Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too (and Klaatu’s pic confirms it). That’s way more substantial that just “some old coot’s barn.” Heavy masonry walls, mechanical equipment that I’m guessing is for ventilation, a sophisticated roofing system. I don’t think the background story is true at all.
But that doesn’t lessen the super-coolness factor of seeing a warehouse full of those old gems. Wow.
And the 280 Z! WTF?
Sadly, I agree with you. I think the only ‘fortune’ to be had is to sell most of the cars ‘as is’ and let someone else spend the money to get them running.
It actually may not be all that bizarre. Lots of people have a “hoarding” disorder, where they pile all kinds of crap up, with the intention of doing something with it “some day.” There was also a pair of brothers in England (IIRC), who, after their father passed away (in like the 1930s or so), were so grief stricken that they sealed the house up (after giving dad a proper burial) and left it that way until they died (which was just a few years ago, IIRC). When their children gained custody of the property, they immediately turned it over to historians who had a field day with everything since it was a giant time capsule.
The door could have been sealed up because of the owner being worried about vandals and/or thieves, while he kept the construction crew in the dark about exactly what it was that he was going to be putting in there, since he didn’t want them breaking in there and stealing the cars once it was built.
Look at this picture! (And lots of the others.)
Clearly it is all the work of orbs!
That sounds like a news story from the 1980s (IIRC) - a similar situation where an entire chemist’s shop (US: pharmacy) had been preserved for many decades as a sealed, unchanged relic, complete with stock, equipment, furnishings and everything. 1930s sounds a reasonable match with my memory of the story - the entire contents were donated to, or maybe bought by, a museum.
Sorry, I can’t think of any more details that would narrow it down enough for informed Googling. Besides, the cars are more fun than corn plasters and liniment.
Hey! That’s my car! The one waaaaay over there. No, not that one, silly. The other one, with the dusty hood. Funny, I don’t remember parking it in Portugal.
Another strange thing is that almost every picture where the car’s tires were visible, the tires looked completely inflated. A few looked like they might be a bit low, but I didn’t see any cars sitting on flat tires.
If they’ve been sitting on their own tires for 15-20 years, does that make sense? Almost every junker you see sitting on someone’s garage pad has deflated tires.
Something seems very strange about this. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could misplace or forget about that many cars if they were owned legitimately.
Sam Stone , I see just about all flats. Nothing that looks drivable, anyhow.
You know, I don’t even really care about cars. Those pictures made me drool, anyhow. I hope it isn’t a hoax, I’d like to have some nice dreams about finding hidden treasure!
I know. Someone up-thread mentioned Colorado and finding things in barns. I’m just about to move to Colorado and am thinking in terms of buying an old farm type place and this thread is filling me with pleasant dreams.
Well, if you know anyone in Washington state, you’re halfway to treasure! There was the remains of a wrecked Tucker in a barn somewhere in that state. While there are always claims of people finding “lost” Tuckers (they invariably turn out to be Studebakers), this is the genuine article as it’s provenance was confirmed by the expert on Tucker’s. Where, exactly the car is, he won’t say, but it’s just sitting there. A few years ago, the rollover car surfaced and sold for $25K at auction, with Tucker’s now hitting close to a million at auction, a wrecked Tucker would probably worth more than $25K now.
I thought for some reason this was a Jay Leno thread and he’d just doubled his collection.
How did these cars just happen to lie around in this barn? Was the previous owner a car dealer or collector?
In any case, it would be pleasing enough to come across one of these alone, not to mention several Lotuses (Lotii? 
)
My stepfather was in the Army and was stationed in West Germany in the years after WWII. He made friends with a local man, who invited him out to his farm to show him - a Messerschmitt 109 fighter. The farmer had been a Luftwaffe pilot, but deserted late in the war while on a mission and hid the plane. He offered to sell it to my stepfather, who was tempted, but he couldn’t figure a way to do anything with it.
Had to have a chuckle at the offer of a Messerschmit, in working order that could be worth more than that Portuguese trove.
The best my Dad did was an offer from a customer on his son’s MGB GT V8. The owner was an airline pilot, could afford the car (to buy, run and insure) but was away from home so often that most of the time the car was stored in a barn and taken out to tick over occasionally. Dad would have loved it but the insurance was a killer.
Now, sure. Circa 1950, possibly not so much. (Ignoring the fact that some of those cars didn’t exist back then.)
The old link doesn’t work any more, but here is an new one, for anyone else that is just reading this thread.
A couple people mentioned the possibility that these cars were being stored for other owners. Would anyone really store a car with the windows down/missing, or with no roof at all? If you were having someone else store your car, wouldn’t you at least throw some plastic or a tarp over it? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 and 7
Dad was impressed, those Alfas are cars to ache for, in the days when Alfas were so gorgeous you really would forgive any rust or reliability problems.
::jumps up and down, trying to see what everybody else is looking at::
I can’t see! I can’t see! The link won’t open for me, and I can’t see!
::finally sees **Tastes of Chocolate’s ** post::
Hey, thanks, Toots. Wow! Lookit dem cars!
Meanwhile, a Virginia woman had a lone unusual car to sell, but it was one of only 35 Cisitalia D-46 racers built just after World War II in Italy.
