$4,000,000 Barn Find - Rare Ferrari AND 427 Cobra Hidden for Decades | Barn Find Hunter - Ep.24

- Over the last few years in the Barn Find Hunter series, we've found a couple of big cars. And the ones that come to mind are the Porsche Speedster in Dallas, the Saoutchik-bodied Pegaso near Santa Barbara, California. The '54 Corvette in North Georgia. We've gotten a lead on a car collection that hasn't seen the light of day since the '80s. It looks like it could blow all those cars out of the water. It's not that I don't like those other cars, I love them, but as for a collection with presence, value, heritage and longevity of ownership, we're heading there right now to

find

out which Barn might be the best.

Find the Hunter discovery we've ever had. (upbeat rock music) Well, here we are. And we've beaten everyone else here. We're supposed to meet here, we're actually early. 1:30. It's a nice garage. It was a nice house, but it has been allowed to fall into disrepair and now the house and garage will be torn down and a new one will be built here. But this is a good neighborhood. Doctors, lawyers and important people live in this neighborhood. Who would have thought that this garage would house some of the

rare

st sports cars in the world? Or so I've been told.

And you can see that there are leaves accumulated against the doors. There hasn't been anyone in this garage for a long time. Here we are with a friend of the owner. It is a kind of management of the destiny of these cars in their next life. They've been sitting here for, I don't know... How long have they been sitting here? - Since 1991. - '91, okay. - Apparently, according to my friend, who I have known for several years, he had a mechanic who was a personal friend of his and who was an extremely competent mechanic and he believed, my friend believed that this mechanic was the only person. that he possibly could be qualified to take care of his cars as they should be.

So this guy was also a motorcycle racer and, luckily, he died in an accident. - Oh God. -So my friend, he was going through some changes in his life and he thought, well, maybe I'll eventually get another mechanic, but if I don't, I'll just park the cars. And he did and life went on its way and left them there. So here they are, since 1991. - Incredible, it's a real time capsule. (garage door opening) - It's a little messy. - Oh man. This is, this is a dream. - It's... - For a guy like me, this is a dream. -For me it was, I mean my friend had mentioned these cars in passing and I didn't think he still had them.

He said we should go take a look. And so I did and I think I stood here and my chin hit my chest and I just said Oh my God. (Garage door opens) - Wow, there are mice living in that Cobra. - We have mice there, so... - This is a shot we will never see again in our lives. Mouse nest on the back of a

cobra

. - In the back of a Cobra. (laughs) - I know about Cobras, but I don't really know about Ferraris. What I do know is that a 275GTB was the first Ferrari available without wire wheels.

The standard wheels, apparently, were solid wheels like these alloy wheels. But that's all I know, what can you tell me about it? - Well, as far as I know, this is a long nose alloy coupe, 275GBT2. Which is with a two cam engine. Which from what I understand is a bit unusual because normally alloy cars were bought with a four cam engine because it would be someone who... A guy who would campaign the car at least in some form of racing with the alloy . This car was quite unusual in that it has a two-cam street engine that is not very detuned, but is a little less aggressive.

But maybe it makes it a little more civilized for driving around town, etc. So the gentleman who bought this car had it in Connecticut. My friend bought this car from the original owner for $47,000. - In what year? - I think in the early 80s. - Well. - I guess in '82. - Well. - Something like that. And he drove it here and drove it sporadically for seven or eight years and then when the aforementioned mechanic passed away, and then the car ended up here. But I think it's a 13,000 mile car. It has the original vinyl seats, blue vinyl, not leather.

That sounds strange for a Ferrari, but apparently it was normal at the time. And everything about the car, as far as I know, literally every part is original, just as it was parked in 1991. - Man, amazing. And you haven't tried starting this car? - No, my friend thought it would be a bad idea to try to start something, do anything. We just wanted to have the cars and for you to come look at them and see what you thought. - Because this car is dry, it hasn't been outside, it doesn't sink. The body lines are very good.

I just wonder. (door closes) It's like a new car. It has a beautiful blue vinyl interior. Blue vinyl seats, blue carpets. And it has 13,205.2 miles from new. So the '67 Ferrari is only 50 years old, 13,000 miles in 50 years. It was, yeah, I mean, wow. This is probably one of the few GTBs with this mileage and this original in the world. There are a couple of amazing cars in this garage. I'm leaning on one of them. I don't know much about Ferraris, but luckily I do know something about that car over there. And it's the bright red Cobra.

So let's take a look at that. So this car is called 427 Cobra. Although this one doesn't have a 427 engine. There are various stories about why it has a 428, but the 427 had 425 horsepower. And the 428 had 390. The 427 was a racing engine and was made to run at high RPM for, you know, the duration of the Daytona 500 or the 24 Hours of Le Mans. So it goes and goes at high RPMS. They were built to generate maximum power. The 428 was actually built as a police interceptor type engine. They were built for Thunderbirds. They were built for big rural landowners and things like that.

