Ultimate barn find: Ferrari 250 GT and countless classics

9 December, 2014

In this era, where mankind has access to nearly every corner of the globe, it is inevitable that the classic barn find is dying — they’ve almost all been discovered. Well, one farm in western France didn’t follow this trend.

About 100 classic cars were housed on the property in varying states of decay, beneath an assortment of barns and ramshackle shelters. Around 60 of these cars have been deemed salvageable, and are expected to fetch up to £12m. Imagine the surprise of the French classic car specialists Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff who were commissioned to help identify the vehicles, which include a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California SWB, a 1956 Maserati A6G 200 Berlinetta Gran Sport Frua, and a Talbot-Logo T26 Cabriolet owned by King Farouk of Egypt.

The Ferrari, one of only 37 ever made, was featured in the 1964 film Les Felins and has borne Jane Fonda as a passenger. Said specialist Mr. Lamoure of the Ferrari, “Only 37 examples of this model were built, making it extremely rare. Every example has been carefully documented by historians and this one was thought to be lost — we have found it.” The Ferrari is expected to fetch anywhere from £9.5m to £12m.

The Maserati, with body built by Frua, is one of just three in existence and is thought to be worth around £1m. Equally as impressive is the Talbot-Logo T26 Cabriolet owned by King Farouk, who was renowned for his extraordinarily lavish lifestyle.

The enormous collection was built up between the 1950s and 1970s by entrepreneur Roger Baillon. When his business began a downwards slope in the ’70s, he was forced to sell off some 50-odd cars, and what remains here is what he kept. His grandchildren had no idea of the extent or value of the collection, and enlisted the assistance of Artcurial Motorcars’ specialists. The collection will be sold by Artcurial Motorcars in Paris on February 6, 2015.

Images courtesy of Artcurial Motorcars

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

29 September, 2026

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”

Ultimate barn find: Ferrari 250 GT and countless classics

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