De Tomaso Mangusta, Lamborghini Espada, need we say more? | Barn Find Hunter - Ep. 48

[Music] so once in a while there's a lead that comes in and you say man we just need to look at this you know we've got a hint on what kind of cars are in there we have never been in there and so we're gonna meet the owner Robert right now and hopefully be surprised at this amazing collection sitting here in a warehouse in Iowa [Music] well this looks like an appropriate type of building that have old cars in it's got that old glass block and curved glass windows so this is the kind of place if I were passing I would stop my car and peek in the windows which I do a lot here we go [Music] so we as I said on the way here we don't usually look for we don't usually follow up leads that we get from people we like to drive around neighborhoods and looking for cars the old-fashioned way but this lead was just so intriguing that we decided to in the middle of the winter time 28 degrees as a hide today and and look up this sports car collection in a that's that's been hidden in this building for decades an old dealership which just looks fabulous from the outside and I can't wait to see what's on the inside so Robert is the owner of these cars and he's gonna take us for a tour around the building before we go inside this is called the t's I love his old glass block man well I had to the wall was falling and I had just had just had six rolls instead of three oh you had to fix it boy I blocked it up it would have been oh I say yellow brick is the rest of this yep yeah I find amazing it was built in 41 I mean we were at war you know we were getting ready for the war any other weather yet so here's a guy with a brand new dealership and within I take 42 that first four months of 42 car seats doing production of automobiles because they were all making tanks and armament and rewrites and that sort of thing you get people to ask you if you want to sell this place yeah but they don't want to pay [Music] Crossley hotshot with a hotrod engine oh now what a great building man so this was an uninterrupted Buick dealership from 41 to 90 roughly 19 I don't know when Austin Buick moved out but it was right they actually moved across the river here into a Tama Iowa yeah every old dealership had that same wood paneling geez this is my Mangusta you want to just appeal as there's two covers here look at how low this cars what I've read is the gt40 got the number affixed to it because it's 40 inches high right the Mangusta is 41 holy mackerel now this was a car I'm told was function follows form that to sit in this car was a very tough thing to do fred had come down here sent a man down here to inspect it and it's almost a numbers-matching car so this this is a de Tomaso Mangusta which was a the predecessor to the Pantera the Pantera was the mass mass produced was the mass produced car and the the Mangusta was was the the the car that was almost a prototype they didn't build too many of them 404 I mean to look at it unbelievable how beautiful they are so that these this oh look at that that's how you get to the engine and the and if there were an ingénue be right there that's right this is the engine and transaxle both out of here yes what kind of transaxles that is EF z yep mmm thank you the 289 powered Mangusta was available for sale in europe and the the ones that came to the states were 302 cubic inches wow what a beauty so have you restored this or just the way you got it actually it's got quite a history there was a Hollywood producer that Senate de Stuart's which is a relatively well thought of restoration shop in California and then turned it around and I believe it was either rodent tracker Car and Driver did a an article in about 1993 I think when it was restored and it was the name of the article was Alejandro's Spruce Goose Alejandro De Tomaso is the Builder he was a Oh a wealthy Argentine horse breeder and he toyed around with race cars Formula One and then decided to try to make automobile the the Mangusta was a full full-on production version car market and car that that he built 404 units then he the association with ford led to the development of had tear these cars do not handle well you can get oversteer and understeer faster than you can think of it and and either either scenario is kind of hard for a driver but most scenarios right now right at once is very difficult right anyway he got these he got the we got the association and and was able to market the cars I'm in the Lincoln Mercury franchise afford your year of a tape measure Deere and be funny to measure the height of this car just to make it a visual 41 inches ditomasso was a man and a car company in Italy and he built race cars and street cars he was he seemed to be aligned with Ford we've all heard of the D Tomaso Pantera which we've found a couple on the boy and fighter series this is the the the car that came out before the Pantera called a Mangusta and to me it's a it's the more beautiful car but I'm told this is a function follows form car which means that you had to adapt to sit and drive this car because that's the design of it and the design was more important than being able to drive it practically so it's a mid-engine small-block Ford either 29 or 302 was a ZF gearbox and what we're trying to do now is is measure the floor to the roof to see how high this is compared to the gt40 which let's see 40 41 inches so a gt40 which we know is a successful racecar Lamar it's called gt40 because when 40 inches off the ground it sound like a good name right well this is a GT 41 so to see it's one inch taller off the ground better gt40 is so this was restored in the 90s and III is what sticks in my mind so 25 years ago yeah it looks to be and real my shape and and this is an early production car it has the quad headlights that soon ran amok