HIDDEN TREASURES

Some of the world's rarest and most valuable cars have been uncovered in the unlikeliest places over the years. These are the greatest barn-finds

- John Mayhead

TRUE BARN FINDS ARE RARE BEASTS.

During four decades of classic car enthusiasm, I've personally encountered only three real examples of a barn find: I recall a straw-filled barn (literally) at a Cornish farm we camped on as a child, full of vintage cars; an Austin Seven dragged from a neighbour's tumbledown garage; and, about 15 years ago, an Alfa 2600 Sprint that had been serviced in around 1968 after 5000 miles, then locked up in a coach-house in Brighton until I witnessed it seeing the light of day again. To experience those doors opening for the very first time in over 40 years was extraordinary; the paper footwell protectors were still untouched and the service tag was swinging from the mirror. It felt magical, as if I had stepped back in time.

But those finds pale when compared to the extraordinary stories of the world's most glamorous and valuable cars, once lost and later recovered. Some read like movie scripts, led by individual persuasion and persistence that has sometimes bordered on obsession, the resultant discoveries once again bathed in celebrity light and often sold at a hefty premium.

This is automotive non-fiction storytelling at its finest: the hunt for the motoring pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, a reminder that real treasure was - and is - out there for the taking. Here, then, is Octane's list of the greatest tales of automotive rediscovery.

Michael Dovaz's sleeping beauties

When German photographer Herbert Hesselmann published his photographs of Michael Dovaz's collection of 58 classic cars in 1983, neither he nor Dovaz knew the hornets' nest they were stirring.