The greatest barn-finds of all time

For most car enthusiasts, barn-finds hold an irresistible appeal. Whether it’s the years of sleuthing, the unravelling of complex histories or the thick layers of dust, there’s something riveting about forgotten classics unearthed after decades.

And, while most of us would be content to pull an old Chevy out of a warehouse, the most fabled barn-finds involve vehicles so valuable it’s barely believable that they were forgotten in the first place. Whether found by intuition, a tip-off or sheer accident, these are the 35 greatest barn-finds of all time:

This story first appeared in Classic & Sports Car

In December 1974, a California man reported his two-month old Ferrari Dino 246GTS stolen. According to the police report, the car had vanished without a trace – and, because the story checked out, the owner claimed the insurance money.

Some four years later, two boys playing in the dirt in their backyard hit something metallic. Further digging revealed a car roof and, when the police arrived, the missing Dino was exhumed – and it was remarkably well-preserved, all things considered.

The car’s next owner restored it and it’s still on the road today, wearing a vanity plate that reads DUG UP – no joke.

Bullitt is rightly regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time – not least for its iconic chase scene through the streets of San Francisco.

The movie made the Mustang famous – and two were used in filming: a ‘hero’ car and a 'stunt' car. The latter had long been thought lost, a victim of the scrapheap – until a rusting white Mustang turned up in a Mexican junkyard.

Sitting out in the sun and salty air had done the old Ford no good. Barely recognisable, it lacked an engine or transmission, and restorer Ralph Garcia almost made it over to resemble the Eleanor Mustang from Gone in 60 Seconds.

A few tell-tale signs made him pause for thought, though: reinforced strut towers and holes drilled in the body – presumably for additional lights during filming – suggested there was more to the story.

Its chassis number was sent to Ford specialist Kevin Marti and he was able to confirm its provenance as the long-lost Bullitt 'stunt' car. It’s now undergoing restoration.

The better-known ‘hero’ Mustang used in the filming of Bullitt fared better than the ‘stunt’ car.

First sold to a Hollywood studio exec then to a New York detective, it was bought in ‘74 by Mustang fan Robert Kiernan for US$6000. Steve McQueen himself reportedly tried to buy it twice in the late-’70s but was rebutted.

Garaged in 1980 after a breakdown, it then stayed there for more than 30 years, until Kiernan’s son inherited the fastback and began restoring it.

Ford got wind of the plan and agreed to help, displaying the car alongside the new Mustang Bullitt at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show.

It’s since become something of an automotive celebrity, appearing at car shows and concours around the world as befits its status as one of the most famous movie cars ever.

It was sold by Mecum at its massive Kissimmee auction in January 2020 for a record-breaking $3.4 million.

An 81-car barn-find needs a seriously big barn, which is possibly why this eclectic French collection was discovered spread around several fields and outbuildings, under rubbish and overrun by brambles.

And as if the vast size of the collection wasn’t notable enough on its own, even more incredibly there was a Lamborghini Miura among them.

The cars’ owner, a compulsive buyer called Henry Ruggieri, barely used them, and kept each minus a vital component, to ensure they couldn’t be sold, which is how they were found in 2018 by auctioneer Henri Adam from Adam Encheres.

While the Miura was clearly the standout lot, there were some other desirable cars in the collection, such as, this 1953 Porsche 356 Pre-A.

Granted, it’s super rusty and doesn’t have its original engine – instead, it has one from a 1959 356B – but it fetched €48,000 at Adam Encheres’ sale.

When car restorer Charlie Lyons visited Glenwood, Alabama, with a view to buying a 1970 Chevelle, the last thing he expected to come across was a rare 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona – a car developed to win NASCAR races and built to the tune of just 503 examples.

Owned by that gentleman since 1974, it had spent decades in a barn, out of the elements but within reach of various animals – which happily chewed up the front seats.

