Many enthusiasts dream of finding a Bugatti or a Bentley in a barn or a
long disused building. In reality, such finds are more likely to be an
Austin 7, Ford Popular or a Mini. This book is stuffed with these so
called "barn finds". The author has tried to find out the background to
the abandonment and the previous history of the "as found" car when it
was in regular use. Why was it put away and apparently forgotten? Many
of the stories have appeared in his "Lost and Found" column in "Classic
and Sports Car" magazine, but a book gives a chance for the expanded
story to be told. The cars featured date from 1900 through till the
1980's, most come from Great Britain and Europe but there are plenty
from Australasia and USA. There are well over 200 different cars plus
collections featured. Each story has at least one illustration to go
with it. Some of the locations are bizarre, a Daimler buried under a
rockery, a Porsche sunk in Lake Lucerne, a Rolls -Royce on the roof of a
high rise building in Karachi, or a Morris 8 special in a
Gloucestershire pond. There is a chapter on collections of cars, put
together by seemingly eccentric owners who never got around to restoring
them before their death. The author is not critical of any of these
owners and is grateful for the number of cars they have saved from
almost certain destruction.
