My "Interesting" Cars Found, Bought or Missed Thread

Had the fortune of playing around with cars a lot over the past 10+ years, but never really sat down and gone through all of the craziness that has been unearthed, missed opportunities, owned a bit myself, or long shot deals I never even got close enough to. I thought it would be fun to put up some photos of a few of the fun times I've had.

So here it goes, and I'll try to add a few more every few days or so!

First is a BN7 Healey I found in upstate New York. It was sitting as you see it, rusting away behind a shut down garage. I think I paid $1,500 for it, and on the trailer ride home we hit a bump so hard the rear trunk piece literally became airborne and fell off.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Next, a 1947 Jeep CJ3B, in upstate CT, 30 miles from Hartford in the sticks.

I went and looked at it with my FIL. Brought it home for $1,400 or so. Worked on it until the summer, then, to fund our $900 honeymoon, I sold it to a local guy for $850 or something. Lost money, but had fun getting it running and driving (I think I remember rebuilding the master cylinder or something too, which wasn't right, and my FIL lost brakes down a big hill on a test ride lol)

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Lastly, for today at least, are two Maserati Ghibli's. We bought these from a retired neurosurgeon in Ohio.

It was a crazy trip because we HAND loaded the shell body into the back of this UHaul, and strapped it down, then I loaded the green Ghibli on the trailer, so, a 26ft UHaul, with a full car trailer, hauling back through the Pocono's, with very little trailering experience at that point....

The Green Ghibli was an SS, and he had clipped a truck on the highway and smashed it against another truck on the highway, he then hoisted it into the second level of his garage, and left it for years. I think we paid $20,000 total for both cars. I don't remember who we sold them to, but that was a blast.

And yes, moving the green Ghibli onto the trailer WITHOUT wheels/tires was an insane game of come-a-long, pushing, and rollers lol.

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Today's revolves around my 2nd Jeep Cherokee XJ.

A gorgeous 2001 Solar Yellow 4.0 (they made 2000 of them in this color) Cherokee I found with super low miles, a Rubicon Express 3.5" lift kit, 31"s, and sway bar disconnects. It could flex really well for a smaller lift kit. I buried it at the Fordyce and had all kinds of issues 1 mile deep into the woods finding someone to pull me out....

Second photo is my best friend Nick. We left Sacramento at 8AM that day and it was 80 degrees or so. Same day, blizzard, up at Strawberry Pass on the way to Tahoe.

Crazy times.



Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

1st, is a 1968 Corvette 427 Convertible. It was owned by the owner of the 2nd photo, an Intermeccannica Vette Ventura 3500GT

We paid $400 for the Corvette, and like $12-15K for the 3500GT. Which went to something in the Netherlands. I don't remember where the Corvette went, but it was slapped on eBay and someone jumped in on it, if I remember the bidding ended at $4700 or something, and we felt like rockstars!


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The first photo is a 1975 Merak SS, that a friend tipped me off was close by in Danbury CT.

I went and looked, it was ordered from the factory by Morocco's King Hassan II, in gold on gold (OF COURSE!)

Paid $5K for this gem. It went to a fellow FChat dude, who sold it to a guy in Italy (if I remember). circa 2014.

The second photo is a Merak, wasting away in Bethel CT behind a shop. The story is, it is involved in a family feud and the members of the family can't come to terms about who actually owns it. So, I couldn't by it....thus, it sits wasting away.


Lastly for today, is an Allemano bodied A6G.

Found up in Massachusetts, and later sold through auction ( https://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1956-maserati-a6g2000-coupe/ )

The whole right up by Gooding was not correct. I had gone to look at the owner's 3500GT engine, and this was sitting in the garage under a tarp. It took 3 years to convince him to sell it.

He'd bought it from a guy down the road from the Hershey auto show in the 1970's, as he had a sign "Maserati parts Wanted" hanging around his neck walking around Hershey, and some guy was like, bro, go look at this car down the road! He paid $7500 or so for it. It sat and sat and had been untouched.

