ferrari Daytona found in Japan (cont.)

Further down the line, it found its way to Japan, even gracing the cover of a Japanese car magazine in 1972.

By 1980, the Ferrari had been acquired by local car collector Makoto Takai, who hid the car away in a garage for nearly 40 years.

10. One-off Ferrari Daytona found in Japan (cont.)

For years it was thought lost for good, having last been seen in the ‘70s. Then, in 2017, the fabled Ferrari was found – a matching numbers example of one of the rarest Prancing Horses, in true barn-find condition.

Going to auction with RM Sotheby’s as the only roadgoing alloy Daytona ever made and ripe for a restoration, chassis 12653 predictably garnered a lot of attention – and a €1.8m sale price.

11. Land-Rover #1

‘JUE477’ isn’t quite the first ever Land-Rover – a prototype and 48 pre-production models pre-date it – but it is the first one intended for public consumption and is therefore a pivotal vehicle in the Landie story.

It was very nearly lost to history, though, having been rescued from its resting place in a Northumberland barn a few years ago.

‘Juey’ changed hands in late 2017, following its recovery, and despite appearances will be put back on the highway.

12. Breathtaking Belgian Bugatti trio

To find one classic Bugatti in a barn would be fortunate, to put it lightly. To find a pair? Well, that would be pretty incredible.

But when Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff entered a ramshackle garage in Belgium, having moved loads of rain-sodden sandbags to gain access, they found three of them – plus a 1920s Citroën.

12. Breathtaking Belgian Bugatti trio (cont.)

The barn-find beauties belonged to Dutch sculptor – and Bugatti devotee – August Thomassen, and had been in the barn since the end of the 1950s, lying there untouched for the best part of 60 years.

Why had they been laid up for so long? Well Thomassen was a sculptor of some repute and used them for research rather than transportation. 

12. Breathtaking Belgian Bugatti trio (cont.)

The standout was the Type 57 Bugatti Cabriolet wearing coachwork by Graber: one of just nine produced and discovered with all its original mechanical components, its dashboard and its instruments. 

The collection was auctioned, with no reserve, by Artcurial in early 2019, with the Type 57 selling for €500,640, a 1929 Bugatti Type 40 fetching €190,720 and a Type 49 Limousine making €196,680.

13. Shelby Daytona Cobra stashed in Cali storage unit

This one is perhaps the most bizarre and complex barn-find of all time.

Donna O’Hara kept the very first Shelby Daytona Cobra – received from her father who’d reportedly received it from Phil Spector – tucked away in a storage unit for decades, turning down offers to buy it and even refusing to let Mr Shelby himself see the car.

13. Shelby Daytona Cobra stashed in Cali storage unit (cont.)

Then, in 2000, O’Hara killed herself by self-immolation and the car went to her mother, Dorothy Brand – who sold it to a buyer for US$3m, who in turn sold it to another buyer for a rumoured US$4m.

13. Shelby Daytona Cobra stashed in Cali storage unit (cont.)

Huge and costly litigation followed as various interested parties – including a family friend with keys to the Cobra’s former lock-up – claimed to be entitled to the ‘60s racer. Following various settlements, the car continues to reside in the Simeone Museum.

14. ‘Lost’ speed-record BMW M1

It’s hard to believe that a record-breaker could just fall off the radar, but this BMW M1 did just that, disappearing for a quarter of a century.

The car took Austrian racing driver Harald Ertl to a land-speed record for a Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG)-powered car back in 1981

14. ‘Lost’ speed-record BMW M1 (cont.)

Ertl, working alongside British Petroleum, retrofitted the M1’s straight-six to run on LPG, before fitting twin KKK turbochargers, taking output up from 276bhp to 410bhp, and adding a massive rear wing and an air dam, and dropped the nose.

The car resurfaced in 2018 and went to auction with Coys at 2019’s Techno-Classica show in Essen, Germany.

15. 1963 DB4 Convertible discovered

Arguably one of the most beautiful cars of all time, the Touring-styled DB4 launched in 1958 and set the tone for Aston Martin machines for the next 25 years.

Conventionally available as a coupé, just 70 were built in convertible guise – including the 1963 example unearthed at the start of this decade.

15. 1963 DB4 Convertible discovered (cont.)

Chassis DB4C/1104R was first sold to a Professor Geoffrey Emett Blackman, who worked at Oxford University – as a St John’s College car park pass on the windscreen showed.

In 1978 it changed hands and two years later the second owner removed the engine – not the original – with the intention of rebuilding it.

