. years ago I heard of a 1970 Hemi Charger sitting at a farm house.Tracked it down and saw it.Car has sat so long the oil pan has rusted off.Not for sale.Still there as I stop in every year for a chat with the owner
Yeah it happened in colorado. Before one of his concerts he bought a bunch of cadillacs. And gave them away to a few local celebs, and goverment figures...ghost
OK, I've got some older cousins and an older brother. We go to cars shows and bench race and bullshit and I love it. I've heard the '53 Chevy Convertible story, and the son died in Nam story (sometimes it's the same story) so many times and with so many variations I just don't know... This found lost horsepower gig is hilarious. It led to excess horsepower and the horsepower wars, government regulation... That's a new one on me. About losing a son to war. The reality here is many family members have been lost to war. After losing someone close to you like that, what is their Vette worth to you? Nothing. We all love cars here and some of them hold a pretty serious value but it's all relative. When you've lost the things that really matter in life (like family) then the real value of our possessions become apparent. Honor their memories, build tributes and enjoy them. Just saying.
they have a buncha info on that in the rock n roll hall of fame in cleveland too. pretty cool history. bought a car for his whole entourage plus one for a lady who was window shopping, lol. bet she kicks herself in the ass everyday for selling it.
Cherry Wallace, the Harley dealer from 1954 til the 80s told me that he watched as the Army buried 500 Harleys in a big hole at Fort Polk, near Leesville Louisiana a few years after WWII. Nobody wanted an old Harley back then.
I heard stories about a 1923 Model T roadster sitting in a back yard in town. I talked to a guy who knocked on the door in 1967 and was told the lady was saving it for her son. She was still waiting for him to come home from the war. World War Two! I was told where the car was and they said I would not be able to see it. The old lady let bushes grow around it and the only thing I could see was a headlight. She died, the new owner never trimmed the bushes or anything, then she got old and moved away. I got the car and sold it on Ebay.
I heard a story that I believe...There is a building with a wood floor in Shreveport Louisiana and under the floor is racing Harleys from the 50s.
I know where there is a 69' Camaro SS 396 that has been sitting forever. It was this old guys wifes car and wasn't able to drive since the 80's. She recently passed away and the car is now sitting and may be for sale. I have seen the car and it is a L34 car with an automatic, and is still wearing its original paint and only has 30,000miles. When he actually steps up to sell it, I will make him an offer. I have heard the storey that some old guy has a mint big block camaro for years that he never takes out, but this one is true.
Most local car guys here have heard of or know about this one. Story i was told 15 years ago was a guys son had passed and he still had the sons 63 corvette sitting in the front of a little ramshakle house in a questionable neighborhood but would not sell. Well as of a year ago or so that car was still actually sitting there in terrible condition with wood stacked on and against it and fiberglass delaminating in places.
Well, I'm actually the car's owner mentioned in the post above... car is still in good running shape - just had it in the Dallas Autorama this past weekend and did 85 mph up and down the tollway in it to get it there. The book is a little exagerated, but still a good story, a hell of a barn find, and still quite a mystery to the builders personal story. Many of the guys from So Cal know and remember the car from the 60s and early 70s, but i NEVER get much detail about the actual builder... Abby Abidjian. Get lots of acknowledements as to many who knew him, but no one offers up details... Anyone know his story?
