abandoned race cars. Life is not fair.

http://www.95customs.com/an-unfortunate-collection-of-abandoned-race-cars/2015/3/21

Hey, it happens. This poor guy has been gathering dust in the back of the Flyin' Miata shop since 2004 or so.

When MPH magazine was around they did an article about a crazy old french man named la gomba or la gombe, and he has all the derelict cars rotting away and refuses to sell them including even after he dies.

Iirc he has 2 miuras and 1 complete Miura engine. One of the miuras he cut in half so a tree could grow threw it or something like that. I could never find anything on the Internet about it but I dug the copy out a while back and still have it sitting aroind.

The blue Alpina is his. He also has a major race winning (Lemans or something like that) car sitting around with the wreath still on it, it may even be that Alpina but I can't remember.

If I get a chance tomorrow, and I can get my scanner to work, I scan the article and post it up.

Probably my favorite story is about the 250 gto that was rescued from a field. If you dig around its well documented, and if you can find the engine bay pics kn fchat it's sad, but it was rescued and restored so it all ended okay.

need to start a classic race car rescue fund

The updated information from that website: http://www.95customs.com/an-unfortunate-collection-of-abandoned-race-cars/2015/3/29/update-an-unfortunate-collection-of-abandoned-race-cars There are explanations for some of them.

Opti wrote: Probably my favorite story is about the 250 gto that was rescued from a field. If you dig around its well documented, and if you can find the engine bay pics kn fchat it's sad, but it was rescued and restored so it all ended okay.

If you have part of a VIN plate or maybe a small portion of frame, you can restore a 250 GTO.

Keith Tanner wrote: Hey, it happens. This poor guy has been gathering dust in the back of the Flyin' Miata shop since 2004 or so.

Is that the Lap Dog?

Any future plans for it?

Keith Tanner wrote: Hey, it happens. This poor guy has been gathering dust in the back of the Flyin' Miata shop since 2004 or so.

You guys need a showroom to dust that guy off and park in. Or maybe a wash and a spare car cover Shirley you have a spare Miata cover somewhere.

On a side note I've often wondered why cars don't get stored like boats to maximize floor space.

Junkyard_Dog wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Hey, it happens. This poor guy has been gathering dust in the back of the Flyin' Miata shop since 2004 or so.

You guys need a showroom to dust that guy off and park in. Or maybe a wash and a spare car cover Shirley you have a spare Miata cover somewhere. On a side note I've often wondered why cars don't get stored like boats to maximize floor space.

or taken to the next level:

or taken to the next level:

Oh stop the PUNishment.

Seriously though, I'm happy to hear the Stratos is now in good hands. That was the most disturbing pic off all to me.

I think the Batmobile rusting away was the most disturbing for me.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: On a side note I've often wondered why cars don't get stored like boats to maximize floor space.

Boats don't leak oil onto boats stored below them. :)

(actually, I have seen places store cars like that, and not just in fancy OEM parking lots.)

In reply to bearmtnmartin:

AWESOME thread. As sad as it is, I love me some faded glory.

Swank Force One wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Hey, it happens. This poor guy has been gathering dust in the back of the Flyin' Miata shop since 2004 or so.

Is that the Lap Dog? Any future plans for it?

Track Dog. It's for sale. Come buy it and make something interesting.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151991618701631.1073741835.175988061630&type=3

We don't have a showroom, and not enough walk-in customers to give up a few thousand square feet just to display an obsolete race car. It's gone Racecar too far to really be turned back into a street car. We had a cover on it for a while, but needed the cover to protect a customer car instead. This picture actually shows it cleaned off and with wheels installed instead of the space savers it sat on for a while. The hood is flat black BBQ paint.

This is how race cars end up being abandoned. They're obsolete, nobody wants to buy them and they just get in the way for years.

And we do have two cars up on pallet shelves right now. I know a couple of race shops that store cars like that as well.

I don't have the Facebooks, and that link isn't working for Crystal or I.

What's the price out of idle curiosity? I already have a chassis for my next build but i like history.

In reply to Swank Force One: Get the Facebooks so you can see what I have for lunch

Hmm, that link should be available to all, Facebooks or not. It worked on a non-FB computer for me.

Anyhow, price is now "OBO". Drop us a number. We'd rather see it out there doing something interesting than sitting in our garage. Look at it as a Mazda Comp E prod body kit already installed on a rolling vehicle with some bonus parts.

Ya know, I've been wondering this question for a long ass time: "where do all these amazing project cars go?" Need some car porn? Top secret supra, top secret Celica, top secret skyline, mines skyline, spoon ap1, Mugen wonder civic, veilside rx7, etc. there are sooooooo many project/show/track warriors out there that we read about, they get their 5 mins of fame, and promote the company that built it, the company remains alive, but the stinkin car is forgotten!

            Sell them.

Don't let precious, beautiful works of art sit in a cave. The Mona Lisa could never be truly appreciated until it was brought into the publics eye.

Take, for instance, the liberty walk r35 gtr. It's shining right now, in ten years, I, (me alone I assume) will recall this vehicle and say "where has it gone?!?!?"

I think the problem is most companies that build these cars have a ton of r&d time and fab work into them and therefore want 50k for a worked over Miata (which they won't get) But, hey, you've got 100k into the car, sell it to some enthusiast that'll give it a good home. Take the loss, and let that badass beauty become a track legend, not a tragedy.

i was kind of hoping that this would be about Dale Earnhardt Jr's back yard

Hate seeingold race vehicles being abandoned. Even if they become obsolete they can still be driven for funand dont deserve to rust away.

By me, I've seen a '70s-looking Ford Cortina rally car rotting in a plantation yard, and I know there's a secret "private junkyard" of '50s cars behind another plantation that are mostly rotting away.

Ex-shop-promo cars usually get parted out or turned into something else. They don't get sold as-is because shops don't want to put cars so closely tied to their image into some random dude's hands. A few do get abandoned like this - I remember Speedhunters had an article on them - but that's the exception rather than the rule.

novaderrik wrote: i was kind of hoping that this would be about Dale Earnhardt Jr's back yard

.....file under: rednecks with paychecks.

As sad as it is to see those, most old race cars are just shells. The engines and gearboxes are usually pulled, along with expensive wheels, tires, shocks, etc. What good is an old shell that needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades to still be uncompetitive against modern cars? Even if left in place, these items are pretty custom and expensive and rare...not something an amateur can easily get running again.

And even a car like the NSX (or the FM Lap Dog), if they are just an empty shell with no interior and no engine, the cost to put them on the road is not worth it and on the track...well you could probably buy a sorted Mustang for a fraction of the cost of what it would take to put the NSX on podium.