One of our UK readers made an incredible discovery of some American muscle hiding in a barn in England, you can read about his find here. He has since sent us an update about his progress! From Liam W – I thought you would appreciate an update on my barn finds collection you covered, as I know you don’t often get an update as to what happens to a car after it has been featured on your site. As you know, I have been helping the owner sell his collection, and I have been working there 6 days a week, for the most part on my own, pulling them out, cleaning them up, getting them running where possible, and getting them off to new owners. The attached photos are to show you what has been selling so far!
The GT500 Shelby was sold to a Classic car dealer.
It turns out the Top Methanol Dragster was an ex 5 time European Champion car, and there are videos of it on you tube. It just goes to show, you never know what you are going to find in a barn! It sold to a Drag racer and American car restorer, who hopes to rebuild it and run it in The Nostalgia Drags. 2 big block Chevy engines were also rescued from the barn, and sold to the same guy who took the dragster.
The Ferrari 400i went this week to another dealer.
The Lotus Carlton/Omega sold to a private buyer. And the Hemi Cuda convertible is still here. It has been pulled from sale as the Hemi engine is being removed and offered for sale separately (it is not a numbers matching car, originally a 318). I found a 383 Mopar engine in the barn, which the owner told me was pretty hot when built. I will be rebuilding it at some point in the future and dropping it into the Cuda for him.
It sounds like Liam has been quite busy and it’s great to hear that he has been having some success at getting these car out of the barn and off to new homes! His update also makes me wonder what other Barn Find success stories are out there. So if you’ve ever had a car featured here on Barn Finds or have purchased a car you found here, we would love to hear how things are going with your find. We all love to hear a good success story! Special thanks to Liam for sharing this with us!
Pretty good looking barn finds! No surprise that the Shelby and Ferrari were picked up by dealers. There are many vintage/classic/sports car dealers in the UK, I think far more for the size of that country than over here in No America. I’m sure the Shelby will be scooped up by someone since those must be very rare over there—-if the price doesn’t get raised too high by the dealer who bought it for resale. The Ferrari 400i looks good, but those are among the few cheap Ferraris left in the vintage car world, so should sell for far less than the Shelby.
I would love to be the private buyer that got the Lotus Carlton! Those were real sleepers with their plain-ish looks and gorilla power. Yum! ^_^
When I was on temporary assignment in England in 2000 I was craving some musclecar (had to put my 69 Charger in storage) and I stumbled upon the Mopar Muscle Association (http://www.moparuk.com/). They have an annual meet at a small dragstrip and I was floored to see so much Mopar muscle in the UK. The best part was that the 69 Chargers were the most numerous and nobody was afraid to burn off their tires.
That Shelby brought back memories of my GT350 convertible that I bought in Ireland and sold to a guy in the UK a year later – shoulda kept it for a few more years !! It’ll probably show up on Barn Finds some day !!!