Mercedes 550K and other treasures rust away
Despite the name, not all barn finds are found in
barns. Some are found in scrapyards like Porche Foreign Auto (pictured) in
downtown Los Angeles.
And when I say "found," I mean "rumoured to be rusting away." And when I say "some," I mean "cars like the one-off Mercedes-Benz 1935 Caracciola 500K built for racer Rudolph Caracciola."
Town & Country magazine stumbled upon the rusty treasure chest that is Porche Foreign Auto, and interviewed the owners, the Klein brothers. They're the sons of the late Rudi Klein, who started the scrapyard in 1967.
The Kleins confirmed they know they're sitting on some incredibly rare and valuable scrap metal (the Caracciola 500K could be worth more than $10 million if restored) and don't plan on doing anything with it.
They'll have no visitors, entertain no offers — they even turned Mercedes-Benz themselves, who said they'd restore the car for free if they could just display it in their musuem for a while.
Other cars rotting away inside the yard include "a pair of one-off prewar Maybachs; one of two Iso Grifo Spyders (designed and engineered by Giotto Bizzarrini, who also has the Ferrari 250 GTO on his résumé); one of 29 alloy-bodied Mercedes Gullwings...; a couple of BMW 502s and 507s; a half-dozen or so Lamborghini Miuras, with their mighty V12 engines; and the last surviving example of the seven Horch 855 Spezial Roadsters ever built."
source: http://autos.sympatico.ca/weird-automotive-news/12994/one-of-one-benz-found-in-la-junkyard/2
Town & Countryby Nicholas Maronese
Town & Countryby Nicholas Maronese
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