An all-original, matching numbers example equipped with bucket seats and centre console, the owner was eventually convinced to part with the Daytona – and it later sold at auction with Mecum in 2016 for US$90,000 (half its estimate).

Porche’s 911 might have been called the 901 had it not been for a copyright complaint by Peugeot. So it was that the Stuttgart legend became the 911 – but not before 82 were built with 901 designation in 1964.

None were officially sold to the public and they’re so rare that even the Porsche factory didn’t have one in its collection.

When Porsche factory staff heard rumours from German television station RTL2 of a 901 standing at the back of a barn on a former farm in Brandenburg, they hopped to it.

Chassis 300.057 was in a very poor state, with both front wings missing, a lot of rust damage and a rough interior – but Porsche still wanted it, shelling out €107,000 to add the 901 to its fleet.

French entrepreneur Roger Baillon had a dream in the ‘50s of establishing a classic car museum, but the finances didn’t hold up.

Some 50 of his 200 or so beloved motors were sold, while the rest were consigned for decades to shelters and shacks around the family home in France.

Until 2014, that was, when the haul of forgotten machines was rediscovered – including an ultra-rare Ferrari 250GT SWB California Spider found beneath piles of magazines.

It sold with Artcurial for a staggering €16.3m in 2015 – alongside the likes of a Bugatti Type 57, a 1956 Maserati A6G 2000 and many worse-for-wear pre-'50s cars, in a sale that broke 10 price records.

One of the earliest Ferrari models – and arguably the car that made Ferrari – this 1950 Ferrari 166MM Barchetta started out in Europe as one of only 25 built.

A man called Reg Lee Litton reportedly asked a friend to buy the car for him and had it shipped out to California. Alas, at some point thereafter something broke, so the Barchetta was laid up in his yard and left open to the Arizona elements for decades.

Eventually the 166MM was discovered and sold – but by then the seller was clued up, so California-based Manny Del Arroz paid more than US$1m for it, even in its barn-find state.

Ferrari built just five aluminium-bodied 365GTB/4 Daytonas for the track – and only one for the road, which was found in Japan just last year.

After being sent to a Bologna car dealer, the 1969 Daytona was bought by its first owner: Luciano Conti, founder and publisher of Autosprint magazine and a close friend of Enzo Ferrari. Further down the line, it found its way to Japan, even gracing the cover of a Japanese car magazine in 1972.

By 1980, the Ferrari had been acquired by local car collector Makoto Takai, who hid the car away in a garage for nearly 40 years.

For years it was thought lost for good, having last been seen in the ‘70s. Then, in 2017, the fabled Ferrari was found – a matching numbers example of one of the rarest Prancing Horses, in true barn-find condition.

Going to auction with RM Sotheby’s as the only roadgoing alloy Daytona ever made and ripe for a restoration, chassis 12653 predictably garnered a lot of attention – and a €1.8m sale price.

‘JUE477’ isn’t quite the first ever Land-Rover – a prototype and 48 pre-production models pre-date it – but it is the first one intended for public consumption and is therefore a pivotal vehicle in the Landie story.

It was very nearly lost to history, though, having been rescued from its resting place in a Northumberland barn a few years ago.

‘Juey’ changed hands in late 2017, following its recovery, and despite appearances will be put back on the highway, having been restored by UK chemicals giant Ineos to mark its launch of the Grenadier 4x4, a vehicle that hopes to continue what the Land Rover started.

To find one classic Bugatti in a barn would be fortunate, to put it lightly. To find a pair? Well, that would be pretty incredible.

But when Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff entered a ramshackle garage in Belgium, having moved loads of rain-sodden sandbags to gain access, they found three of them – plus a 1920s Citroën.

The barn-find beauties belonged to Dutch sculptor – and Bugatti devotee – August Thomassen, and had been in the barn since the end of the 1950s, lying there untouched for the best part of 60 years.

Why had they been laid up for so long? Well Thomassen was a sculptor of some repute and used them for research rather than transportation.