thought i found the 32 in a barn a week ago, when i got closer it turned out it was the owners private showroom. Plus it couldnt have been the one from the story cus it was a 34 and the barn was only 20 yeas old
Here's the story of the "Entombed 1954 Corvette". A true story. Eventually sold thru Pro Team Corvettes in Napoleon, OH. I've seen the car in person, stored in a warehouse with other Vettes, in this area. I also have seen a 63 split window Vette, stored in another warehouse in another area town......still in the care of the nephew of the original owner. The original owner, an older fellow, lived about two blocks down the street from me. He was a car fan, having owned such things as a Parkard Darrin roadster and a Kaiser Darren, plus a 49 Olds convert. He also built his own sports car in the early 1950s....made from two 46 Hudson sedans. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- This is the "Entombed 1954 Corvette" that was entombed for nearly three decades and recently sold by ProTeam. This 1954 Corvette spent twenty-seven years sealed in it's tomb of bricks and mortar within a grocery store in New Brunswick, Maine where Millionaire Richard Sampson owned the store and the Corvette. The 1954 Corvette is all original - - the odometer reads only 2331 actual miles but the story doesn't end there. This store was built with an extra room... a brick vault that was home to the White 1954 Corvette for over a quarter of a century. It was his wish in Mr. Sampson's will, that the car remain sealed in brick until the year 2000. However, under new ownership in 1986, They asked that it be removed and returned to the family. Richard's daughter, Cynthia Sampson then took it to Florida and parked it in her living room for approximately 10 years. This Corvette will be displayed with a placard in honor of Mr. Richard Sampson which was part of the acquisition negotiation with Mr. Sampson's daughter, Cynthia. It is probably the oldest lowest mile unrestored Corvette in the world. Bloomington Gold invited this 1954 Corvette to be displayed in the 1996 Special Collection XIII... "The Classics 1953-1962." This "Entombed 1954 Corvette" is featured on ProTeam's Historical Collection Video. A viewer friendly quality video entitled "The Historical Collection" is available for $9.95 plus $3.00 postage and handling. Photo below of the Maine Vette. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Follow this link to yet another 54 Vette story.....I had never heard it til I just happened onto this article tonight. http://www.businessweek.com/autos/c...+style="font-family:arial;">+</span>+features
I,m a Kiwi lived in Marin Ca in the early 80,s. My buddy John showed me a 32 coupe supposed to be an old Hemi powered racecar that was owned by a son of the yard owner, the son was killed in Vietnam. I remember the old construction yard, was in Novato, and we could see the coupe in the distance from the road. I always wondered if anybody scored the car or remembered it.
You do know there is still more to this story? The reason the Horsepower dried up so fast has never been released as it involves the government/industry/military complex. In particular the Air Force and the CIA. It was CIA director Allen Dulles who masterminded the military utilization of most of the excess horsepower. He released project 'Aquatone', a contract for competing company's to build a 'spy plane' capable of over flying the USSR. The contract was won by the infamous Lockheed 'Skunk Works' where Kelly Johnson came up with the U2, U meaning and intentionally vague 'Utility'. It was however lacking in performance, this was evidenced when Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Russia in 1960. Again the call went out from the CIA and USAF for a new aircraft to overfly the USSR. It was at the behest of Kelly Johnson and signed off by Allen Dulles that the (At the time) vast supply of horsepower be made available to the Skunk Works for this project. The incredibly powerful J-58 resulted from that call claiming a reserve eating 160,000 horsepower per motor! The result of the 1960 request for speed and the J-58 was the Mach 3.3+ SR 71 Blackbird. The 2nd July 1967 saw the first real mission for the SR 71 and a sad day for 'rev heads' as horsepower was now a rationed 'War Commodity'. It was unknown by manufacturers of the time that the 'Horsepower boon' was in fact being robbed by the CIA. HP ratings as good as they seemed in light of previous withholdings were still nowhere near what they should have been. It was 1963 and Henry Ford II started to get suspicious, he went to his design department and initiated a secret program to build a motor that retained all of its Horsepower. This engine was built over the following two years under the strictest secrecy, not even the CIA had an inkling of its existence until, in 1965 Henry II triumphantly released the motor to the world. Yes the 427SOHC went public! News quickly spread of the 650+ HP, startling the CIA and the Government into action. They immediately handed down to NASCAR the decree that 'this motor must never be raced', hence the ban. It was a shocking revelation to other manufacturers that they had been robbed for all of these years and even in the 'Boon time' of muscle cars they had still been missing out on what was rightfully theirs. This began a rash of secret engine development 'Skunk Works' by the likes of Buick, Chevrolet, Plymouth etc to copy Fords withholding of the stolen Horsepower. The CIA immediately began a campaign to eliminate and once again clamp down on rogue manufacturers from secretly retaining horsepower in their motors. This was a long drawn out battle that eventually spread to a small south east Asian country when Chevrolet opened a factory in Hanoi. The war between the car company's and the CIA/Airforce had now drawn in the Army, Marines, Navy and Air America. Then the earth shaking announcement by Ford on November 3rd, 1970 that, Horsepower supplies were running dangerously low. As a result, all 1971 models would be built with reduced compression ratios in an effort to cut back on the run-away horsepower fever that had swep up the whole country. This was really the signing of the peace accord between manufacturers and the Government returning 'stolen' horsepower to government control. Chevrolet held out for three additional years until the Hanoi factory was finally closed down in 1975. The era of the High Performance Muscle car was over and the public was none the wiser until today. Doc.