15. 1963 DB4 Convertible discovered (cont.)

Alas, it remained laid up in dry storage, with 60,000 miles on the clock, until it was found and sold at auction with Bonhams in 2011 – for a tidy £310,000.

It shipped in true barn-find condition – albeit with the engine reinstalled – covered in dust and in need of some loving care and attention. Restored to concours standard, it could be worth £900,000.

16. Racing Ferrari forgotten on an Ohio trailer

This fabled Ferrari 250GTO – chassis 3589 – started out on the track, making its competition debut at Goodwood in 1962 with Mike Parkes at the wheel.

Over the next two years it was raced extensively, even ending up on the starting grid of the ‘64 Sebring 24 Hours for Tom O’Connor’s Rosebud Racing Team, with Richie Ginther and Innes Ireland at the helm.

16. Racing Ferrari forgotten on an Ohio trailer (cont.)

In 1964, O’Connor donated it to a high school in Texas, but it wouldn’t stay there for long: by 1970 it was being rented out for hire in Ohio and by 1972 it was parked on a trailer in a field.

There it remained for more than a decade, seen by many but never sold or restored, sleeping outside on flat tyres and with the windows open – until it was eventually saved and, further down the line, treated to a concours restoration in Switzerland.

17. Dusty Bugatti Type 57S in a British garage

Imagine walking into an old garage and finding yourself face-to-face with an all-original 1937 Bugatti Type 57S, covered in dust but otherwise complete. It sounds unbelievable, but that’s exactly what happened in the UK in 2009.

17. Dusty Bugatti Type 57S in a British garage (cont.)

The rare machine belonged to a doctor named Harold Carr. He bought the 1930s French sports car in 1955 and drove it until 1960, before laying it up – and it spent the next 49 years in his garage without moving.

His family inherited the car when he died and, in 2009, it sold at auction with Bonhams for €3.4m.

18. Pre-war Citroën TPV prototypes lifted to freedom

Citroën started designing its economy car – code-named très petite voiture (TPV or ‘very small car’) – in 1935. It built 250 prototypes before World War II stopped the project in its tracks and company officials asked that every prototype be destroyed – but not everyone followed orders.

Until 1994, historians believed two TPVs to have survived but, in a surprising discovery, three additional prototypes were found hidden in the attic of a building located on a test track in La Ferté-Vidame.

They were forklifted out – a process which required removing part of the roof – and the unrestored cars immediately joined the Citroën collection in Paris.

19. Undercover Miura in New York

Some long-forgotten barn in New York once housed a small collection of snow blowers, a dirt bike and hundreds of cardboard boxes. Oh, and a red, all-original, complete and rust-free Lamborghini Miura.

Parked by its owner almost 30 years ago and not touched since, it came to light when a Florida enthusiast stumbled across an online ad for a “one-off 1967 Lamborghini SS”.

19. Undercover Miura in New York (cont.)

Coming out of the barn exactly as it went in – from the paintwork to the Rolling Stones cassette in the player – the Miura went on to be displayed unrestored in an art gallery, before being stabled with a professional athlete then going to auction with Hollywood Wheels in 2018.

20. A Ferrari and a Cobra hanging out in North Carolina

Most people would describe a dusty Cobra – one of only 100 or so equipped with a 428cu in V8 – as the find of a lifetime.

Most people would say the same thing about a 1966 Ferrari 275GTB with an alloy body, just a few dozen of which were ever built.

20. A Ferrari and a Cobra hanging out in North Carolina (cont.)

Imagine, then, finding both in the same garage, on the same day.

That’s exactly what automative author and historian Tom Cotter did for the YouTube series ‘Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter’. The cars had been driven into a North Carolina garage in 1991 and hadn’t moved since.

20. A Ferrari and a Cobra hanging out in North Carolina (cont.)

Found as part of a haul that also included a 1976 Triumph TR6, a 1978 Morgan Plus 8 and a mid-1980s BMW 325iX, they went to auction with Gooding in 2018, with the Cobra selling for $1m and the Ferrari fetching $2.53m.

21. Horch scorched in the Texas desert

Horch – which later became Audi – built this 830 BL in 1953 for Dr Richard Bruhn, the man who ran Auto Union at the time. He used the one-of-a-kind limousine briefly before it fell into the hands of a US soldier stationed in Germany, who shipped it back to Texas at the end of his mission.

