The man from the auction house arrived onsite with a chainsaw.
On an overgrown property in the UK, there were seven vintage cars packed and stacked so tightly in a forsaken steel-frame barn that neither he nor his colleagues from Anglia Car Auctions could get near them. “Because of how they were stored, we couldn’t see all of them,” classic cars department head Guy Snelling told The Epoch Times. “But I could immediately see that we had something quite significant. It was a collection.” And among this, literally parked in the rafters, was one sports car that stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Mr. Snelling and company spent several hours cutting down a tree and clearing the dilapidated, overgrown lot—set in a “secret location” somewhere “in the south of England”—before extracting a car collector’s prized possessions using a boom forklift.
They were gems hidden in the rough: Two beat-up ’69 Jaguar E-Types and one ’70 of the same model. A battered ’51 Land Rover Series I 80-inch. And most impressively, three AC ACE sports cars. “To find one would be fantastic,” Mr. Snelling said. “To find three AC cars is remarkable.” Foremost, among the three was the last to be extracted, and the barn find’s crown jewel—it was a ’57 AC Bristol.
Indeed, the cars looked like their surroundings. Yet they brim with potential. Stored for about 40 years, according to Mr. Snelling, they were covered in dust and falling apart, with sunken seats, broken headlamps, and flat tires. Yet many retained their original numbers and are restorable. Exposed to the elements and unmaintained for decades as they were, they “do need full restoration,” Mr. Snelling said, adding that they’ve remained off the road and are, in a way, “fresh.” “Without a doubt, they will make probably in excess of 250,000 pounds [US$318,700].”
From Race Car to Barn Clutter
Mr. Snelling revealed the car’s history. Famous car dealer K. N. Rudd sold it not once but twice—the second time, in 1961, to the lady racecar driver Betty Haig. “She actually took this car to the continent, to Europe,” the auctioneer said. “And I think she raced in the Hill Climbs, at the same time testing tires for Pirelli.”After Ms. Haig’s enterprise with the car, it changed hands several times—finding its way to Switzerland, partaking in car shows, and possibly joining more races—before returning to the UK. In 1974, it found its current owner, one former hotshot commercial pilot named David Brown, who was also an engineer and a bigtime car buff.
“He’s a gentleman who’s now in advancing years, but he was a pilot,” Mr. Snelling said, adding that he'd owned a Cessna 172 and was once a flight instructor at Biggin Hill on the outskirts of London. “Everybody we’ve spoken to knew him as being the life and soul of the party very much.”
Mr. Snelling said, “David was passionate about flying and cars. He never married but he was popular with the ladies.”
Mr. Brown apparently stowed his cars in a barn thinking he'd get around to them eventually, the auctioneer said. But as one year turned into 10, and 20 into 40, the cars became just more clutter and faded into neglect. “It’s time to turn to the next person to enjoy them,” Mr. Snelling said, “to give them the care and attention that they need.”