They had 390 horsepower and instead of having solid lifters, they had hydraulic lifters and it was just a more manageable engine. Well, the story is that Ford couldn't supply all the 427s Carroll needed or Carroll Shelby wanted to save several hundred dollars on each engine and make more profits. Whatever the case, many 427 Cobras have 428 engines. Once Ford discovered that it was replacing 428 engines in 427 Cobras, they made it remove the engines. If the customer complained, wait a moment. I paid for 427, got a 428, Ford Motor Company had Carroll Shelby put the correct engine back in the car. So they got what they thought they were paying for.

A total of 998 Cobras were manufactured. They are 289 and 427. The 289, and even the earlier ones, the 260, have what they call a slab sider, a very soft little lip on the fender. We see a lot more of the 427s, not because they made more, they only made 300-odd of these. - 348. - 348, okay, they made 348,427 Cobras. The reason we see more of these is because there are around 60,000 replicas based on this car. So you can see that this car has a slight flare here. Because the car was more robust. It had a four-inch diameter frame tube instead of three inches and was made to have larger tires and wheels.

It has coil suspension at all corners instead of the old leaf spring that the 289 had. On the rear of the Cobra, 427 Cobra, there were four different rear end styles. And this is the back of the street. When I talk about the rear, I mean the body line. So this is the most common 427. They made a racing body in which this flare was extended even further. They made one with a lip that was a little raised over here. They did that on some of them. And then they made a narrow, modern car that didn't have this excess of fenders, but it was very well fitted.

The kit cars you see are usually based on an SC or a racing Cobra. You see, there were side tubes, big flares, and big wheels. But in fact, trams did not come with side tubes, big lights and big wheels. They came like this. So this is a very intact car. 19,000 miles. It has exhaust under the car. It has a dual exhaust that exits under the rear bumper. Believe it or not, the people at Cobra prefer this type of look and sound over sidepipe version cars. The Cobra has an aluminum body, so I can do my little trick here again, and I know it won't stick because it's an aluminum body.

They were hand made in England by AC Car Company. There's an emblem right here that says Ford-powered Shelby American Cobra and gives a serial number. Cobras have several places around the car where that serial number is

hidden

. So if these cars were ever stolen and dismantled, you could track down parts of the car knowing where to look and I'll show you where those parts are right now. On each of these hood latches there is a serial number. One here and one there. So you have the same serial number down there, here and there. On each of these hinges on the left and right door, just inside under that plastic and in there, there is the same serial number.

If you crawl, I won't crawl under this car. But if you were to crawl under the car, that same serial number would be scraped with an ice pick at the bottom of this transmission tunnel. It is an aluminum panel. As well as behind this panel right here. If you crawled under the car and looked in front of the rear, you would see the number scratched into that panel. And the last place that serial number exists is on this little trunk latch over there. So often you will

find

a car that has different parts from different cars on the same car and you know that car was put together at some point due to an accident, or they found the parts they needed in a junkyard or they bought it. from a collector.

So this is where you can tell how authentic a Cobra is by seeing that all the numbers are in the same places. That number also exists on the frame rail next to the engine mounts which are stamped right on the frame. It's a four-inch tube frame, as opposed to the three-inch tube of the 289. The 289 is truly a flexible wheel. It was built on an existing chassis, but Shelby designed this Cobra so he could drive a huge engine. The motor probably weighs 500 pounds. If you look at how far back the engine is, you will see that it is well behind the front axle of the car.

That meant the transmission was very far back here, the transmission lever, the shifter, they couldn't operate a Mustang shifter because it would be behind the driver. So they changed that lever and it sort of looks forward. It looks awkward, but it works well. But you know, you kind of lift the transmission. You lift the lever to go to second gear and push it down to go to third and lift it to fourth, and it works fine. This car, after having been here a while, has occupants. In the glove compartment, there's probably a condo for a whole family of mice.

There's more mouse stuff in the back, and I'm sure after a couple

decades

of peeing, that's all that crap on top of the wheel and tire. And if I were brave enough, I would look to see what's in that box, but I see the right cat is in the corner over there. Something very

rare

on these cars are tool kits. They had a screwdriver, some pliers and several wrenches, and a couple of other parts. And the people at Cobra would give everything they could to have the right set of tools. As I look at the body here, there's a really shiny, beautiful paint job right under that layer of dust.

I mean, the reflections I'm seeing here are perfect. This car could be cleaned very well. It would be a great sin to restore a car like this. This car should be kept as is, cleaned and enjoyed like the 19,000 mile car it is. I wrote a book about 20 years ago called The Cobra in the Barn and that was the first book I wrote about

barn

hunting. And the whole idea of ​​that book was the dream of being able to find a Cobra in an abandoned environment like this. Whether you're a Mopar guy, a Chevy guy, or a Ford guy, we all dream of finding cars in

barn

s, but we'd all love to find a Cobra in a barn.

This brings tears to my eyes. This is the perfect setting with the perfect car. I don't know if I'll ever do better than that in this series. (upbeat rock music) I've been looking for old cars in garages since I was 12 years old. And I have never encountered a group of cars like this in my life. A Ferrari, a Cobra, a Morgan V8 and a low mileage Triumph TR6. This is amazing and we may never find another collection like this again. So maybe this should be the last episode of Barn Find Hunter. Well, no, I'm just kidding.

Happy hunting. (upbeat rock music)