Back on American soil, it was used on a regular basis before being parked due to a gearbox problem. It was almost scrapped, but an enthusiast named Al Wilson intervened at the last minute, buying it from the soldier and storing it on a plot of land in the Texas desert, where it would remain for 40 years.

Many years later, Wilson’s kids would called Audi Tradition to inquire about the car. The manufacturer immediately bought it and had it shipped back to Germany, where it still resides today. It’s the last Horch ever built and, judging by its condition, it’s lucky to be alive.

22. The Cobra in the barn

Chassis CSX 2149 was the 149th Cobra to be completed by Shelby.

In 1969 it was bought through a newspaper advert by one Dr Bryan Molloy – a chemist born in Scotland, residing in Indianapolis and working on developing the anti-depressant drug Prozac.

22. The Cobra in the barn (cont.)

Repainted bronze, the Cobra was used for a few years before being consigned to a shed in a field on Molloy’s farm – where it rested for 24 years, kept company by cattle.

It was unearthed in 1993 by a courier who persuaded Molloy’s wife to part with the car, before promptly selling it on for twice the price. Thirty days later, the barn burnt down.

22. The Cobra in the barn (cont.)

After a stint with Cobra collector Billy Weaver, the Shelby machine ended up in the hands of barn-find mogul Tom Cotter – and it went on to feature on the cover of Cotter’s book The Cobra In The Barn.

Cotter would sensitively and comprehensively restore the Cobra, before selling it on in 2005. It went to auction with RM Sotheby’s in 2018 with an estimate of $1-1.2m, but didn’t sell.

23. 500K in an LA junkyard

Rudi Caracciola drove for the Mercedes-Benz team in the ’30s era of what is now Formula 1, winning the European Drivers’ Championship three times – and, fittingly, a one-off Mercedes-Benz 500K was commissioned for him in 1935.

An elegant example of pre-war motoring, in 2012 it emerged that this rarest of Mercedes – possibly worth $10m or more – sat on flat tyres in an LA junkyard founded by one Rudi Klein and today run by his two sons.

Part private collection, part scrapheap, the contents of Porche Foreign Auto are generally kept a secret – though it’s now known that a whole host of motoring treasures reside there, including the 500K.

24. Abandoned Miura in an Athens car park

Gifted to Greek singer-turned-rally driver Stamatis Kokotas by multi-millionaire shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, this 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400S – complete with custom interior and bolted-on foglights – sat for some 30 years in the car park of the Athens Hilton.

Presumably ragged by Kokotas, when the V12 engine needed repairing by Lamborghini it was left to sit without its block below ground and forgotten for decades.

The car was finally extricated during work on the hotel and, in 2012, the Miura was sent to auction with Coys in London. It didn’t hit its reserve and its whereabouts today are unknown.

25. Fake story, real find

Just because the story’s fabricated, does it mean the barn-find is fake? Not in the case of this Portuguese haul.

Circa 2007, a story surfaced of a New York man buying a plot in Portugal and finding hundreds of dusty, rusty classics – potentially worth millions – sitting in a barn. And there were photos to prove it.

25. Fake story, real find (cont.)

As it turned out, the whole tale was a falsehood, as barn-find aficionado Tom Cotter discovered after some in-depth research.

The truth of the discovery, according to Cotter, was that the owner – a dealer in the ’70s and ’80s – started hoarding interesting motors that took his fancy. When his barn reached capacity, he welded the doors shut.

25. Fake story, real find (cont.)

Decades later, Manuel Menezes Morais was called in by the owner of the collection to shoot photos of the cars – but not permitted to share any information about their whereabouts or past. Somehow, the images came to be posted online and so the tall tale was created.

A total of 180 classics were reported to reside in the barn – including rare Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Porsches and even a few Rovers. Their fate remains a mystery, though.

26. Santa Monica Mercedes revealed

Established restoration specialist Rudi Koniczek turned up a treat in 2011 with the discovery of an alloy-bodied 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing in Santa Monica – one of only 29 ever built and the last of these ultra-rare machines to be located.

Reportedly gifted to the owner in 1955 for his college graduation, it was parked in the ’70s when the transmission failed – and there it remained for the best part of 40 years, surrounded by old computers and boxes.

Sold for an undisclosed sum, Koniczek was commissioned to restore the car – and in concours condition it could be worth a tidy £5m.

27. Auto Union brought back from the USSR

This barn-find is actually a series of barn-finds which, in unison, came together to create a complete, highly original and extremely rare Auto-Union Type-D Grand Prix car.

