Being agriculturally inclined to build barns in the country, we don’t expect barn finds to turn up in the middle of a high-turnover metropolis. Yet that’s been happening more regularly of late, and writer Michael Mraz has found another example in South Central, Los Angeles: a one-of-one Mercedes-Benz 1935 Caracciola 500K built especially for Silver Arrows race driver Rudolph Caraccioloa. It is pictured above in better days, after having been restored and displayed on the lawn at the Pebble Beach concours in the late 1970s.

What’s amazing about the Caracciola 500K, and tragic for car lovers, is that it has a good deal of company: in a piece called “Wheels of Fortune” in the February issue of Town & Country magazine, Mraz found scaffolds full of vintage metal in awful condition, rusting outside in a parts yard called Porche Foreign Auto. They 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, a specimen once owned by Eva Braun that was for a time on loan to the Audi Museum in Germany. (Audi was founded by August Horch.) Parked one on top of the other are dozens upon dozens of Porsche Carrera carcasses….

Porche Foreign Auto was started in 1967 by a German butcher named Rudi Klein, who bought the Caracciola 500K after it was shown at Pebble in 1978. He took it to a Mercedes show in Newport Beach in 1980, and when it wouldn’t start he loaded it on a trailer and took it home. It hasn’t been seen since, outside of the parts yard.

Klein passed away, and his salvage yard is overseen by his sons, who won’t let any gawkers into to view the cars. Even Mraz was denied entry. But he spoke to folks who have seen the collection, and one said that there are vehicles people have sought for decades and thought had been destroyed. The head of the Mercedes Classic Center in Irvine believes the Caracciola 500K could be worth more than the 1937 540K Spezial Roadster that was auctioned for nearly million at last year’s RM Auctions at Pebble. But we might never know.

Town & Country doesn’t have a proper website, so pick up the magazine to read the piece and see what the automotive world is missing. There’s a sample of it in the attached gallery, but be warned, it’s not pleasant to see.

One-off Mercedes 550K barn find discovered in South Central, LA salvage yard originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All summer, I make it a point to hit the local cruise nights, and while there are plenty of regulars on hand week to week, a few cars make just one appearance and vanish. Way back in May, the car you see above, a surf-themed 1964 Ford Falcon Squire dubbed “Tiki Taxi”, showed up. Immediately smitten, I snapped a bunch of photos, all of which are now gallerized here. Good thing, because the car never materialized again.

Fast-forward to today. Turns out, the “Tiki Taxi” is for sale. The coolest ’64 Falcon station wagon in the known universe has a 289, three on the floor, and a JVC cassette deck to play your Martin Denny tapes during the ride to Trader Vic’s. Current high bid (as of post time) is ,600, and you still have two days to get in on the action. Check out the photo gallery to see just how beautifully turned out this wagon really is. You can also download full-resolution shots here.

eBay Find of the Day: ’64 Ford Falcon “Tiki Taxi” originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Ford Mustang has some strange skeletons knocking bones in its closet, including the Mustero. Believe it or not, the Mustang/Ranchero hybrid you see above was actually a Ford-licensed product. The company authorized Beverly Hills Mustang LTD to produce the machines for just two years.

At the time, the conversion came carrying a price tag of ,500. That made the Mustero as expensive as the Shelby Cobra. Needless to say, buyers weren’t exactly lining up with cash in hand for a pint-sized pickup sports car, and only 50 were ever produced, including this well-restored example.

According to the owner, this ’66 Mustero received a complete restoration in the ’80s and has been carefully stored indoors since then. A 289-cubic-inch V8 lurks under the hood, mated to a three-speed manual gearbox. Manual steering and brakes are part of the party as well, so be prepared for a work out when it comes time to wheel this machine through town.

The vehicle currently sits with a Buy It Now price of ,500. Head over to eBay Motors for a look at the listing.

eBay Find of the Day: 1966 Ford Mustang Mustero originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While rummaging through the wares on offer at an estate sale, Bobby Goins, a “picker” in Grand Blanc, Michigan, found the car pictured above: a 1952 Ferrari 212 Inter Ghia Cabriolet. Hidden under a tarp and lots of detritus in a garage, once it was revealed Goins discovered that the car was almost completely intact. The only thing missing was the engine, and that was found in Wisconsin not long after the discovery of the car.

Without a serial number, it’s difficult to place this car exactly, even though the 212 Inter was only made for three years. It came early in Ferrari’s move to production cars, but was one of the most numerous models with the widest variety of bodystyles – no less than eight coachbuilders contributed designs and variations on those designs. For instance, this one has a Ghia grille used on another body, but a different hood treatment. No matter, it’s been rescued from oblivion and sold to a good home: it was bought by a Ferrari collector for just 0,000.

Follow the jump to see local news footage of Goins’ discovery.

Continue reading Barn Find: 1952 Ferrari 212 Ghia Cabriolet found collecting dust

Barn Find: 1952 Ferrari 212 Ghia Cabriolet found collecting dust originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Lamborghini Countach remains the Kleenex of supercars. Its bombastic wedgy shape was so overexposed in the 1980s, it’s a wonder it didn’t wind up in therapy. As the decade wore on, the Countach picked up more and more plastic surgery, but even so, mid-1980s examples have an unmatched blend of swagger and silliness. And if you’re going for a car transported straight out of Tony Montana’s seething dreams, don’t you want to find the best one?

This black beauty offered for auction is a 1987 Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole with just 1,200 miles on the odometer. Countach 5000 QVs benefitted from the car’s characteristic V12 being bored and stroked to 5.2-liters, along with the addition of four valves per cylinder (hence the name).

U.S. market cars were unfortunately marred by federal bumpers, which this car also sports. Swing that scissor door up, and you suddenly forget about the silly appendages. Besides, the period-perfect gold phone-dial wheels and tan Connolly leather interior draw your eyes, and a little time with a socket wrench would net you a sleeker, bumperette-free silhouette, anyway.

Current bidding on eBay Motors sits at 0,000, which means this Countach is about the same price now as it was when it first left Sant’Agata – fitting for a car that presents as new as this one. Of course, the reserve price isn’t met, so who knows what the seller is hoping to get out of the sale. While we might prefer the design purity (and comparative rarity) of earlier LP400 models, even Countach detractors have to step back and admire this car. It’d be hard to fight the urge to drive this thing everywhere – even milk runs would become an experience.

eBay Find of the Day: 1987 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV is a 1,200-mile time warp originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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