Barn find hunter unearths “King Tut’s Tomb” with cool classics

When you think of barn find cars or the idea of ​​a group of barn finds, you tend to imagine cars with similar characteristics preserved in one fell swoop – a cadre of muscle cars, a few Malaise-era classics, the better ones Times have seen days or something like that. Tom Cotter and them Barn Find Hunter The team is familiar with such encounters.

But occasionally he gets the chance to explore a bevy of cars that seem to have nothing in common. That’s what we have at hand with the latest episode.

Tom describes the caretaker of this collection as “the ultimate enthusiast,” which is a real compliment. For more than a year, Tom had been slowly learning the ropes of this owner until he finally asked to try exploring the collection. Finally the time has come.

“My best days are when I can come to a barn find like this and I’m clean, and when I come home and I’m dirty,” Cotter notes as they prepare to go inside. Sounds like our best days in the garage too.

The garage door goes up and viola: “I’ll bring you a Corvette Stingray.” Of course it’s dusty and half-buried, who knows what, but that’s exactly how Cotter likes them. This one has a lot of custom bodywork, but Tom thinks it’s a 1964 model. “I can usually tell by the hood,” he says, “but the hood is modified.” After exploring the interior a bit, they open the hood and take a look at the small-block V8 underneath.

After they’re done with the Corvette, Tom turns to a little bit of room where, if you don’t look closely, there appears to be some sort of lawn equipment. But underneath these boxes lies a real racing car. Tom and the gang originally believe it to be a Lotus, similar to what Dan Gurney would have driven. However, it turns out that it is a copy of a Lotus car made by a small shop in Madison Heights, Michigan.

Lest you think it’s any less interesting because it’s just a copy, Tom also explains that the car was in the Paul Newman film: Win. Famous in his own right! The car is full of nice details, but you’ll have to watch the film to find out what Tom has to say about it.

To a new building. First stop: The engine that was to be installed in the race car mentioned above. We’ll let Tom walk you through the details, but be clear: we’re talking about an eight-cam dragster.

From the 1960s and the circular paths, Tom jumps a few decades for his next topic. “Normally I would walk around this car and feel what kind of car it is, but this is just too easy to see,” Cotter begins. “It’s a 930 Porsche Turbo.” Black on black with only 16,175 miles on the clock.

Now the rodents here may have made some major advances compared to the Corvette he looked at earlier. (By the way, some rodents can drive cars now. It’s just worth reiterating how weird/awesome that is.) This one, however, they can bring to light. “Young people would hang posters (of those 911 Turbos) on their bedroom walls and dream about these things,” says Tom. “Who doesn’t love this car?”

There are more treasures in this episode, but we’ll leave those discoveries to you. Be sure to check out the whole thing below and let us know which car you were most excited about.