Urban explorers tend to trigger one of two reactions: you either love them or can’t stand them. With the line between trespassing and providing insight into parts of America most of us never see being very blurry at times, videos like this one here on YouTube that show an abandoned car collection of some value can cause a variety of reactions. In my case, I would give this exploration of a car collection supposedly belonging to a NASCAR mogul a pass, as it seems like the explorer in question had permission to view the property. Now the question is, why does it continue to sit abandoned?
There was a rash of news about the discovery a few months ago, with the questions numerous. Mitchell held interests in all three NASCAR National series and IndyCar, with his teams racing under the Circle Bar Racing masthead. The team found success with Chet Fillip at the wheel in the Indy 500, which explains the assortment of retired open-wheel racers in the collection. It features a mix of Mitchell’s race cars and personal vehicles, all of which were built to his specifications. This Cobra kit car features a modified 460 V8 with numerous enhancements, supposedly good for 500 streetable horsepower.
There’s also a Ford GT40 kit car, which is parked next to a 1981 Ford Thunderbird apparently used in the 1986 NASCAR season. The GT40 has clearly been sitting long enough that the headliner has started to collapse, and given photos of the odometer show next to no miles, this is likely a near-new car that has already started to disintegrate. The specs on the Thunderbird include a bored-out 351 Windsor, a Ford Motorsport intake manifold, a four-speed manual gearbox, and aluminium heads, all of which supposedly made it good for about 650 horsepower and a top speed of over 200 miles per hour.
One of my favorites in the collection is this Ford Bronco, which sports a very period-correct paint scheme and American Racing alloy wheels that look the business. The Bronco supposedly has a bored-over 460 under the hood, and leaves little doubt that Mitchell was a Ford guy through and through. Sadly, he passed away in 2024, and there remains some haziness around the state of the collection and whether anyone will be looking after it in his honor. The site is supposedly under active security and surveillance, so if you want to take a peek, we recommend asking for permission.
A very decent small collection. Hopefully whatever the holdup is gets settled quickly and they all go to an appreciative home.
Unfortunately as we’ve all seen the bigger the potential worth the more we see of someone’s brothers second cousins first nephews ex in-laws kids coming out of the woodwork and wanting a piece of the action.
It’d be neat to spend a few hours looking these over and document the history of each.
Funny how whoever’s managing the estate can afford “active security and surveillance” but not, you know, keeping the tires aired up.
There is active security and surveillance because the RV park is open, it lists a phone number and address, several travel sites show pictures which look current. The part where the video says the can’t disclose the location is fabricated for the sake of drama. They give the name multiple times in the first few minutes, a Google search takes less than 30 seconds to tell where it is and give contact information
Steve R
Between the AI narration and all the other bs, anything on You Tube shouldn’t be taken with a grain of salt but the whole shaker. I suppose, once this car collection’s ownership gets straightened out, each car will be auctioned or sold outright, separately.
I saw a video from the kid that got in there “with permission.” Who was ducking down when he thought someone was near the building. The amazing and hilarious thing about most of these urban explorers, is their complete lack of knowledge of anything automotive, that doesn’t have 4 doors and a Toyota badge on it, when it comes to finding old cars in these places.
Took 15 seconds to find it on Google maps. Doesn’t look abandoned and certainly not out in the middle of nowhere (at least not by TX standards. Less then 100yds off I-10. And the lack of knowledge and idiotic comments by the trespasser filming this!!!!
Cobra appears to be the stretched replica called a Stallion, I believe. The 460 cid engine was used in these, if I recall correctly. My arm might be twisted to buy something in this collection if the seller cares to reach out to me.
saw this last year. what a shame but at least they are inside
This is why you have a will stating your wishes on what happens
with a car collection,and an executor named if it’s to be sold off.
The owner of our local British car shop (Union Jack) died suddenly
last December,& left no will.A Niece finally named executor & they’re
having an online auction that ends soon.There’s over 50 cars,& most of
them are MGs,& most of those are parts cars that will probably go cheap.
Sad to see that happen,as I like to see cars saved,& not scrapped.
Here’s the action company’s link –
http://www.woltz.com/auctions/1052/
thanks for adding site. Had a wonderful trip down memory lane.
Cool menagerie. I believe that the Thunderbird is an ’83 or thereabouts.
Yep….seen it…..and yep….that’s Texas Oil country….lots of money to burn out that way
@stillrunners
Here in God’s Country (Republic of Texas), we are often called “Oilfield Trash”, and darned proud of it!