BS: Check your garage!

Subject: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,beardedbruce
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:12 AM

Rare 1937 Bugatti supercar found in English garage
      

Gregory Katz, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago AP –


LONDON – It was the equivalent of finding an old Picasso or an unknown Beatles tape hidden away in your uncle's attic.

Relatives of Dr. Harold Carr found an extremely rare 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante — a Holy Grail for car collectors — as they were going through his belongings after his death.

The dusty two-seater, unused since 1960, didn't look like much in the garage in Gosforth, near Newcastle in northern England.

But only 17 were ever made, and when it's cleaned up and auctioned in Paris next month, experts believe it will fetch at least 3 million pounds ($4.3 million) and possibly much more.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:13 AM

Drat. I threw one of them out last week.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:17 AM

Nope. Not there. Just the Maserati, the Lamborghini, and the Ferrari. Dang.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:24 AM

"James Knight, international head of Bonhams' motoring department, said: "I have known of this Bugatti for a number of years and, like a select group of others, hadn't dared divulge its whereabouts to anyone."

Full story

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:28 AM

Reminds me of item in news a few years ago about the lady who found Enrico Caruso's walking stick in (I think) umbrella stand.

And more recently woman that found some original handwritten work by W. Shakespeare.

Ain't got not garage but my partner does have a couple of pieces of Troika.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,beardedbruce
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:32 AM

Rapaire,

There is a Maserati, Lamborghini, and Ferrari dealer across Rte. 7 from where I work.


Just in case you need parts.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:32 AM

I was sorting out my attic and found a Rembrandt and a Stradivarius -
Reminded me what LOUSY Fiddles Rembrandt made and what a Crap Painter Stadivarius was !

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:38 AM

Ah, but Rembrandt Bugatti was an excellent sculptor.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:39 AM

Oh dear Terry, that's even older than most of your borrowed jokes.
I last heard that one used by Humphrey Lyttleton, about 50 years ago.
He said he got it from some bloke called Methuselah.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:46 AM

That would have been the realization of my father's dream. He was mental about Bugattis, and would have recogized it instantly.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:19 AM

My dad told me a story of what he found under hay and tarps in a barn in Montana back in the 1920's or early 30's. He was working at a ranch and looked around in the large barn one day, poking under stuff... and there was a brand new Maxwell. It had been driven out from town, parked in the barn, and never used again.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,beardedbruce
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:23 AM

http://jalopnik.com/cars/retro/greatest-barn-find-evar-1938-bugatti-type-57c-atalante-coupe-260775.php


It seems like it happens quite a bit...

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: artbrooks
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:45 AM

Well, I really had no great expectations, but I went out to the garage and found a gently used 1996 Geo Prizm. Think I could get anything for it?

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:47 AM

I have had both a Lamborghini and a Ferrari for some years now.... the problem is the Ferrari pen has run out of ink and the Lambo badge has faded... Oh well... I can dream!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 11:54 AM

I checked here too. There's a whole lot of junk, some back issues of "Fine Scale Modeler", empty bottles, cobwebs, worn-out garden tools, a broken wheelbarrow, some old boards, bottles of screws, nuts, and bolts, all different sizes, an unidentifiable metallic device that looks like some kind of frame for holding something, and a very ancient Mars Bar that is probably not any good any longer. Strange that the squirrels and mice have not touched it. Maybe they're smarter than I thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: artbrooks
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 12:01 PM

Could that frame be the easel Mozart used when he was painting his famous Virgin of Toronto?

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 12:06 PM

AHA!!!!!!!!

My ship has finally come in. ;-D

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 12:50 PM

I don't have a garage. I have a storage shed that's dimensionally large enough to hold a car, but the doorway's only four feet wide. That pretty much rules out a Bugatti... unless they made riding mowers.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 01:12 PM

I heard a strange story from an "eyewitness" about a collection of supercars stored in a building in remote woods on the Alaska panhandle. Don't know what to make of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: RangerSteve
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 01:12 PM

I have a Corvair. I don't want it. Any takers? It's not driveable. As a matter of fact, I don't even know if it has an engine. It belongs to my roommate's soon-to-be ex brother in law, who is a first-rate piece of excrement and refuses to take it off our hands. As soon as we figure out what our rights are concerning abandoned cars, we want to get rid of it. If anyone knows the laws concerning abandoned cars, and wants this thing, let me know.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 02:06 PM

Here in Indianapolis, I'd just tow or push the abandoned car out on the street in the dead of night, and next morning complain to the city about it. It would be gone within about twelve hours.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:41 PM

bb (11:23 AM) posted a link to a second found-Bugatti.

Autonuts are strongly urged to click on the "Ten top cars and the women they attract." Pay special attention at Number 8 (as listed in descending order).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 03:46 PM

We had an abandoned car in our garage in Toronto once, Dave, me and a bunch of young musician friends I was living with at the time, and that's exactly how we got rid of it too. It had belonged to a crazy artist we knew. He stored it "temporarily" at our place, and "temporarily" became "forever" and it wasn't drivable. So we did what you did, pushed it out on the street and phoned up the authorities. Worked like a charm.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 04:31 PM

OH, geez, JohninKS! Thanks for bringing that to our attention!:-)

I have no garage to check but wow, that is a beautiful car they found! I did see a whole row of Packards, big huge old ones (well, I guess all Packards were old and huge:-), parked in a fenced and locked lot downtown here when we first moved back in 2002. I don't know if they are still there or not.

