Are There Still Barn Finds Out There?
Most car guys know the apocryphal tale about the muscle car left by a young man who went to war in Southeast Asia during the 1960s. Having bought a new car while getting ready to go over or back on leave, he had placed that hardly-driven prized possession in a little unused garage (up on blocks, of course), and then flew away to eternity, never to return from the field of battle. His heartbroken mother could not dare to part with the son’s most beloved item, that is until the friend of a friend of our story teller went to see if the car was real. Taken by the ‘friend’s’ kindness, the old woman agrees that it is time for the car to go to a caring home, and literally gives it away.
Based on the circles you run in, the car could be a fuelie split-window ‘Vette, big-block Cobra, or Hemi convertible. The truth is, the story may have been true one time, (yeah, just once) and since then has grown to become one of the great ‘what if’ urban legend dreams of the muscle car hobby. While that scenario is probably fantasy, there are still cars out there hiding, more than people might think.
In fact., the Forge Invitational Muscle Car Show in the new convention center in Sevierville, Tenn., at the end of this month (October 26-17) has set aside a few choice spot just for unrestored ‘as found’ muscle cars (for images of last year’s event, visits this Mopar Max archive link http://www.moparmax.com/events/2006/i_4-forge-1.html and this DRO archive link http://www.dragracingonline.com/features/viii_11-forge-1.html.
This is Big Willie Robinson’s famous street-raced Dodge Daytona. Willie still had it when long-time Street Racers club member Gary French contacted him. Financial lubrication sealed the deal, but it’s gonna take some even more serious bucks to make it a showpiece...
Why would somebody hold onto an old muscle car if they were not an ‘enthusiast?’ There are a number of reasons. The first and foremost reason in regards to any such vehicle found today tends to be that the current owner or preserver knew it was special early on. The car they bought in high school or college that was different from anything they had owned before, and better (at least in memory) than anything they might buy now. After family and job responsibilities took over, the seldom-used and somewhat tired beast took up residence in a garage, barn, or even basement like Terry Laughlin’s GTX this month, from which it would one day be recovered and restored.
Condition, of course, plays a role in this scenario. It may sound ironic, but a surprising number of the cars that come out of the indoor woodwork are in better shape than might be expected. Part of this is the simple fact that if the owner valued it to start with, it was probably well maintained. Such a machine was not parked due to damage, but due to increased gas prices (1973-74 and again 1978-1980) or, in major urban areas, atrociously high insurance rates. The other part of the reason for the cars sometimes showing up in pristine shape was that owner already knew as the era wound down that it would not come back, and decided even then that it was worth it to hold it for posterity. Any mileage that was ever put on it was put on sparingly, and an occasional cruise was the only exception.
These were muscle cars, though, and in some cases, they were modified and put away in a far cry from ‘stock.’ Traveling in the higher-end arena of collector muscle cars, I find myself amazed that so many people have been able to reunite missing engines and cars together. One personal story I know involved a gentleman who was searching for the Hemi engine in a Charger he was restoring. After dealing patiently with the first owner’s ex-wife several times, he finally got a phone number. Yes the engine was existent, but it was not for sale by itself. However, if the collector wanted to make the offer on everything in the man’s quite large garage, it may be considered. Luckily, our guy’s pockets were deep enough, and he ended up with his numbers-matching engine, plus a virtually unused E-body drag car, several hardware items that had been purchased directly from Petty Enterprises in the original boxes, and more.