We paid $300K for it, and Gullwing paid us $480K an hour later. As you can see by the sale price from the link, we left some meat on the bone

But the market was rising, and rising tides float em all.


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

This car directly correlates to the BN7 above.

The day I went to look at the Healey (this is in the middle of nowhere upstate NY) the owner of the Healey tells me he bought the repair shop years before, because a local guy wanted him to restore his Aston DB2/4 (the car you see here).

Story was, the guy went along until the shop owner had everything in place (he LITERALLY bought a shop just for this!) then pulled out of the deal and decided not to have the car restored. So, it was only a few miles down the road, but he said, maybe it's still in the barn?

So I drove, based off his directions, to where I thought this was, and low and behold, behind a barn door, 20ft from the road, I see the tail of a DB2/4 from inside the barn door thats open 2 ft.

I snapped a pic, dropped a pin, went home, and found the owners phone number.

His wife wanted to sell it, but he, did not. It's sitting there today still, just like this, and hasn't ran since the mid-70s.

Such a shame, but this is one that remains elusive to me so far!





Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Cool adventures.

 

Lots of times in my life, I've had zero idea just what the actual **** I'm doing with my life.

The below photo is a perfect indication of this.

I bought the Mini Cooper S from a nice lady and her GF on the CT coast, and must've been drunk during the test drive, because within 200 miles, it needed a new clutch... How I did not catch the grind prior, who knows...Mistake #1, as it was a nice $2000 job, a perfect 25% of the overall amount I paid for that car...My wife and I kept it for a year or so, then chucked it down the road. It was fun, but damn, FWD was boring.

The boat here, is and was never mind, thank god. This storage place is my FILs and he had 98,000 sq ft, and would let me throw my cars in there. Sadly, Walmart contracted to rent about 95% of it these days, and there's no longer room for any of my "stuff", which is ok, cuz I'm pretty broke these days lol.

The Thunderbird. Where do I start?

It's a 1964, original paint in Aztec gold, and was in my family for 30+ years. In 2014 I asked my grandfather if I could buy it from him. He said no, and proceeded to let me *have* it. I immediately got it back down to CT from NH and starting getting it on the road. The amazing electric top still worked, it was fantastic.
I committed to deploy in 2015, and by then, our daughter was 6 months old. I had this, a MGA Roadster, the Merak SS, the Fiat Dino, a Ferrari Mondial 8, a 20ft enclosed car hauler, and a Dodge Ram 1500 (HEMI). My wife was scared I was going to go get blown up in Iraq and leave her with all of these "things", so 5 months before I left, I started sorting out getting them all down the road...The Fiat Dino here, was a 2.0, that I bought for $4500 in 2012/13 I dont remember exactly. I sold it for $7500 and felt like a King lol. I sold the steering wheel off it before the car deal happened, to a guy I'm still really good friends with these days.

The Thunderbird, was bought by a really cool guy, but it pained me to have to sell it. I try to not get emotionally attached to cars, but it's tough sometimes. He sadly sent it to LA and had it painted RED (GROSS!) and did a decent job restoring the rest of the car.

I got rid of the Dino, Merak, MGA, Thunderbird, Mini and the hauler and Ram, ALL before jetting off to the ME. I came home to just my Mondial 8...Which I then sold to fund a business my wife wanted to buy...How to go from 5-6 fun cars, to nothing in a year +? Be part of the military haha Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login



Image Unavailable, Please Login

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

This one hurt. I found her in Wisconsin, along with a Healey and a few other interesting projects. But I could NOT seal the deal. It even took a phone call to Augie Pabst, who presumably raced it in period, but he could not remember the livery at the time.

This is (I think?) a Bocar XP-5. It was cool as hell.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Very cool cars and thanks for sharing your stories. I love reading things like this!

 

This is a 550 Maranello we bought from a doctor in Maryland.