When we lived in Mystic, CT there was a famous singer who lived there. He had an Italian last name and sang loves/pop songs. I cannot remember his name, started with a "V" I think. Anyway, he had a multi-garage full of really expensive, rare automobiles, kind of like Jay Leno from what I gathered. I know he died, but don't know if his widow kept them or not.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 05:29 PM

old story: Ettore Buggati once was told that an owner had complained that his car was hard to start on cold weather...he remarked, "Anyone who can afford one of my cars can afford a heated garage!"

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Midchuck
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 05:33 PM

Here's a similar story more relevant to the mudcat, albeit an order of magnitude less value.

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 05:43 PM

I checked my garage and all there is there is a 1940 Chevy two door sedan. In another 60 years it will be worth real money.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Ed T
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 05:57 PM

Thanks, I checked 'er out and found a new saw blade, I lost a few years back. No antique car, but it's more useful to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: RangerSteve
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 06:40 PM

Uncle Dave and LH, thanks. But I thought maybe we could make some money with the car. I know it's a Corvair, but there are people who collect those things. But we can't sell it without a title, as far as I know.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 06:44 PM

Well, not to drive on the road, no. But you could sell it as an art object, couldn't you?

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: open mike
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 06:58 PM

some singers can't afford any car at all...

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: olddude
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 07:25 PM

I went out to my garage looking
sadly no one parked one there since my garage can only fit a step ladder and a spare tire ... and some assorted junk

But I did find an old 10 speed bike with flat tires

I bet I could get a lot for it ... well ... maybe in my dreams I could

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 07:35 PM

Midchuck/Peter...that's beautiful! Lucky they went to a reputable dealer. Do you have any idea how much it sold for?

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: skipy
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 07:56 PM

Only a matter of time before I find the "big one" watch this space.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 08:36 PM

I had the "big one" once.... see these?


I had 100 of these, collected by my uncle in 1914-15. I sold them for $384 in 1975. ...included was Ty Cobb, which goes for maybe $2000 now.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:00 PM

Ranger Steve

You probably should consult a lawyer, but the usual procedure in my area is that you post an ad in an "official" newspaper declaring the object abandoned and declaring that it will be sold for storage costs if not claimed within a specified time. Number of days that notice has to be published, and days you must wait, are usually specified in some law or another, that the lawyer could cite for you.

After that, you should be able to apply for a "lost title," citing the "publication of notice" and "failure to claim" in the application.

In lieu of, but less safe than, consulting a lawyer, the people who run "temporary storage sites" encounter this quite regularly, and should be able to give you a "non-professional" rundown on the procedure(s) they use.

In a few places in the US, you'll find a landlord-tenant law that includes "abandonment" clauses that likely would be a safe enough procedure. You probably can find the applicable ones, if they exist, with a bit of Googling.

Suggestions only: IANAL.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:15 PM

More ppictures of the Bugatti. My, oh, my!! Poetry in motion.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 09:19 PM

So back 'round '73 I was doin' maintenace work for a company that owned several high rise apartment building in No. Virginia and discovered an ol' Jag down in the parking deck and it was covered in dust...

So I did a little checkin' and found the owner and he told me that he drove it and then one day it wouldn't start... I asked him if he wanted to sell it and, well, to make a long story short, I bought it for $600....

The dust was so thick that I didn't have a clue what I had just bought so I had a roll-back tow it to my house and a week later and alot of 12 hour days it was running perfect and cleaned up...

It was a 120-S roadster which today wopuld bring over $100,000 but, hey, I was young and just trying to turn a few bucks so I sold it to a sports car dealer fir $3000... Hey, other than my labor, I didn't spend over a $100 in parts and oil so for 1973 makin' $2400 for a week's work was like hittin' the lottery...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Jan 09 - 10:49 PM

Ranger Steve, What model is it. If it is a turbo Corsa, it is quite a serious vehicle. Ralph Nader destroyed a vehicle which was evolving into something quite good.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: RangerSteve
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 07:41 PM

EB- I'll have to check. I'll get back to you.
John In Kansas - thanks, that info will probably be a big help.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 07:40 PM

I once owned an AC Tourer, made in 1938. I sold it in 1961 in going condition for 40 quid. They are selling ADVERTS for it now.

Makes me sad to think about, now, but it was a hole in the garage that I poured money into.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: MarkS
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 02:32 PM

Awwww That Bugatti is nuthin.

Checked my garage and still have my REAL Italian roadster,
The Fazool.

It is so fast that no other car can

..


..

..

..

Wait for it

..

Pass a Fazool

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,winterbright
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 08:48 PM

MarkS...
You might be interested in this...
I recently cleaned out the garage and found a diamond-studded (!)spanner that had the Fazool trademark, still in its original box. But the instructions said it should only be used for tuning up the Fazool once a year, at Christmas. It was obviously...




... a jeweled Fazool Yule tool. Cool?

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,MarkS (on the road)
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:11 PM

Winterbright

That was cruel.

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,winterbright
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 10:54 AM

Waah, waah, waah...
To sue'll probably be next, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: GUEST,winterbright
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 10:02 AM

'S matter?... You guys run outta FUEL???

Subject: RE: BS: Check your garage!
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:45 PM

Truth be told , 100 - 200 year old farmhouse attics and barns are good places to explore.

I bought the remants of a baroque cello made by N Amati found in a barn in Maine.
It is real but only 80% there. I restored it until it became stable. Today it is the only one I play due to the ease of the stings and slightly smaller size.

My mom found 100 lbs of sheet music of the civil war through to the 1930s in our farmhouse attic. Lots and lots of old fashioned photos.