Ferraris in a Florida barn...

Hopefully the idiot Walter has moved the cars ... if he hasn't then I'll be the first one pissing myself laughing if his 'investment' finally gets completely destroyed.

I have thought about this collection for ages and the only reason I beleive this nutter (IMO) is keeping these cars is for some future investment ... as he does not appear to be interested in restoring or improving their condition.

The funny thing is if he had sold them in the 80's he would have made a fncken fortune ... thus in conclusion the guy has to be a nutter!

Pete
ps: And I do not appologise for calling this person an idiot, because that IMO is what he is.

 

i visited this barn [actually an old chicken coop] in new jersey in 1988. must have had 40,50 cars . i have some photos somewhere ,if i can find them i'll forward them.

r.j.p.

 

You know, it is mean but I really have to agree with PSK. Walter has to be a bit nutty. Probably a very nice guy, and I don't want to appear to be unfair to the bloke, but these are not the actions of a normal person. I hope that the cars make it through the storm OK (and Mr. Medlin too), but I do wish that if he won't sell them to a loving owner(s), that he will someday donate them to a group, foundation or museum that has the means to restore them and put them on display. It would have to be a terrific tax write-off.

DC

 

Maybe there is another hidden story on these cars. About 13 years ago, I went to see a mass of vintage Corvettes at a guys body shop. His body shop did your average collision work on typical cars, but back during the 60s and 70s he did alot of Corvette work. He did like Walter did with Ferraris. He bought every wrecked pre-1968 Corvette that he could buy cheap for many years. He had about 30 or 40 old Corvettes crammed into about an acre of land behind his shop. Most of them were time capsules from the instant that they were wrecked. There was a '65 396 coupe (not wrecked), a 67 427 coupe (hit at 50mph-totalled), a '63 coupe (intact) a dozen or so sting ray convertibles, many '58s thru '62 vettes that were mildly wrecked or just worn out when he bought them. Plus storage buildings crammed full of NOS parts. And mountains of used parts and hulks. He had every thing from '58 through '67. His goal was to collect one of every year from '53 to '67 and he and his son were going to restore them. But tragedy struck. His son was killed in a motorcycle accident. The cars sat for years because he didn't want to sell them. But after enough time had past, he accepted a giant offer for nearly all of the pre-62 cars and parts. Most of the post '62 stuff was sold off a trickle at a time. Perhaps Walter has some hidden story.

 

You are confusing Walter with Basil Shadlun, who has (had?) the chicken coop in New Jersey. Walter is in Florida. Basil has actually posted to FChat before, if you search you can find the threads.

 

Are there any update on the Medlin collection of cars?, this is just an interesting read and would like to know more. I also read while looking through the interent he stored his car in more then one place. I know there are some of his friends and neighbors that have posted. I am not interested in his cars but seeing some updated photos sure would be good.

Thanks,

Tyler

 

How about a weird Walter with AIRPLANES???
http://s96920072.onlinehome.us/Fea1/101-200/Fea182_Walters-Farm_Williams/part1/Fea182.htm

 

This thread is quite old but I found it a pretty interesting read. I'm amazed how many people make comments about the character of a person when they've never had a conversation with, or met, them.

I've never met Mr. Medlin but after reading the following quote from a book called "Those Dirty Rotten Taxes" you have to admit he sure has an interesting attitude. Just enough of a rebel and a bit of a smart a$$; my kind of guy.



<quote>

The IRS has grabbed the Ferrari of Walter Medlin, a central-Florida rich guy described by the Orlando Sentinel as "a shrewd and reclusive Osceola County real estate investor," one who seems to have had continuous run-ins with the IRS and other governmental bullies. "For 30 years, the developer and Ferrari collector has strode about the county in blue jeans, an untucked work shirt and a pair of Hush Puppies, fighting the government on everything from unpaid taxes to environmental regulations." Example:

In 1990, IRS agents raided Medlin's secluded lakefront home twice, finding a marijuana grower's guide, 26 guns, a Belize telephone book and a visa application to visit Nepal, among other things.
And yet he's still at large, even though he had a Belize telephone book right there in his house out in the open and everything, along with guns and a visa application. Wait, there's more, says the Sentinel:

In 1997, a federal judge sentenced him to five months in prison for concealing three Ferrari sports cars during a tax dispute.
Tax collectors have seized parcels of land and other Ferraris, including this P4, only to have Medlin find creative ways of getting them back.

When Medlin lost this and another legendary Ferrari in an IRS seizure, he handed officials the $600,000 he owed minutes before the auction. He then strode up to the microphone, thanked the bidders who had traveled across the globe for coming and walked away, Cluxton said.

When Osceola officials seized and auctioned off some of Medlin's land for delinquent taxes, he successfully bid on his own property, failed to pay for it, waited until it went back on the block, then bid again six times before paying his tax bill of more than $26,000.

