I have to say that I’m mighty thankful for Mr. Tom Cotter. It seems the Barn Find specialist (and author of The Cobra in the Barn, and The Hemi in the Barn), did a little bit of detective work to get to the bottom of this whole Portuguese Barn Find business. And as always, the truth is somewhere between legend and myth.
From the article printed in Sports Car Magazine, it seems that no such retired person stumbled upon the property, buying it and only later discovering the gem in the back forty, but that the property does, and always has, belonged to a former automotive merchant, who had a penchant for picking out the rare, unusual, and interesting cars, and storing them away in his personal barn. The truth is that there truly does lie a barn in Portugal, and that said barn does in fact contain dozens of classic and beautiful cars.
Now, years later, his identity, and the location of the property in Portugal, are kept hidden away. No cars are for sale, and I assume that until this man’s death, these cars will remain in the barn, waiting to be restored until another day.
You can read my first post about the Portuguese Barn Find here, as well as see photos from the barn. Sports Car Market also has a PDF of a somewhat comprehensive list of the cars here.
