What is the strangest place you've spotted a ran-when-parked car?

We have a Ran When Parked section in the magazine, but sometimes you just don't have a camera with you (or can't make a stop) to take photos of the abandoned cars you see. Any good finds lately? Any weird locations?

On Centennial Lake in Ontario around 1980, I was doing shoreline geology from a canoe when I saw this 1955ish big sedan parked in the bush about 50 yards from the shore line. Mature trees were on all sides of it and no road led to that area. I assumed that it was driven across the lake in winter and run up on to the shore to be abandoned. I do have picture/slide somewhere. Cheers Ron

Question: Where specifically do we send the pictures?

I have a pictures of an obscure old (early 70s?) Japanese car sitting under a shelter next to an old plantation building in Hawaii I can send in.

Years ago I spotted a semi-buried upside down 67 bug near a train tunnel in Simi Valley CA. The interesting part of that is that I could tell it was a 67 even though there was very little visible because I could see it had a rear Z-bar on it and 67 was the only year that had those (from what I remember).

You can send pics to me: david at classicmotorsports.net. Our minimum spec is 1280x960 pixels, but bigger than that is preferred.

To answer the original question: My garage?

A long abandoned Fiat 600 about a mile or so from any roads along a trail I mtn bike on in NJ, but not too far from some farm fields. It's possible the car was parked on the edge of the field and the tree line moved. Very little of it left and barely recognizable. I'll try to get a decent picture of it in the Spring.

There's the frame rails of an unknown car visible from the boardwalk stairs up to Amicalola Falls State Park. It's about 1/3 of the way up a 60 degree plus cliff. Pictures someone else took, along with the backstory, in this thread:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1106915-Saw-something-interesting-at-Amicalola-Falls-today-Curious-and-need-more-info&p=14516086#post14516086

I found a RHD Rolls next to their stable.

Still there.....

I used to search "project" into craigslist for fun.

Now you've inspired me to enter "ran when parked"

good stuff, thanks.

I can think of two that are rather interesting.

In the main floor of the building I work in, in a now walled in area, there is long blue tarp covering some tables and something else. That something else is a Studebaker limousine. It was driven in many years ago, and there it sits. Walled in and unseen.

In the back of a curio shop,not very far from me, buried under knick-knacks, is a old Dodge Bros pickup. I only discovered it from the running board I realized I was seeing. Carefully looking through the treasures I was gradually able to discern the truck itself.

At the Mercedes dealership?

[URL=http://s31.photobucket.com/user/chandlerGTi/media/1391604675_zpsebaf3f68.jpg.html][/URL]

I can't even remember how many hours I spent looking at these kind of photos on that site. It's amazing how much is out there quietly rusting away.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=140&t=946523&mid=0&nmt=Classics+left+to+die%2Frotting+pics

chandlerGTi wrote: At the Mercedes dealership?

Ha! I wonder if the people who work there even notice those cars anymore or if they're just part of the foliage now. Are they counted when they take inventory?

foxtrapper wrote: I can think of two that are rather interesting. In the main floor of the building I work in, in a now walled in area, there is long blue tarp covering some tables and something else. That something else is a Studebaker limousine. It was driven in many years ago, and there it sits. Walled in and unseen. In the back of a curio shop,not very far from me, buried under knick-knacks, is a old Dodge Bros pickup. I only discovered it from the running board I realized I was seeing. Carefully looking through the treasures I was gradually able to discern the truck itself.

Those are incredible.

It seems there are two routes to a car becoming buried. The first involves a very conscious decision to say, "To hell with it," and box it in. This one is the most mind-boggling to me.

The second is more gradual. More and more things get piled on top of it until it slowly disappears.

rconlon wrote: On Centennial Lake in Ontario around 1980, I was doing shoreline geology from a canoe when I saw this 1955ish big sedan parked in the bush about 50 yards from the shore line. Mature trees were on all sides of it and no road led to that area. I assumed that it was driven across the lake in winter and run up on to the shore to be abandoned. I do have picture/slide somewhere. Cheers Ron

Shoreline geology from a canoe? Sounds cool.

My favorite kind of Ran When Parked car is the kind walled in by mature trees. Such a gradual imprisonment. The lake just adds another, more impressive barrier.

In reply to Sarah Young:

We also posted some of our latest yesterday:

http://classicmotorsports.net/news/ran-when-parked-issue-166/

Growing up in SW Michigan, finding old cars out in the woods or the back of fields was not uncommon. One of my favorites was a '50s Oldsmobile that appeared to have been parked in front of someone's house a few decades earlier. The house (and barn next to it) were collapsed into their foundations, and the woods had reclaimed it all. There was even a decent size tree growing up through the Olds.

I saw a Lincoln MKII buried under pallets about 15 years ago. Took me awhile to figure out what is was as I'd never heard of one before. Owner was quite aware and would not consider a selling it despite it's sitting outside and unmobile for who knows how many years.

I don't know if I'd say it's the strangest place, but I will tell you about the saddest Ran When Parked I've shot. A body shop took a Frogeye Sprite with body and chassis in better than average shape and made a planter out of the passenger compartment! It sits there with original wheels, hubcaps, glass, etc. and is rotting from the inside out.

They use this Sprite as an attention getter for their body shop. I promise, I'll never deal with any body shop that has no more respect for rare automobiles than that.

There was an old shelter-carrier version of the army "Deuce and a half" (2 1/2 ton) truck parked near the top of a very steep hill out on the ranges of Fort Bliss. It looked to be a WWII-era vehicle, kind of like this:

We were almost rock-crawling a 4X4 F350 lineman's truck to get up there - I can't imagine driving that old monster up the same path. That may be why they left it in place ...