In our fantasies, barn finds include a few vehicles under a layer of dust that need nearly no work to get back into showroom quality. However, the reality is that barns aren’t a great place to store cars, and they’re frequently in some state of decay. However, a recent find may prove that our fantasies aren’t always wrong.
John Clay Wolfe, the founder and CEO of givemethevin.com, recently announced the discovery of a 23-car collection of classic vehicles on the south side of Birmingham, Alabama. However, the quality of the cars is staggering.
A full list of vehicles can be found below, but the collection includes low-mile examples such as a 1988 Chevrolet Corvette 25th Anniversary Edition with just 25 miles (40 km) on the odometer, a 1990 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 with 25 miles (40 km) on it, and a 1996 Porsche Carrera 4S manual with just 600 miles (966 km).
Read: Collection Of More Than 230 Classics Found On Canadian Farm Up For Auction
Meanwhile, in a video, the condition of the “barn” (clean and with a concrete floor) can be seen, as can the condition of the vehicles. Some of them are dusty, and not all have air in the tires, but all appear to be complete without much rust. Naturally, the condition of the engines will vary.
The reason that these vehicles are so clean appears to be that the man behind the collection, Earl Trammel, wasn’t simply a hoarder. Hemmings reports that he collected these cars out of love, and as assets that he believed would appreciate.
“These cars started accumulating through Earl Trammel’s love for cars,” said John Hollander, Trammel’s brother-in-law. “He was a car and body man for over 60–70 years. He was in business in two separate shops in Birmingham and started collecting cars at an early age.”
Sadly, Trammel passed away in 2022, leaving the collection to his ex-wife, Patricia. It was her brother who finally convinced her to sell the collection so that they could get into the hands of people who would love and treasure them. She turned to Wolfe, who bought the whole collection and plans to sell them in the spring of 2024.
“This is a one-in-a-million barn find,” said Wolfe. “I buy and sell more than fifty thousand vehicles a year and hold the world record for selling 1,500 cars in one day but I’ve never accomplished anything like this. The diversity of the collection – from the brand new ZR1 to the limited edition 35th Anniversary Corvette that still has the plastic on the interior – is sure to make car junkies salivate when these classics go on display in a few months.”