Behind the find was the couple of Paul and Barbara Karassik. After meeting a classic car enthusiast in Poland in the early-’70s, Paul heard a rumour that a handful of the fabled Auto Union competition machines had survived and were still somewhere in Russia.

27. Auto Union brought back from the USSR (cont.)

So began a hunt for the ages. Deploying his impeccable Russian, Karassik ventured deep into what was then the USSR, making contacts that, eventually, enabled the couple to track down and purchase an original engine and part of a chassis.

Not quite finished, the couple continued to scour motor works around the region and, after a tip-off from an automotive technician, they found chassis 19 – in pieces, in a forgotten corner of an abandoned brickworks.

27. Auto Union brought back from the USSR (cont.)

While its bodywork was beyond repair, it offered them a complete chassis, engine, gearbox and much of the original suspension. Each part was sold individually through a government intermediary, before being shipped via Helsinki to the USA.

British restoration specialist Crosthwaite & Gardiner was called in and rebuilt two cars from the parts – including a substantially original machine based on chassis 19, valued at some £7m in 2009.

28. Sleeping beauties awoken

German photographer Herbert Hesselmann’s find of 50-odd classics on a French farm in 1983 remains one of the most fabled: rusting Alfa Romeos jostled for space with dilapidated Aston Martins, Bugattis, Ferraris, Rolls-Royces and more.

A German magazine published the story – triggering collectors to track down and hound the owner, with some even stealing cars – while a few years later Hessleman and journalist Halwart Schrader published Sleeping Beauties, with more details and photos.

28. Sleeping beauties awoken (cont.)

The owner turned out to be one Michel Dovaz, a Swiss national and wine entrepreneur who had a thing for cars – and so had begun filling the barns of his French farm with them.

Hassled and stolen from, Dovaz had the entire unrestored collection moved to a friend’s château.

Encouraged by the friend, two of Dovaz’s Bugattis were then displayed at the 1988 Bordeaux Motor Show, with a 25-car museum established the following year.

28. Sleeping beauties awoken (cont.)

In the years that followed, Dovaz sold of a number of his cars, keeping a handful for himself and shipping several to the museum at Château de Sanxet.

The fate of each of the cars from this barn-find for the ages is examined in The Fate of the Sleeping Beauties, published in 2010 by Veloce.

29. Lightweight E-type lost then found

When, in 1998, Jaguar specialist Terry Larson heard rumours about an alloy-bodied E-type coming out of the estate of renowned pilot Howard Gidovlenko – the ‘Mad Russian’ – he jumped on the first plane to LA.

Buried beneath boxes and household junk in a lock-up Larson found one of the rarest E-types, the last missing Lightweight example – chassis S850660, the third built and raced at Sebring in 1963. 

Gidovlenko had begun preparing it to race in 1964 but never finished, and its engine and gearbox had been removed and rebuilt, while the owner’s old helmet and even the original bill of sale were with the car.

It sold at auction in 2003 for $1.3m.

30. Michelotti-bodied XK140 found in Belgian barn

In 2018, the treasures of one Belgian enthusiast’s car collection were revealed – and this one-of-a-kind Michelotti-bodied Jaguar XK140 SE Coupé was the clear star of the haul.

It’s believed that just three Michelotti XK140s were ever made – and only one with this unique coachwork.

30. Michelotti-bodied XK140 found in Belgian barn (cont.)

Delivered new to France on 25 May 1955 with its standard factory bodywork, chassis S814286 suffered a crash two years later, leaving the body beyond repair.

At this point it went to Michelotti to be rebodied and the Italian coachbuilder gave its interior, instruments and several other details a touch-up. At the same time, it surprisingly also gained a Jaguar C-type engine.

30. Michelotti-bodied XK140 found in Belgian barn (cont.)

Its whole history isn’t known – and claims that it was once owned by Brigitte Bardot remain unsubstantiated – but the Belgian Mr Schepens bought it in 1999 in Brussels, for the equivalent of a mere £22,000, and enjoyed it for several years.

He began restoring it in the mid-2000s and was still working on it when he died in 2016 at the age of 80. At this point, auction house Bonhams was called in and discovered the remarkable and unique machine – along with many others.

At auction it exceeded its estimate and claimed €356,500 – with profits going to Ghent’s Animal Rescue Centre.

31. 911S unearthed in Philadelphia

The 911S first broke cover in 1967, carrying magnesium-alloy wheels, special gauges and many interior features that were previously optional – and it remains one of the most sought-after versions of the 911.

