Strange But True Tales of Car Collecting: Drowned Bugattis, Buried Belvederes, Felonious Ferraris and other Wild Stories of Automotive Misadventure

by Keith Martin

Overview

Strange But True Tales of Car Collecting recounts the wildest car-collecting stories, focusing on tales of the most eccentric and over-the-top collectors and collections from around the world. 

Most car collectors exhibit a healthy enthusiasm for their hobby with a tendency to dig into their favorite marques, chase parts, swap stories, and generally live the car-enthusiast lifestyle. Some, however, step over that fine line between enthusiasm and obsession—and that’s the dusty place where these legendary car-collector stories come from.

• Have you heard of the fellow who squirreled away dozens of Chevelles, Camaros, and other classic muscle cars in semi-trailers?
• How about the president of Shakespeare fishing rods who sold 30 Bugattis for a mere $85,000?
• What about the English nobleman who cut up and buried his Ferrari horde in an elaborate insurance scam?
• Or how about the Duesenberg abandoned in a Manhattan parking garage for decades only to be uncovered by Jay Leno?

They only get crazier from there.

This entertaining book is a must-have for any car enthusiast. Both car collectors and fans of outrageous classic car, muscle car, and sports car stories will find entertainment in these tales of collectors who’ve gone off the rails.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780760353608
Publisher:	Motorbooks
Publication date:	10/24/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	648,902
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Keith Martin has been involved with the collector car hobby for over thirty years. As a writer, publisher, television commentator, and enthusiast, he is constantly on the go, meeting collectors throughout the world. Keith founded the Sports Car Market magazine twenty years ago, and it has developed into the authoritative, informed voice of the collector car hobby.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 8

Introduction 9

Section 1 Fame & Fortune

The $16.4 Million Ferrari 12

The O'Quinn Collection 19

The Bill Cosby Super Snake 26

Jay Leno's Duesenberg 31

The Real Chitty Bang Bang 38

Fraudulent Lord Brocket 46

Steve McQueen's Sunglasses 53

Lord Brocket Strikes Again 60

The Cobra Rises 65

The $4.4 Million Barn Find Bugatti 70

A Car of a Different Color 75

The Jeffries Porsche 83

Section 2 Wrecks & Ruins

The Buried Belvedere 92

Flery History of the Jaguar XKSS 99

A Princely Collection Rots 106

The Forgotten Ferrari GTO 111

The Lost Norseman 118

The Bugatti in the Lake 124

The Veyron in the Lake 131

Pikeville Purgatory 139

The Junkyard Ferrari 146

Section 3 Stranger than Fiction

The Bhagwan's 93 Rolls-Royces 154

The One-Piece-at-a-Time Cadillac 163

The Anything Cars 169

Knee-Steering Besasie Cars 175

The Portuguese Barn Find 181

The Devin-bodied Ferrari 188

The Lost and Found Aston Martin DB4 192

Buried in Ferrari 202

The Purloined 500K 206

Lance Miller's Quest 211

The Pontiac Ghost Cars 218

The Green Bay Parts Packer 226

Trainload of Bugattis 232

The Amphicar 238

The Bubble-screened Boondoggle 244

Index 253