with the federal regulators so there's only 50 of these built for the North American or USA market what years is car this is a 68 no kidding Wow well it's a beauty thirty-six hundred twenty seven that's is that since restoration do you think I do 627 miles since restoration which is 25 years ago alright so now we're going into the caverns here wow look at this stuff oh man so you're not all sports cars oh no I'm eclectic I'm a car now I'm a car nut uh-huh what about this Imperial this is my latest acquisition I really wanted the fin unit this is a 65 so the seats are covered or plastic I mean so I think this is all this leather yeah this would have been totally restored whoa is it 413 in here some yeah let's see if she'll start can we do that oh we would love it been sitting too long if I could get a jump packing ether later you have time today sir you're you brought this crew with you I've got till the end of the week it's more a matter what your time schedule is let's pull the hood release can you find the hood release object I'll put a drop cap on it we can come back to it Wow what I mean but you could see this was over and above what what Chrysler would have done with their streetcars look at how pretty this is and and it's the same paint and the same finish as the rest of the body beautiful it so it's got Imperial valve covers big old cast-iron narrow air conditioning system is this is a dual air conditioner probably not it no I don't think so yeah you know I wonder if you just now trying to start this if there's liquid on the fender here as a result of that somehow it's oil oil oil out of the way what is that the air air conditioning condenser I guess yeah oh boy I guess I want to be here for a while today pretty good check out this uh quartz counter here still let our deco look know this I'm so glad we followed up on this lead because there can't be many places in the United States that are this authentic all right I have I have a habit of when cars are covered try to identify them through the cover just by feeling sorry I have the feeling I know what that is because I can see the wheels on it but I'm gonna go through the motions anyway so it's a sports car it's convertible I'm playing along I know exactly what this is because I can see it bug-eyed sprite so how many people in the world would have a 413 powered Imperial convertible park ten feet away from a bug-eyed sprite you you are an eclectic individual I love it Tom I'm not really a hotrod guy but that's that's a pearl oh that's that's her name's Minnie Pearl Wow Wow is that so and I'm intrigued with this Dunlop sticker on the wheels the guy had actually put knockoffs over the over the hubs to make it look like the the twin cam and jag D and C types are um alright CMD types I just saw an engine I'm gonna try to identify what it is it's it's like a dime 250 spdama engine but only half of it Toyota you're right G are 16 or 16 isn't that something so that's out of her like a mid 70s Toyota late seventies turn not sure but that sounds right it's a Hemi and it's it's the choice of SCCA hot rodders that it's buku quick in fact other than my Hot Shot this is the quickest car that I own I mean it is scary quick the bug-eyed sprite originally had hinged hinges on the hood in the back and you lifted the front but most racers converted the hinges from the back to the front to make it much easier to work on the engine pull the engine whatever it's almost like it took the exhaust manifold from the hood and ran it backwards isn't that interesting so it's got to what inch-and-a-quarter issues I bet that thing's applies there's a five-speed no no it's it's got the the original transmission in it the only thing that's been of bastardize are changed on it is that is the battery shelf that you could pull the motor out put the 9:48 in it and fix the battery shelf and you know change the hood if you want and you go back to stock you know that much effort I love it Wow Alysha GTV I know him well because I have one of my own garage my uncle had a 52 I was 13 years old and it was 5 years ago that he finally would allow me to own it but by then he'd torn it completely apart it was stacked in me in the back of a trailer and it was just too much of a project for me and I you know I'm learning you don't take a car down without getting it back together and I've got I've got four cars that I've taken down and none of them ever got back together so the mgtv was the second generation of sports car that US soldiers coming back from world war ii kind of brought back with them the mg TC was the original one that it was it was a version of this but smaller and lighter and had these really tall skinny wire wheels 17 inch 17 inch and this was the more Americanized version and probably the more common one in the states for sure but this this allowed americans for a reasonable price to become part of a sports car the sports car generation people know it's bought them and raced them they would drive to tracks like Bridgehampton and Sebring and race them and hopefully drive the home again they would take these headlights and turn them around so that the pointy one part was in the front so they were had better aerodynamics it take off the windshield yeah this this is this you know the the sports car era that I wish I had been part of this was the beginning of it well show us what else you have here Robert so fassl Vega French car French car Chrysler engine all the trim is in stainless beautiful interior this happens to be a Plymouth poly dome it's still respectable but not the the big the big hemming the Rat Pack the modern version of the Rat Pack Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Judy Garland and that they all own fassl Vegas this is a 57 FPS too I think and you read that up there FV yes yeah Ziegler 38 FV 8 3 3 I'm sorry FV 8 f 3 made in