Ferraris in a Florida barn...

3

 

a very interesting story........we should plan a field trip to the barn and see for ourselves.

 

wrecke ferrari, your photos numbered 2 and 3 were originally from E-Bay a few months ago. That car was basically nothing except a body hull and frame. I don't think the bids exceeded $2000 at the time. I e-mailed the seller a few months later and I think he still had the body hull for sale but nothing else. The bidding was not exactly hot and furious for a total project hull like that one.

 

i feel fairly confident that the majority of true "barn finds" are gone. you will occasionally come across gutted bodies, such as the 250 gte's and the rare boano (gutted when boano's were cheap), but for the most part, the cars that were to be "discovered" have been discovered. what is left is for the strong of heart and deep of pocket. it is sad but true. only very simple finds have been made recently (read as the past ten years). unless values shoot through the roof , which isn't likely to happen, only the few remaining will remain hidden.

 

Holy Smokes, damn, they need cleaned. Lets get em out here in the sun, take a good look at them.
Holy smokes!

 

Yes, I think I have that R&T, going to look. I have mags back to the early 60's.

 

Does anyone know what happened to the LWB California Spyder, s/n 0927GT and the 275 GTB, s/n 7009GT from Howell, New Jersey? Did either car ultimately find a buyer? Are they being restored? Are they in the hands of a dealer? Are they in the United States or abroad LWayne?

 

I recall each car from the New Jersey Barn found new owners through Ebay or other sales. There was a broker handling all Ebay/Internet sales of these vehicles on behalf of the owner, and at the time the Silver Lusso was offered, the Alloy 275 was already sold and the Red 250 was near sale. As is often the case with these vehicles, the buyers remain anonymous because we'd all be laughing our asses off from the ridiculous prices they most-likely paid.

Some of the cars discovered in the Florida hanger were bought by Symbolic Moter Cars of La Jolla, and offered in their 'special' sales floor for the Rarest-of-the-Rare Ferraris. Michael Sheehan had a big write-up on this collection on his website somewhere......

 

Okay regarding the car collection including the P3, P4 and GTO, from what I can gather from this thread is this Walter Medlin still owns most of these cars.

Is this true?

And what does annoy me and is sad is these cars are (were) in really good condition and simply need to be cleaned and stored well and they do NOT need restoring. Thus as far as I am concerned he is just as bad as the out door barn find person ... and appears to be somewhat of an idiot letting such property destroy itself.

He obviously has access to money so why not put up a new barn and chuck in an air conditioner and pay a kid or 2 to clean them ...

Pete

 

pete when i saw them they werent even in a barn. they were covered with those blue plastic tarps, keys in them, and in something like truck trailers. totally surreal sight.

i am gonna get down there and get some pictures the polite or the guerilla way whatever

thad

 

If you'll READ that article, it doesn't say "barn" it says "theatre".
Pics on this thread are mixing up several different "finds".

Walter may or may not want to talk with you. Widowed in '99, looks like he's been in some legal actions or two, got some kids to inherit the stuff.

I guess if he wanted to sell this stuff, he would run an add with Rob. I'm sure he's aware of it's value.

He's got lots of real estate in Kissimmee and St. Cloud.

I don't think he's hurting.

I personally think it's unfair to compare him to the guy that parked the 250GTO from Victoria Texas out in a field. Innes Ireland (RIP) wrote an excellent article on that car for Road & Track.

 

Don't know about the prototypes, but the GTO was 4675 GT and was sold to Matsuda-san in 1996. Medlin had it from 1973.

 

The P3 0844 was converted to a can am car by Chinetti, sold by Walter, and back to a P3 by Symbolic with body from David Piper with IMHO an inncorrect nose opening.
(thread on old Fchat.) P4 was converted onto a 350 Can Am by SPA (0858) center of chassis cut out and replaced with fiberglass tub, (By SPA) and is I believe , in Scotsdale. This is off the top of my head. Others?

 

I think some of this talk about Walter and other "barn finds" are just the "green eyed monster" doing alot of babbling. Why is it that whenever some OTHER person owns a desired car in the barn, everybody says he is "neglecting" the cars and they are just "rotting" away? Unless the cars in question are sitting outside in the weather, there is very little neglect occuring by having them sit inside a dry barn. And even if they're covered with dust, that will wash right off. How many people have bought old cars and trucks from a barn or shed, spent an afternoon working on them, then fired them up for the first time in years. Plenty. So I'm sure Walter's cars aren't really wasting away.

There must be something about the name Walter that brings out the collecting mentality. Check out this link:http://www.arcair3.com/Fea1/101-200/Fea182_Walters-Farm_Williams/part1/Fea182.htm
Walter Soplata stashed away WWII airplanes for decades. Wonder if they're still there? More power to the Walters of the collecting world. If it weren't for them, alot of the historical cars and planes would have gone to the melting pot a long time ago.

 

Right.......let me restate it as, ....may or MAY NOT......!! LOL


I like that flying pig though.


The reason these cars are stored is most likely as AJ Foyt said before his auction, "I'm tired of buying a new battery every time I want to crank one of these things up."


I can relate to that.

 

Damn Pink Foyd pigs get around or don't they?

 

barchetta - Howel or Hopewell? There were several Ferraris at Hopewell, NJ in the early 80s where I worked. Jerry kept track of them, I think, if that is the place:

http://www.jb330gt.com/HMI.htm

Re: the Medlin collection, I asked Mr Sheehan about the really low mileage 330 2+2s in the collection, and was told they were not for sale. I found out about this collection through an article at VelocePress, but my link to it is dead now.

I get the feeling that the Sheehans/Shaugnessys of the world know where all these Barn cars are, and when it is a win/win for them and the seller, the proper leverage is applied. You don't just knock on Walters door and expect him to part with one of his cars. Doesn't matter how badly YOU want it either - trust me!

Cheers,
Jon

 

This violates my theory that NOBODY can know where EVERYTHING is. One of my favorite lines is from a 1980 Car Craft Magazine article concerning buying and collecting muscle cars. They had various info and tips concerning all the various muscle cars. Under the topic of Corvettes they said: "A very specialized field. The good deals are long gone." I'm glad that I never bought into that, otherwise I never would have purchased my 1966 Sting Ray or my 1957 Corvette basket case. And neither would have anybody else during the 24 years since that article. The big shots of the car collector world always want you to think that they have a lock on everything. I know a guy who thinks he has a first chance at several old junky 60s model Corvettes because he knows the guy who owns them. And he always talks like he has already made the deal to buy them. But I say "SO WHAT!" I knew about the cars 10 years ago and the guy that told me about them also knew about them for 10 years before that. And of course the broker types always want you to think that they are doing you a big favor by "arranging" the deal for you so that they can make a percentage of the take. It doesn't take any more paperwork to buy a Ferrari than it does a beater 1972 Chevelle: title, bill of sale, odometer statement, proper insurance if the car is financed, etc. Why does anybody need some hoity-toity broker standing around in a smoking jacket sipping a glass of wine and smoking a foul smelling stogie in order to make the deal on a car? Because he knows more about the subject than you do? If that's the case, it sounds like the buyer needs to buy some books and do some research and save a big fat commission.

 

Here's a photo from the Aug 26 Orlando Sentinel of Walter Medlin's barn of Ferraris after Hurricane Charley came through central Florida. Note the sidebar mentions the Bill Warner article from 1990.

 

Nice photo?????????