What is it about Barn Finds?
A barn-find Jaguar E-Type is going up for auction in the UK with Coys of Kensington. The bonus history? This Jaguar XKE's original owner designed the Beatles' drop T logo. Can you get any more English?
The car eventually changed hands to a racing enthusiast who stripped the car down and had enough foresight to keep everything. The ash tray, console, radiator bar, and anything else he removed.
It's a restorer's dream.
After the owner burnt out the clutch, he sent it to the barn. There it slept through 1980's and all the way to 2015, until someone "rescued" the car.
A later owner raced it and also raced an MG. Instead of towing both to the track, he pulled the MG trailer with his Jaguar.
All of this barn find mania begs a question...
Take Sotheby's recent Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona sales. Both sold for $770,000. One was restored down to the very nuts and bolts. The other? A "condo find."
It has "Been restored to running condition, but needs more mechanically…"
Why does an immaculate restoration pull the same as a find that needs a heaping amount of work? Where's the magic? I guess these things are only original once, but still…is is there something else?