"Walt is a person who likes to buy things and keep them," said George Gant, the mayor of Kissimmee, who has known Medlin since he was a student at Osceola High School.

<end quote>


Its been a couple of years since anyone has posted to this thread. Surely someone has an update on Mr. Medlin and his cars.

 

why would they detail any of those items? None of them are illegal or of interest to the IRS.

They might as well have said... We raided his house and found towels, plates and glasses, some toilet paper, walls, windows and the house even had a roof on it.


strange.

 

Just read the complete thread. Quite fascinating.
Unfortunately the pictures don't show .

 

LOL...Mr. Medlin is a ghost. I'd still like to meet the guy and talk about cars....and no, I'm still not a vulture looking to buy/swindle his cars from him. He can keep every one he has, as far as I'm concerned.

 

I didnt even know florida had barns.

 

I'm not sure why everyone gets so excited about "barn finds" anyway.
I have seen so many old barns in remote locations....they're quite common really

 

Get off the coasts an into the interior, and you find that FL has lots of cows. (And roads with signs to warn you not to pull onto the shoulder, because you'll sink.) I wonder how the cows get along with the gators.

Back in college, instead of doing Ft.Lauderdale, I did a driving tour of the state, from Miami, up to Canaveral, over to Orlando, over to Tampa, down to Saratoga (baseball camps), and back to Palm Beach. The gas stations had hoses set up on ladders left running, so you could pull up and wash the bugs off the windscreen.

At diners all over the state, you could get steak with your eggs (and grits) for breakfast ...
... but you couldn't get orange juice.

 

God I have to play this now!!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

February 26, 2005
How the taxman tailed a hurricane and found classic Ferraris in the barn
From Chris Ayres in Los Angeles
WALTER MEDLIN pleaded poverty when the taxman came calling. Then Hurricane Charley ripped through a barn in rural Florida last year, revealing the property developer’s $50 million (£27 million) collection of classic Ferraris.

Now one of Mr Medlin’s cars, a 1967 Ferrari 330 P4, is to be auctioned at a knockdown price by America’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to meet his tax bill, estimated at $3 million. The racing car, one of only four built, has a reserve price of $2 million, although its true value is believed to be closer to $10 million.

The V12-powered P4 was fully restored a decade ago by Arizona’s Grand Touring Cars and was in storage at the garage — until it was towed away by the tax authorities. It is likely to attract bids from wealthy car enthusiasts from around the world at the auction on March 30.

Of the original four, one was destroyed in a crash, another is in a museum in France and the last belongs to a Canadian collector. Three of the P4s famously crossed the finishing line of the Daytona 24-hour race together in 1967, taking the first three places.

Mr Medlin can still avoid losing his car by paying his tax bill before 2pm on March 30.

He has made late payments before, turning up at auctions with cheques to retrieve his property.

It has prompted calls to fix the “Walter Medlin Tax Relief Act” — the loophole that allows him to buy his possessions back from the IRS so that taxes are postponed indefinitely.

More, but old...

http://jalopnik.com/cars/retro/ferrari-p330-owner-satisfies-irs-keeps-car-120628.php

RMX

 

You can find him........not hard.

Yea this is an old thread....he moved the cars to a NEW barn.....

And he still has the P4/Can Am car at least the title, the car is in AZ last I herd with some liens, but not in the hands of the IRS. He paid that bill, finally.....

 

FIRST POST!!!

I have actually seen Walter Medlin's cars. I even have some blurry Kodak Instamatic pictures somewhere. It was in the early/mid 1970's with my father when we visited Walter down in Florida. I was a small boy then. My father owned a P3/4 at the time (among others), and we were most interested in seeing the P4/CANAM car. It was under a tarp and dusty, but not too bad. Walter was a very nice guy, and not some "weirdo" as others have painted him out to be.

It's been fun reading some of the reactions/comments to this thread, as I've known about Walter and these cars for YEARS.

Say what you want about Walter, but he is (and has been for YEARS) a genuine enthusiast.

Since the prices/values of the old Ferrari race cars have gone up so dramatically, there aren't many of the original batch of Ferrari racecar guys from the 70's who still have their toys. Most of the die hard Ferrari "Car Guys" I knew in the 70's have moved on and are long gone. If Walter chooses to keep his stash in barns under tarps, then so be it. More power to him.

 

He's referring to NAPOLIS, who posts elsewhere....he just restored a 330 P3/4. Inside joke.

BTW, if you have photos of Walter's collection, we would L-O-V-E to see them....I find the guy fascinating.

 

Check out this other old thread for David Moore's photos of #0844 and #0858 Can-Am P4's during Walter's ownership:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86753

 

Not moderator.....OWNER of the site....Happy Holidays to you, Rob.........

 

WHOOPS! My bad.

Sorry, Obi Wan.