It was a really cool buy because I took I one way rental car from CT to Maryland on a Thursday afternoon, arriving in MD by that evening, and the owner of this 550 picked me up at the rental car drop off. We drove back to his house, did the paperwork, signed over the title, he gave me a quick tutorial around the car, then I hammered down and drove straight back to CT, arriving around 1-2AM. It had Tubi's and at one point I remember looking down and grinning because I was doing about 140mph+ on 95, and it was the smoothest, best sounding car I had ever driven.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I want a 575 one day.

 

This story has yet to have an end...I want to buy this so bad, and am hoping within the next year or two to do so.

It's a Renault factory built A-110, with what looks like Belgium race history (local)

#dreamcar

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I wrote about this briefly in a Lotus section.

This is a late S1, Elite, I found in Mass. I have not been able to buy it sadly. It has been sitting forever, as evident by the photo. Sad frankly.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Waaaaaoooow. Dont miss that one. I love Alpines. There was one up in Vancouver bc area in 2017 with racing history and factory built dieppe car, that I missed out on for 40k usd. It needed some work and was a bit rough but was used in the local vintage races. Instead of buying it I put my wife through college :,(

 

Subscribed !

 

This was a cool one, but also kind of sad.

This gentleman passed, and I spent like 2 hours on the phone with his widow. She started crying too and seemed happy to just find someone who was interested in her husbands cars. We bought this SS and a Veloce Spider from her. Her son-in-law owned his Integra Type R, and that one still eludes me.

There was a tree growing through the middle of the Veloce!

Downsouth in Georgia. Salt of the earth people. Really nice.

I don't remember what we paid for those cars, but it wasn't much.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Pester the h*ll outta that son-in-law for the ITR.

 

These were owned by a local NY patent lawyer from South Africa

Really really interesting guy. When he was 9 his entire family was in a car accident and he was the only survivor. He was a scratch golfer and some point, and extremely bright. At the time, he was working on a gorgeous SIII Roadster and had an original SI XKE in another garage. The Xk150 was an automatic sadly, but the MC Roadster was COOL!

Bought both in the dead of winter and we became pretty good friends after that. Sadly we lost contact for a few months during my 2015/16 deployment and I learned that he committed suicide


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Into the hills of NorCal.

The owner of these said, come have a look. And my best friend was in Reno for Hot August Nights. So f it. I hopped on a plane, and landed at 12:03AM. Met up with him at the Golden Nugget and proceed to have myself a couple beers. Two hours later and up $200, we hit the hay.

The next day, drove to the hills and looked at this Abarth DB and 400i (manual, with a burlwood dash and door inserts, done in the day at spa francorchamps)

We had to physically LIFT the Abarth out of the garage. We went back and forth, and I couldn’t close EITHER car. He had paid $100K long ago for the 400i and was in WAY to deep for what I wanted to pay. And he wouldn’t separate the 750! I learned later he traded the Abarth for a track ready lotus. Such a damn shame. I wanted the DB so bad.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I remember finding this Aston, in 2011, some guy in N Carolina, but lived in Wisconsin, had it stashed in a storage shed, and hadn't seen it in years. After 6 months of badgering him, he agreed to sell it. For $60K. No engine, no gearbox, and no glass. But godamn, it was my "breakthrough" buy

It went to the Prime Minister of Kuwait, who then restored it, and in 2016, when I was deployed, I visited it as a finished product.

#1489L, Silver Birch.

I'll never forget that car.


Car #2, was a Giallo Ghibli, an earlier 4.7 car, found in CA on a farm.

Paid $10K for it in 2011. Nobody believes me haha.

The next is a gorgeous Allard K1 my friend owned, and I brokered for him. It was a really pretty car, that was sold to Healey Lane, and then auctioned off at Amelia the following year. I met George and his family there to watch it across the block. He was happy it continued a new life with someone else.

Next is a Lancia Flaminia, that's now local to me by a NY owner, but this was in a SoCal garage at the time. It was a pretty car, and I would like to own one someday. I forget what we paid, but maybe sub $50K.

