| Author | Message | ||
| Mark (Markg)
Member Username: Markg Post Number: 465 Registered: 2-2001 |
Had chance to buy a '63 250GTE or 'around $5k' from original owner a few years back; and of course remember a fly yellow 246 Dino for $14k and several Panteras in the $9-10k range in the late 70s. | ||
| Dan (Bobafett)
Member Username: Bobafett Post Number: 515 Registered: 9-2002 |
Rob, Should've bought it first, then told her.  It'd have been a lot harder for her to say no. 'Look mom, I bought you a present. But, I need to spend some time to make sure it's just right for you.' --Dan | ||
| Robert McNair (Rrm)
Member Username: Rrm Post Number: 303 Registered: 5-2002 |
While not a rare car I still wanted to share this story. I had a friend who worked at a garage and one day he called me up and said they had an MG that someone had left and the boss wanted it out of there. I asked him what was wrong with it and he said it takes awhile to fire up but otherwise its straight. So I go check it out 72 MGB BRG w/ tan interior not a speck of rust, rostyle wheels, looked great. I ask him how much my friend says the boss says $75.00 he wants it outta here! This was about 1988-89. I was living at home at the time and asked my parents (we had limited parking space) to which my mother replied why don't you just put up used car banners in the driveway! Which was her way off saying no. I tried to find a place for it but in the meantime it was sold. | ||
| Nika (Racernika)
Member Username: Racernika Post Number: 907 Registered: 12-2001 |
A beautiful Fiat Dino - that deep blue color - black top......great price. I should of bought that car!!! (sound of Nika hitting head on desk) | ||
| '75 308 GT4 (Peter)
Advanced Member Username: Peter Post Number: 2712 Registered: 12-2000 |
The ones that got away from me weren't hidden behind some barn, or deep within a basement, usually just tatty examples trying to sell at local classic-car auctions. Back when I was still in school, so no money and even in cases when I did have the money, I had no where to work on them! Some of the cars that I missed out on: -DeTomaso Pantera for $17000Cdn (rough shape, but would've made for a cool daily runner) -Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale (resale red, lots of bondo, no electrics, but what a beautiful car!) -TVR 2500M (nothing wrong with it, I just chickened-out when it went onto the auction block) -Lancia Scorpion (see the Pantera description above) -1959 Abarth 750 GT Zagato (I think the car is still around and still for sale by the crazy owner. FWIW, here's a website of the car from one of the previous owners: http://www.crimsonstar.com/home/faz0.htm - not the current, crazy owner!) So I think I did well for myself for holding out for all of these cars and getting the GT4...  | ||
| Jack Habits (Ferraristuff)
Member Username: Ferraristuff Post Number: 327 Registered: 4-2003 |
This photo happened to be in a scrapbook that surfaced again just last week after many years of being stashed away in a box.  1963 Mercedes-Benz 300SE Coupe (not a convertible, the roof was simply painted black). Not as bad as it looks in the picture. Interesting story again (NOT making this up!). Found this car in the yard behind a garage in Belgium. The garage was actually a defunct slaughter house that was bought and turned into a garage by the then current owner. He had traded this MB in on a new one. It came from the first owner, a Belgian baron that had run the car for years but one winter had forgotten to check the anti-freeze, the block froze and cracked. He kept the car though and one of his maintenance guys had put a MB 180 Diesel engine in (1.8 Liter with 50 HP instead of the 3.0 Liter straight six!) and they used it to drive around the estate. One day the baron decided to get rid of it and traded it (along with his then current car) in on a new MB from the above slaughter-house garage. The garage just kept it out in the open like in the picture. A couple years later (1982), I spotted the car and bought it for little money. Don't recall the price anymore but somewhere around $ 1000 or less. The garagist was VERY helpfull, tossed in a BIG battery to get that old diesel fired up, let me use his workshop to get it safe enough to drive to Holland and lend me his "traders plates" so it was insured and legal to drive without having to register it. I drove the car to Holland, had it out in the open at my house for about a year and then sold it on to a classic MB dealer. It hurt to let go of it but helas. I was not much of a restorer at that time, being only 19 years old. Just one of many "tall tales" although this car is not exceptionally rare or valuable. Jack | ||
| Jack Habits (Ferraristuff)
Member Username: Ferraristuff Post Number: 324 Registered: 4-2003 |
