The term "Barnyard car" is a reference to old and sometimes collectable cars that have been found in a barn, usually these sort of stories are often heard whilst having a few beers at the bar and are often disregarded as "old wives tales" However, this is not true and periodically old cars do get discovered, either locked up in a barn, garage or sealed up behind a false wall of a house.  Recently two such "Barnyard cars" have come to light in different parts of the world and both of them are Bugatti's, and what's more remarkable is that they are both generally the same model of Bugatti. The first Bugatti, the 1938 Type 57C Atalante was stored with several other old and collectable cars in a private garage belonging to a Mr. John W. Straus.  The cars were all shielded from the weather and just left to stand.  The tires were all flat, not surprisingly after decades of neglect and the cars were completely covered in dust.  Finds like this cannot just be fuelled, powered up and driven away, as all the oil would have sunk to the lowest extremities and deteriorated as well as most of the parts having rusted and seized up over time.  Everything would all need to be expertly oiled up and freed before the car could be driven. The passage of time can take a terrible toll on all things, specially motor vehicles that have been stored.  Rubber will perish over time, plastics become brittle and thin wire cables can rust through.  Leather and wood can be nibbled by mice or eaten by termites or can simply break down and fall apart. Gravity will pull all the oil down into the sump, where it will sit and deteriate.  This action will leave bare metal engine components that will then start to rust.  Also there is a thing called 'cold corrosion' this is when condensation forms inside the engines cylinders and as there is no oil in the micro grooves of the bores this then promotes rust.  The crankshaft, piston rods, ( if its an overhead valve, the rockers, pushrods ), tappets, big-ends, splines and other working parts will all have seized up. It is a very time consuming task to re-condition a car that has been left standing for 40 years and will cost many thousands of dollars to replace corroded parts to make the car safe for road use.  But I am sure it is a labor of love to restore such a wonderful classic such as this. The Bugatti as seen above was practically all intact with all of the leather and woodwork still in great shape, but it would still require a lot of work to get it back to it original condition. Either way, it was still a really great find. Originally bodied by Gangloff of Colmar with Stelvio cabriolet coachwork, Chassis No. 57766, Engine No. C57, right hand drive, two-tone black and yellow with beige leather interior, engine: 160bhp dual overhead camshaft inline eight cylinder, 3,257cc, supercharged, gearbox: 4-speed manual, suspension: front, live axle with semi elliptical leaf springs, rear, live axle with reversed quarter elliptical leaf springs; Brakes: four wheel mechanically operated drums. The car sold under auction for $852,000 or £525,000 Former glory, this is how this car should look after some restoration. The youtube video below has some great images of this type of car. RARE FIND #2 The Type 57S Atalante The second car to recently come to light is nearly the same model but built a year earlier in 1937, and is a bit more rare, the Type 57S Atalante.  Relatives of Dr. Harold Carr (real surname too !) who recently passed away, found the car sealed up in an old garage in Gosforth, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom as they were clearing out a lot of his belongings. The Dr, who died at age 89 was said to be a hoarder who never threw anything out, and he also left an Aston martin and Jaguar to rot as well but the Jaguar was so dilapidated  that it had can only be used as spare parts. The car with only 26,284 miles on the clock had not been driven since about 1960 and had been stored up ever since, it was very dusty but perfectly intact, even the tires still has some air in them.  It has a 3.3-litre, straight eight cylinder engine, four speed manual gearbox, can reach 60mph in ten seconds and has a top speed of 130mph.  The top speed of this car was quite outstanding for its day when we consider that most cars at that time could reach maybe 50 to 70 mph flat out ! The car has extra valuable attributes to it as it was once owned by by Earl Howe, a prominent Le Mans British race driver. "It has all the finest attributes any connoisseur collector could ever seek, in one of the ultimate road-going sports cars from the golden era of the 1930s" said James Knight, head of the international motoring department at Bonham's  auctions, the car sold for a very cool $4,860,000 or £3,000,000 not bad considering that the Dr bought the vehicle in 1955 for £895  (the equivalent of £15,500 by today's standards.) Below, the car as it is seen today after some cosmetic restoration. Only 17 of these Type 57S Atalante cars were made by Bugatti, so it is naturally valued quite highly and prized by collectors around the world.  This car was a fantastic windfall for the family who found it and its one of those stories that has a warm glow about it ! The Bugatti name was purchased in 1998 by Volkswagen and they now build the Veyron a supercar that tops 155 mph.

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