It's not cool (yet) but there was a late 70's LTD four door somewhere near Stratford, WI. with less that 100 original miles on it. Story goes that the original owner wanted a four speed but the dealer sold him an automatic and told him if he wasn't satisfied he could bring it back. After a couple days he brings the car back and the dealer laughs in his face. The guy gets pissed and takes his new car home and parks it... period end of story. A nephew or grandson or something had it out at a garage sale a few years back for some ungodly amount. Window sticker, plastic seat cover and paper floor mats in place. Must not have sold because I saw it on ebay later that summer. Not sure if it sold then. That was about five years back.
I know where there's what i believe was a 32 ford in a building,but i'm not allowed to tell anyone where it is, still in original condition,been in the building since the 60's as far as I know, I already know they won't sell it, a lot of people have tried to buy it. They won't scrap it or anything, but they won't sell it eithier. it's in a safe place.
I relative of mine tells the story of a 60's impala that someone showed up with was "hot" and needed a place to put it. So being a die-hard Ford guy, he dug a hole next to the shop and buried it. He told me that for the longest time when you walked over the roof it would "tin can" if you jumped up and down. Presently there is an 8'x 20' slight dip in the grass next to the shop.
I know a guy that drinks a lot. When he drinks he's always telling stories about when he was young in the late 60's and early 70's. One time he starting talking about a 69 Camaro he has. He says he never drives it, because it is so fast it scares him. I think it's just the booze talking, till he starts getting specific about it has a 427, and he bought it from a dealer in Canonsburg. When he said that, my ears perked up. I tried to get more information from him, but he had moved onto another topic. The next day when he was sober, I asked him about what he said, and he said it was all true. He figured that, having such a powerful car at such a young age, was going to kill him so he parked it in his dad's garage. I asked to see the car figuring I'd call his bluff, but he said he was never going to let anybody drive that car, because it would kill them, and there was no reason to see it. He did say he had a picture of the car and him. It was taken on the day he bought the car. He carried it in his wallet in one of those laminated covers. I looked at the picture, and the car was red with the white stripe, with Yenko on the side. To this day, that is the closest I have ever gotten to that car. Every once and a while, I ask to see the car, but he always has said no.
Might be true. I was at Ft Polk in '07 and one of the property issue guys was telling me about a bunch of old bikes buried on the base. Didn't say they were Harleys though, and he didn't know where the burial site was. When I was in high school (around 1980) there was an old woman lived across from the cemetary had a '55 Chevy Bel Air postie sinking into the ground in her back yard. My boys told me not to fool with it, because the old bitch would come out yelling and chase you off with a broom. Well, I went by and asked about the car anyway, and guess what, she came out yelling and bitching and about beat my big ass half to death with a broom. Couple years later noticed the car was gone, and about a week or two later the house was too. Never heard if somebody actually managed to buy the car, or if it got crushed.
I heard this story from some old time hot rodders in town... of these two car club members sitting at a bar with their jackets on and some old guy walks up to them and says are you guys into those old hot rods? To which they reply yes, so the old timer goes to to tell this story of this souped up t roadster that he got to ride in in 56' it had a buick nailhead an olds rearend, and zephyr gears... then he says "yep that guy lived over on branciforte... in fact I think he still does" So they say do you mind introducing us to the guy? The old timer drives them over to the guys house, they peer through the window of the garage, and see the bucket up on blocks. They knock on the guys door and give him all the cash in their pockets for the car (about $500). come back the next day and literally drive it off after a quick tune up. I live 4 blocks away from branciforte... I just thought sure good wise tale. I've been telling the story for about 5 years, I was down town last year and saw a neat old roadster with a buick engine and thought to myself... Naw couldn't be. So I wait around and the guy comes up and I start talking to him and ask him about the car. And it is the car from the story!!! I said "WOW! I thought it was an old wise tale! I've been telling this story for 4 years", to which he replies... 4 years? I've only had the car about six months?.... couldn't be the same car. I say "where'd you pick it up?" Oh over on Branciforte. WTF! talk about a myth? I have no idea whats up with the timeline, and still to this day cannot figure it out... I haven't seen those old time hotrodders that told me the story since, in fact come to think of it I hadn't seen them before they told me that story either, that was the first day we met... eerie?
The Jalopy Journal