>>>My first question is: Jack, what were you doing in a back alley in Paris, France? Hehehehehe..... You don't want to know... REALLY don't want to know... But, believe me, having lived in Amsterdam for a large number of years, it wasn't worse than what you can do in Amsterdam out in the open... ;-) Big fish? Ooof... too many... WAY too many... Missed them mainly because of young age and lack of finances and resto capabilities. I'll have to start digging in old photo albums but maybe you saw my post on the 2 250 GTE's but those won't get away! Other than that, much pre-war stuff in France including Type 13 "baby" Bugatti chassis in a hedge in Normandy. At that time I was way to young to even be able to consider a resto project (I was between 18 and 20 at that time) so I never bought many cars that didn't drive. I used to just drive up the countryside and almost "smell" special cars.. I remember one time (I was with two friends so they can confirm this) taking a country lane, driving though a village, hitting the brake out of the blue shouting "there are cars here!". Stopped the car, just asked the first person I could find "where is the guy here with the old cars?". I got "directions" and we were only some 500 yards away from him. Very friendly guy and when we got talking he noticed that I had a genuine interest in old cars and one barn after the other opened up... In total I guess that he had gathered some 75 cars. Used to rent them out to movie companies but had stopped doing so some 15 years ago and the cars had been sitting there all that time. Amazing stuff like 3 or 4 "Diamant" (sp?) cars, French built versions of the Morgan three-wheelers that would top some 115 MPH, countless pre-war stuff, pre-war fire trucks, Talbot-Lagos, Delahayes. You name it, he had it. I probably could have bought the lot for 20 - 25,000 US$ at that time but really had no idea what to do with them, where to store them etc. Of course if I would have bought them and sold them less than 10 years later when the classic car market was at it's height, I would now have the problem of whether to take my 250 GTO, Lusso or Enzo for a spin (I don't own any of these...). In that same area in France I found a "garagiste" that could still fabricate body parts with just a sandbag and a wooden hammer and he had also a similar collection of cars. Bought one car of him, a 1939 Simca 8 Berline, that had been sitting around for 20 years or more but was virtually rust-free. When I came to pick it up with a trailer he asked me if I was buying more cars. I asked why and he took me to the Simca... He had pumped up the tires, cleaned out the fuel system, changed the fluids and she was ready for the road... Buying price? around US$ 300.00 at the time (talking about the early 1980's). What I often DID buy were vintage motorcycles. Where there are old cars, there are bikes too and they were a lot easier to handle for me. In total I must have some 20 of them or maybe even more, all stashed away in the attick... Often found them on the scrap heap at breakers yards in France and would haggle over the price... Best catch on that is a 1913 Peugeot and I brought the price down from an initial asking price of FFR 50.00 to FFR 20.00 (the latter is now some US$ 3.00. NOT KIDDING! I'm saving those for when I'm retired. As I said, have to dig some more in photo albums (no idea where they are after xx times moving house) and in my memory. Jack | ||
| Robert McNair (Rrm)
Member Username: Rrm Post Number: 292 Registered: 5-2002 |
I did have one relatively big fish. I had worked part-time on and off for a family that had as one of their cars a 69 280 sl. They bought it new it was all orig. had 2 tops etc, overall mint orig. cond. and had 39k on it. They wanted to trade it in this was probably 94 or 95 and I offered to give them more than what the dealer had offered which was 12K! They were considering it but ended up at the last moment trading it in. | ||
| william speer (Wspeer)
Junior Member Username: Wspeer Post Number: 237 Registered: 8-2002 |
ther is a lot here in town that has several older cars rotting on the field behind it. although they aren't gullwings, there are a couple of mercedes pagodas and porsche 356s. | ||
| Robert McNair (Rrm)
Member Username: Rrm Post Number: 291 Registered: 5-2002 |
I've got some of small fish that got away. | ||
| Horsefly (Arlie)
Intermediate Member Username: Arlie Post Number: 1077 Registered: 5-2002 |
Jack's comment on the Aston Martin Lagonda thread: "Also once found a derelict Lagonda parked in a back alley in Paris, France." My first question is: Jack, what were you doing in a back alley in Paris, France? But seriously, that made me think of another TALL TALE of another rare car. I was talking to a local Corvette guy about 10 years ago. For some reason, we were talking about world travels and the subject of Portugal came up. He told me that he was in a multi story hotel in Portugal one time. Looking out his window a couple of blocks away, he spotted a gull wing Mercedes rotting away on flat tires in a back lot. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time, money, or local connections to attempt any acquisition of the car. Anybody else have any tall tales of the big fish that got away? |