Vintage Ferrari discovered in leaky old barn sells for eye-watering amount at auction
An Italian classic car found in a ramshackle barn has been sold at auction for £109,000.
Despite being in an extremely sorry state, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE brought about a bidding frenzy, before eventually going to a buyer in Kent.
The classic Italian model will require a complete restoration and a big budget to bring it back to its former glory.
Matthew Parkin, who represents auctioneers Brightwells, was made aware of the Ferrari’s location by a friend.
It had been languishing in a damp Welsh barn for 40 years by the time Matthew heard about it, reports gloucestershirelive.co.uk
“The barn was being cleared out,” he said.
“When the Ferrari was revealed it was a very exciting feeling.”
Matthew, who auctions classic cars for Brightwells, realised that the car could be a particularly special model straight away.
“It was covered in moss and was very very rusty, and partly dismantled. One of its doors even came off when I went to open it.”
The owner first saw the Ferrari in a crash repair shop back in 1971, when the car was less than ten years old, and chalked his name next to it in the vain hope it would be for sale one day.
Two years later, the garage had legal title to it and called him.
He bought it in 1973 for £800 and had ten good years motoring before storing it in the barn, with the best of intentions of completing work on it.
But it stayed untouched for the next four decades.
“I was very lucky to be alerted to it,” said Matthew.
“It doesn’t happen often enough but there are still plenty more car treasures to be found.