Paris look at that and it even gives the address 19 Avenue George v Paris made France isn't that so and what taillights sheath there's a V in there of V of V and the tail light can you see oh look at that yes ok is this gas tank leather covered and here's a factory toolkit is the tool tray out it's up here yeah so it's got spare bulbs wires screwdriver channel locks look at the lug wrench Jessamyn wrenches bear spark plug and and a box wrench that obviously you know is over the size to do some service on this car that's a heck of a gas cap she looks like a gt40 LeMans yeah race it's a race gas cap so see this is like leather covered right here I believe that's harder oh that's a great car sir have you put miles on this car I wanted to and one day I kind of was rolling I put it in reverse as a transmission stopped I took the transmission out and had it rebuilt the the parking brake it was a it had no part on the transmission there was no dog that went down and locked the car so you have have to have to safely operate the car you have to use the emergency braking part as a parking brake that cable which is here somewhere it needs to be replaced so I kind of intimidated by driving a car around that I didn't feel safe to park with oh yeah and so there's a mgc roaster and over here is the hardtop version of it that's a hardtop automatic there was only about 20% of Mg C's that came with that board 2:35 automatic for ward Warner in American Treasury Board Warner is based in the United States but they will also have a base in in Europe they supplied Volvo American Motors triumph used BorgWarner Jaguar used BorgWarner so here you with with you can see the how long that engine is if we used to open it up a hood on MGB you can see how long that motor is and because this car has the trim on it you can see the you can see the Rays in the hood so if you know if you see at a car show riding down the road or car an mg with this lump and that lump that means it's got a six-cylinder motor in I guess it's a custom one misunderstood or a car a lot of rumors about it and I've never seen it with with disc wheels with hubcaps like this I've only seen well wire wheels you're pretty sharp tom that's very rare I only know of ten of the United States really yeah and how many came with automatics yeah less than 20% I think the numbers 17% total production of 8,000 or in the world this was kind of you know if you think about an mg b mg c austin-healey jag this kind of was a lower case Healey or Jaguar coupe almost big 6 on the motor but in a lower-priced mg body that's a neat car man Wow okay well we're working our way around what I consider King Tut's tomb here it's just just pretty friggin amazing by the way I've been looking at this thing right here is that a console that's my Mangusta Wow so is that the back no that would be against today okay huh see the red yeah that's the car number that's the magic to something Wow and that's father wills yeah pretty cool well you know what we're spent time with British cars let's go let's hit an Italian car here let's hit this Lamborghini and I don't know anything about him so you're my guide you're not serious you know something about something all right so tell me before we open the hood on this car tell me this is a Lamborghini what Espada I spot mr. uh Ferruccio Lamborghini was born under the sign of Taurus and I believe that he had an affection for anything related to bullfighting so most of his cars were named with the seam of bullfighting the Espada is the sword used in the in the the final act of slaying the bull the four-passenger not a two passenger and the only car that could have had any car but this is the car of choice for him jeez what a monster why v12 for cam there were two barrels or earlier weber is a dual choke carburetor so when you have a weber you've got two carburetors you know in essence here you've got a choke for every cylinder you don't get much more efficient yeah no kidding Wow nah you might pull the head off so we can measure the piston no no we can do that that's good give me two minutes and I'm also looking here is the windshield washer bottle its Lucas so here's an Italian car with the British electrical components watch this firm seat oh that's a Cobra radio that's one of those like breaker breaker 1-9 got it already yeah you buy that at Target lots of mileage 21,000 941 as far as I know that's original and where'd you buy this called what state was it a Florida car from an estate had been kept in storage was in dry storage in a building the attorney sold it to some liquidator in the state one of the Nights unique styling features of this car is that the back windows kind of in two pieces and you really need that in order to see out the back in the driver's position you you need to have it that really does that's the only way you can see what's behind you mm-hmm so this little white car we have been ignoring as we walk around by the way been joined by Kay okay okay - Tom Cotter nice to meet you this is a series like one one so you got toggle switches all the way across the - it's a 3.8 liter I guess three point what years it this is a 1963 the the e-type was a further development of the race cars that were so successful at LeMans the C and D type one I I recall three three lemons in three years me personally this is the purest design to the coupe was what was what was first off the drawing board and the roadster was the Roadster had any roof off this car the Roadster is sexy the coupe is almost beyond description yeah Enzo Ferrari said the most beautiful car ever built that was some compliment from a guy that built it pretty sexy cars himself and so here we have a 3.8 liter double overhead cam straight six engine with three s true carburetors - such a sweet engine such a sweet motor they run so well they have power they have