2011 has been an interesting year so far for lost classic cars. Popular Hot Rodding blog revealed that the famous tale of the man from New York who bought a house in Portugal and found 300 classic European and American cars inside an old barn; is in fact an internet myth! In reality the collection belonged to a Portuguese car collector who had acquired his collection in the 1970s where many Portuguese were trying to flog off their cars and other assets as cheaply as possible. The collector had left them in the barn for years where they had long been forgotten.
After a few nights spent dreaming about finding an old barn full of classic rare cars. We decided to put together our pick of the best stories of classic historical cars, assumed lost for decades, turning up out of the blue.
Goering’s lost Mercedes 540K Special Roadster
Goering’s old Mercedes was found rotting away on a farm in Russia by car dealer Nick Szikiler. The car is an extremely rare and valuable model known as the ‘Blue Goose’ which collector’s consider to be the most expensive classic car ever produced as it’s valued at 10m.
The car was in bad condition, after been left on a Russian farm for years, and experts estimated that it would require around 7m worth of reconstruction work. After which however, it could be sold for 12m!
The 1937 Bugatti found in a Newcastle garage
When renowned hoarder Dr Harold Carr passed away, his relatives where left with the daunting task of clearing his Newcastle home. The retired doctor had kept heaps of newspapers and even looked after a copy of each receipt for everything he bought.
When his family came to clearing out his garage they were shocked and amazed to find a 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante hidden away among the rest of Mr Carr’s clutter! The Bugatti is extremely rare as only 17 were ever made. Mr Carr’s family had no idea that he owned the car but are planning to sell it to bidding collectors. The car will provide the family with a fantastic windfall as experts estimate it’s is worth 5m.
Hitler’s 18 Tonne Mercedes
After the Second World War Hitler’s personal Mercedes was sold in Austria, it was then shipped to Las Vegas and put on display in a museum before being shipped back to Germany. After the car had returned to Germany it’s location became a mystery until 2009 when Michael Froelich, a Dusseldorf car dealer, managed to track it down.
Froelich received a tip of where the car was stored and approached authorities to check whether buying the car would be legal. He was informed that the sale would be completely legit as long as there were no Nazi symbols on display. It turned out the car was locked away in a collector’s garage and hadn’t seen the light of day for years. Froelich, who was acting on behalf of an unnamed Russian billionaire, claims the car is worth between E4 and E10 million Euros.
Article Source: sooperarticles.com/automotive-articles/cars-articles/lost-found-classic-historical-cars-332145.html
About Author:
This article was written by Paul Glenister of Easistore, who specialise in self storage in Kent. Author: Paul Glenister