Classic cars found in French farmhouse...
Classic cars found in French farmhouse...
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Discussion

Chimune

Original Poster:

4,333 posts

254 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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Couldn't see a thread on this - although im sure its been covered....
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/05/classic-cars...

Anyway - OMG - look at them !

"A treasure trove of extremely rare classic cars, discovered on a farm in western France last year after lying forgotten for almost 50 years, is expected to fetch €16m (£12m)at auction.
The cars, described as sleeping beauties by the Artcurial auction house, will be sold in the state they were found on Friday, some rusted and weather-beaten, having been kept in makeshift shelters exposed to the elements.
The 60 classic gems, bearing names like Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Talbot-Lago, Panhard-Levassor, Maserati, Ferrari, Delahaye and Delage have been described by Artcurial as works of art.
Among them is one of only 37 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyders ever made, valued at up to €12m, which was discovered under a pile of dusty old car magazines."



cloud9

wolfracesonic

9,278 posts

158 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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Caught a bit of this on the news this morning. Have these 'barn finds' just surfaced or have they been known about for years and are only now being sold?

Northernchimp

1,282 posts

163 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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Did you find this after Googling Ferrari 250 California Syder after watching Jodie Kidd on that classic car show? Because I did.

anonymous-user

85 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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There's something stomach churningly pretentious about not at least washing the cars before selling them.

Its been battered and mistreated, and that's a good thing???

Its a bit like the "rat" scene, just for people with too much money.

anonymous-user

85 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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279 said:
There's something stomach churningly pretentious about not at least washing the cars before selling them.

Its been battered and mistreated, and that's a good thing???

Its a bit like the "rat" scene, just for people with too much money.
Mistreated? What would you rather have happened? If it'd been used every day of it's life there'd be nothing left. And secondly, and crucially, it shouldn't matter anyway, you aren't buying it

JimmyJam

2,451 posts

250 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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The find has been a very big story for a good few months, front page of Octane, most other car mags, extensive on-line coverage etc etc but I guess it's getting more news for the auction

anonymous-user

85 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
quotequote all
Taz1383 said:
279 said:
There's something stomach churningly pretentious about not at least washing the cars before selling them.

Its been battered and mistreated, and that's a good thing???

Its a bit like the "rat" scene, just for people with too much money.
Mistreated? What would you rather have happened? If it'd been used every day of it's life there'd be nothing left. And secondly, and crucially, it shouldn't matter anyway, you aren't buying it
Frankly I don't care what should have/could have happened to the car for numerous reasons.

What I do care about is the decision not to to give the thing a bloody wash and polish. There are blokes around here I could make it look 1000x presentable for about a tenner. I as a car enthusiast cannot see one justifiable reason not to clean them up, not one.

It stinks to high heaven of pretentiousness. So some muti million/billionaire can one up his mates claiming to have a unrestored 250 GT SWB California Spyder, despite the fact that in reality it looks awful.


Its their money and they can do what they damn well please, but to me its no different in principal than doing a lot of things with cars to make them some sort of status symbol that get derided on here - "Lower" classes modifying their cars in stupid ways, middle classes buying white German cars on finance, Footballers with Bentleys Conti GTs and Range Rovers with massive wheeels, etc.



Edited by 279 on Thursday 5th February 21:48

Chim

7,259 posts

208 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
quotequote all
Video here, its an incredible find. Heartbreaking to see the state they are in though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxA5kqDwmzQ#t=232

BugLebowski

1,037 posts

147 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
quotequote all
279 said:
Frankly I don't care what should have/could have happened to the car for numerous reasons.

What I do care about is the decision not to to give the thing a bloody wash and polish. There are blokes around here I could make it look 1000x presentable for about a tenner. I as a car enthusiast cannot see one justifiable reason not to clean them up, not one.

It stinks to high heaven of pretentiousness. So some muti million/billionaire can one up his mates claiming to have a unrestored 250 GT SWB California Spyder, despite the fact that in reality it looks awful.


Its their money and they can do what they damn well please, but to me its no different in principal than doing a lot of things with cars to make them some sort of status symbol that get derided on here - "Lower" classes modifying their cars in stupid ways, middle classes buying white German cars on finance, Footballers with Bentleys Conti GTs and Range Rovers with massive wheeels, etc.



Edited by 279 on Thursday 5th February 21:48
I think 'pretentiousness' is going a bit far. More likely that they are keeping the "barn find" look by not washing it, which tends to appeal to buyers.

jmcc500

679 posts

249 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
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Why wash it? It's not like the buyer can't do that. What the buyer can't do is put it back to its current, unique state after it has been washed.

Lugy

830 posts

214 months

Friday 6th February 2015
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Maybe it's best that they're left unwashed, with a car like that it's possible you'd do more harm than good if you washed it in the same way as you would something modern.

This may be of interest, it's another barn find getting cleaned up... http://youtu.be/Q3Mz6YNb4uA


uk66fastback

18,477 posts

302 months

Friday 6th February 2015
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Yes, let 'em be auctioned as they are ... as they were found. They're not going to stay like that are they (I wouldn't think) they'll be given to some restorer in Switzerland along with a blank cheque ...

Chimune

Original Poster:

4,333 posts

254 months

Friday 6th February 2015
quotequote all
279 said:
There's something stomach churningly pretentious about not at least washing the cars before selling them.

Its been battered and mistreated, and that's a good thing???

Its a bit like the "rat" scene, just for people with too much money.
Miss the point much ?

BenLowden

7,370 posts

208 months

PH Marketing Bloke

Friday 6th February 2015
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Chim said:
Video here, its an incredible find. Heartbreaking to see the state they are in though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxA5kqDwmzQ#t=232
Incredibly well shot video, nearly brought a tear to my eye! Couldn't imagine actually coming across such a find. Nice soundtrack too, reminds me of Lone Survivor!

Dempsey1971

383 posts

201 months

Friday 6th February 2015
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There seems to be 2 scenes in the clasic car world. The large and prevelant 'restore it to brand new' scene and the emrging 'original' scene. The latter likes to leave the car as it is, making mecahnical repairs, but leaving the patina of age and use on the car.

At an auction, if you washed and cleaned it, you may lose the audience that are looking for an original. And a restorer wont car if you have washed the car or not. Cleaning it could actually lose you money, in the same way that over polishing old brass detracts from the value.