torque they're smooth they're quiet beautiful hello gave this car 83 83 84 well again this was my hunt for my dream car I wound up with a TD on the way to the LAX I picked up the Sunday paper and there in the classifieds is this car I called him up that night when I got home and we made arrangements for me to come back in two weeks you know the price was right the guy was up front he was an engineer for he had working caterpillar in Peoria he lived in Southern California I flew out there again saw the car it became a matter of negotiation he added asking I had an offer I made my offer he said yes so fast I had made too high of an offer [Laughter] when I got the car the manifolds were flash chromed that's just chrome over over steel it's not the right way to chrome plate something but as soon as I saw the exhaust manifolds I had originally they were personalized and and quite attractive you've done in sort of a very very dark grey but as soon as water splashes up they start to crack them once they start to crack they just continue to deteriorate that's how the factory made them boy that's a sweetheart now this car is a series one which means it's got toggle switches on the dash like that and then the series two had rocker switches and then what did the series one-and-a-half have they would do it a combination oh no I think that that's when they enter I believe that's when they introduced the rocker switches okay one and a half that was only for one year a transitional model Tom you know about what 67 yeah yeah what a sweetheart that I think of your cars this is my favorite graduation gift to myself so this is a 71 72 72 [Music] [Music] this is a GT that I got in Memphis in the Memphis area again Randy Baloo told me about it I wanted to restore it I take it all apart to do it right and there you see them the consequence of their projects let's start hard to finish yeah yeah this one is an early one cuz doesn't have headrests yeah that's the pull handle a white bead so that's probably sixty four sixty three sixty no 63 that's the end of the pole I think that's the end of the pole hands [Music] I'm having a good day [Music] I've never gone upstairs to look at cars before this is who would know this is up here this is like um you know I fly over in planes and I look at down those buildings like this and wonder what cars are in there well here's three so this is a body shop up here these were the body shops so Jeepster we found a couple of jeeps there's on show before I call this a grown-up TV is it it is so it's a straight-6 huh this this seems to be a nice shape boy that was a nice that was a nice restoration did you restore and you buy like that oh I don't like that Wow nice top nice interior 77,000 miles so here's a Crosley that's an elderly cross that's an old a 39 Wow and the gas tank is as big as the motor again this is a Wauseon motor so yes we'll we'll probably never see this again on this series but we saw a hotshot which was one type of Crosley which is post-war this is a pre-war convertible and now we have a post-war pickup truck 46 pickup first year of production has the chisel front end and this would be the CC series you could tell the steer wheels on all these I mean they look very much like a Jeep steering wheel very very rudimentary well you know a lot about this stuff I guess a yes but that's that's cute as a bug man oh man Wow Morse this way so we got another pickup in two war wagons this is a cut-down wagon oh it is no kidding so that one's got full wood siding on it that's pretty cool Robert I have to tell you okay we've been doing this show now we're starting our fourth year if we would have discovered this garage with three cross leaves an mga and MGB and MGB in Austin and a another back there some this would have been a fight the find of the day just this one girl and here it's just like a footnote it tells me a lot about you you got a 12-cylinder Lamborghini on stairs and you got these upstairs it's unbelievable I don't want to get over here so what store would this Jeepster I had the car repainted of course III tried to do it right that's the original color that's that maroon one hundred one thousand miles is that a running car it was yeah I just came out of Florida yeah that would not be a bad car to just finish up what you started Robert in the four years we've been doing barn-find Hunter I have to say this is one of the most significant significant finds that I've seen I have never met anybody who's got an eclectic tastes as wild as yours and that's a compliment I mean I really mean it that that the same person who's interested in 12-cylinder Lamborghinis is also interested in Crosley station wagons and you have an equal amount of passion in both areas so it is a passion yeah well thank thank you for spending your morning with us this has been an amazing day thank you thank you so much thank you for coming you know whenever we can on a bond 500 series we try to start a car if it's not too much trouble and this car Robert says should start without too much trouble great Chrysler Imperial with a great motor a 413 engine convertible amazing car and we just hook the battery charger up to it for a couple of hours so we're gonna see if it starts [Music] waaaaaah old smooth robert's amazing

Channel: Hagerty

Views: 972,489

Rating: 4.8674426 out of 5

Keywords: Hagerty, Classic Car, Classic Cars, Lambo, lamborghini, italian, sports, car, v12, detomaso, de tomaso, mangusta, facel vega, austin healy, sprite, bug eye, MG B, MG C, MG TD, imperial, chrysler, Jaguar, e-type, espada, roadster, GT, crosley, station wagon, truck, pickup, tom cotter, barn find, hunter, datsun, 240z, 280z, MGB, MGC, MG, race car, Pantera, british cars, Facel Vega, Rat Pack, Dean Martin

Id: 5p4JLdDe8SY

Length: 31min 45sec (1905 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 16 2019