Ahhhh, a POS Jensen, paid $5000 for it, and Alex Manos paid me $500 profit to go pick it up haha.

Lastly, a Fiat Dino Spider, wrangled for a friend, for $3000. Plus a truck load of engine and gear box parts. Filled a box truck, and drove all night from Vegas, and finally had to sleep in Fresno, on my way to Sacramento.

Good times.

Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login



Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Very interesting stories. Keep them coming! How did you find them all?

 

Can't give away my trade secrets!

All I'll say is: cold calling


So, it's officially: FERRARI FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!


1. For today, found this 308 gem a few years back, it had 115K KMs on it, and the owner had extensively raced it at the Virginia Hill Climbs over the years.

My friend actually stepped in and bought it. I think for $25K or something, and a German gentleman bought it from him for $36K after some work.


3. This BB is a Texas owner car. Haven't been able to buy it, but bought his (now my) Fiat Dino. Maybe someday.

3. This is a 330 GTC, I found mostly apart, in 2014. It was owned by a really cool guy in Michigan, who helped design the new Ford GT (early 2000's version), AND was one of the design and engineer leads on the AMX/3....He had literally bought EVERY spare possible for the car, so there was a spare part for every part...It hadn't ran since 1988. But Sean Sheridan (in pic) prepped it for 2 days straight, then turned it over, and she was ALIVE!
Cant divulge prices on this. You'd all throw up...

4. This 348 was a GREAT car, with some minor needs. It was part of LARGE collection (mostly junk, in a JUNK YARD) from an older guy outside Sacramento. He passed away, and we had MANY great conversations. Later, in this thread, I'll show the gem of his collection, and explain. This TS had super low miles, and my friend bought it from his son, for $26K I think?

5. The 246 Dino is a car that's alluded me for YEARS. I came so close to buying it, but then the daughter jumped in, and Dad won't sell it now...Once family gets involved, it's almost impossible to buy anything. It makes me sad this car continues to sit like this, but maybe someday I will buy it, and bring it back?

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

This one hurts.

I had just driven to Fresno, slept a few hours, then up to Sacramento, with that Fiat Dino Spider in the back of a UHaul. I was tired. My friend and I went to the bar that afternoon, and I was set to fly home the next morning.

then, this guy in LA calls me.

"Kenny, you still interested in my 4.7 Mexico?"

"Umm...Yea!"

I was a few beers in, and kind of tipsy....

I said "Ok, I'll drive down tomorrow to look at it..."

I turned to my friend.

"Dude, how far is LA?"

"EIGHT HOUR DRIVE DUDE!"

"Uh oh...."

So, I said F it, sleep when I'm dead. I went to Hertz an hour later, and we rented a new Camaro SS Convertible. I changed my flight to the NEXT next day, and at 0600 the next morning we BLASTED down to LA.

Got there mid afternoon, and went to the Wells Fargo. I withdrew $20K in a bank check in the guys name, and $5K cash. It was literally everything in my bank account....

The owner of the Mexico had NEVER told me how much he wanted for it, so I decided to just bring all the money I had and *hope*. This was 2013 I think, and prices were moving up...

We showed up and the car was beautiful. I wanted it instantly. It needed a new clutch, but ran, and the Webers sounded amazing.

I said, "I have a check for $20K in your name, and $5K in cash....it's all I have...." He looked disappointed, and said "Man, I was hoping for like $32Kish"
I said" Sorry, but you would never give me a price! So I brought all I have!" (my wife was at home freaking out lol, looking at our drained account).

He waited a moment, then stuck his hand out, and said, "it's your man. Take it!"

I was to the moon! We exchanged money for paperwork, I said I'll figure out transport, then we hopped back in the Camaro and BLASTED back to Sacramento. Made my flight the next morning....Exhausted, but exuberant.


Image Unavailable, Please Login

Powering down to LA. Full of morning energy lol. It was 50 degrees, heat blasting, top down!

Image Unavailable, Please Login