A chance conversation lead LBI of Philadelphia in 2015 to a wooden barn in which this particular Porsche 911S resided. The car had been bought in 1972 and used for many years, until it was rear-ended by a Pontiac, at which point it had been put into storage.

31. 911S unearthed in Philadelphia (cont.)

The accident damage and the salt-laden roads of the north-eastern United States led to the owner putting it away in the barn some 20 years ago and it had not been driven since.

When discovered, the Porsche was complete and still fitted with many original components, including the rare 41⁄2x15in Fuchs wheels, carpets, seats and gauges. After its retrieval, it went on to be gently restored.

32. Dutch haul of 148 Citroën CXs

Not much is known about this epic collection of Citroën CXs – which emerged for sale in 2018 – other than that it was vast and stuffed with decidedly cheap and cheerful models of all varieties.

There were powerful CX 2400 Pallas models and highly sought-after CX 25 Break estates and sporty GTIs and long-wheelbase Prestiges; there were cars from the ’70s and cars from the ’80s and a couple from the ’90s; there was even an ambulance.

32. Dutch haul of 148 Citroën CXs (cont.)

Quite why this particular collection was assembled is unclear.

We like to think that one person dedicated his life to buying as many as he could, then somehow forgot about them for 20 years, only to wake up one day and think “Hang on! I've got a garage full of 148 Citroën CXs down the road!”

32. Dutch haul of 148 Citroën CXs (cont.)

Dutch garage Van Soest Klassiekers hosted the whole lot earlier this year and prices varied wildly depending on model and condition.

The cheapest started at €500, but one CX 25 GTI had a price tag of €8500. Some of the highest-mileage/worst-condition motors just had ‘Bieden!’ – or ‘Offer!’ – written beside them. We’ll pass.

33. BMW M1 found in Italy

Back in the late-’70s, BMW had the bright idea of commissioning Lamborghini to design and build a road car to go racing. Seven prototypes were built before Lambo’s finances failed.

Several of the Italian manufacturer’s employees then formed a breakaway company, finished the engineering for BMW and the rare M1 was born.

33. BMW M1 found in Italy (cont.)

Just 453 production versions of the first M-series car were built, complete with fuel-injected 3.5-litre engines good for 273bhp.

In 2016, reports surfaced of an ultra-low-mileage M1 that had been stashed away in an Italian garage for 34 years beneath piles of junk.

33. BMW M1 found in Italy (cont.)

Remarkably, the machine – built in 1981 – had reportedly never been registered and had a mere 7329km on the clock. All of its numbers matched, too.

German specialist Mint Classics rescued the car and began a sensitive restoration process which was completed in 2018, leaving the M1 as one of the finest examples around – and probably worth £380,000.

34. Lamborghini Miura P400 S in a German barn

This one might stretch the definition of ‘barn-find’ a little – after all, it was never entirely forgotten. But it did reside in a barn for several years, so we think it’s fair game. 

Finished by Lamborghini in September 1969, it was sold to its second custodian, Hans Peter Weber, in 1974 and remained in his cherished possession, driven and enjoyed regularly, until he passed away in 2015.

After that point it was stored in a barn owned by Weber’s brother’s, and while it was carefully maintained, it was never fully restored. 

34. Lamborghini Miura P400 S in a German barn (cont.)

It went to auction with RM Sotheby’s in October 2019 in fabulously unrestored condition, with its original engine, paintwork and Skay Bleu-trimmed cabin and a raft of documents.

Offered without reserve, but with a pre-sale estimate of £800,000-1m, the hammer eventually fell at £1,248,125.

35. Sole-surviving WO Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer

This stately classic is the only remaining WO Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer, meaning it’s one of six 4½ Litre cars built by the Service Department from new old stock parts in 1936, along with four 3½ Litre cars – and the only one of that sextet that still has its original bodywork.

35. Sole-surviving WO Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer (cont.)

Until 2019, only two people had owned it, the second being a WW2 RAF pilot called Charles Blackham who took part in the raid to bomb Hitler’s mountain-top retreat in the Bavarian Alps in April 1945.

Blackham enjoyed his Bentley until old age forced him to take it off the road, so it was locked away at his home in Stockport and only rediscovered by his family after he died in January 2019.

35. Sole-surviving WO Bentley 4½ Litre Vanden Plas Tourer (cont.)

It was auctioned by H&H Classics in March 2019 and fetched an impressive £454,250 – which is all the more remarkable when you consider that the previous time it had been sold it had gone for the princely sum of £260!

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