Unbelievable barn find/yard find

[93097004xx]

I won’t say much about this because about anyone with even a ounce of automotive passion will know this is not your average back yard discovery..

I’m not sure if the #9 car is a ex Ram racing F1 car but I’m relatively sure.

Anyhow incredible find.

BTW The ligier js31 is a special car.

[93097004xx]

[GH85Carrera]

How do cars like that end up in a back yard, or barn and in such sad shape. Astonishing.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

How do cars like that end up in a back yard, or barn and in such sad shape. Astonishing.

Replicas.....

[93097004xx]

Originally Posted by Baz

Replicas.....

These are odd cars to replicate.. They are not particularly successful F1 cars..

It’s a strange group to replicate too. No common connection other than the time period.

Hey I’m all for it if they are. It has been a dream of mine to own a early to mid 80s F1 car. This was the most beautiful era of F1.

If these are replicas can they be driven raced?

Somehow I don’t think these are replicas. I could very well be wrong.

[sammyg2]

Looks like that john player special is an '84 Lotus that was driven Nigel Mansel's team mate, Elio de Angelis.
He was killed testing a Brabham a couple years later.

Always liked the look of those black lotus cars.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Looks like that john player special is an '84 Lotus that was driven Nigel Mansel's ream mate.

That JPS caught my eye, If I had to pick one to take home that would be it. dunno what the heck I would do with it, I couldn't afford upkeep on a 944 much less that beauty.

[93097004xx]

On closer inspection I believe the ligier to be a 1987 js29. This was a earlier car than the 1988 js31 with the odd and one off fuel tank behind the engine. Only time that was done in F1 to my knowledge. Handled horribly and totally uncompetitive. Quite a pretty race car though engineering was simply astonishing as always with anything that came from ligier/matra.

[masraum]

Wow, assuming those are real and even partially complete, I would think that would be an amazing find. I'd love to have something like that even if it didn't run and wasn't complete.

I'd clean them up and take them apart and glory in their awesomeness before I put them back together.

I'd love to have an open wheel racer, even something much less powerful and high tech than an F1.

[LWJ]

Wow. Simply amazing.

The next thought is, "how the hell can you get parts for that?"

Not going to find much at Napa.

[stomachmonkey]

There's a Reddit thread on this "find" from a couple years back.

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/7e36g2/some_barn_find/

General consensus, replicas.

[stomachmonkey]

A strange Formula 1 barn find

[Jeff Higgins]

I well remember back in the '70's when I was a teenager, and later into the '80's and '90's, cars like these were a dime a dozen. There were classified ads in the back of magazines like Road and Track, Car and Driver, etc. that featured categories for old race cars. That's all these were back then - used up, several year old, useless for anything else race cars. Literally as little as a few thousand dollars would buy a car like these. Just what on earth one would have done with a car like this back then was, of course, another matter entirely. That's why they were so damn cheap. Our modern perspective on things like this is colored by the outrageous values things like these command today. It wasn't always like this, at least for used up race cars.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

they look like 'show cars' used for promotional work

I'd love the JPS car uncleaned and hung on my man cave wall just as it was found

[93097004xx]

Ok the old adage “Seems to good to be true”..

I do remember about 10 years ago seeing ads for mid to late 80s formula 1 cars for $100,000 with spares.. It would cost probably 5XS that today.




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[sammyg2]

This almost makes them better.
An old dirty beat-up replica would be almost affordable and easier to justify.

And with a little "that'll buff out" attention it would look almost as good.,


Assuming all the bits are there, I'd offer em $10k for the JPS replica.

[fred cook]

Me too, I always liked the JPS black and gold cars! If nothing else, these cars might make interesting autocross cars! Where does the line start?

[herr_oberst]

Cool find, really piques the imagination.

Lots of great comments, too. If these are replicas, they are done to a very high standard. My gut reaction is that these might be the third car that teams were allowed back in the day in case of misadventure during the race meeting. The factory had no place for them at the end of the season, maybe some eccentric had a friend who knew a guy, and just couldn't resist hoarding them. Like Higgens says, these might have been too good a deal to pass up to the right guy.

That Lotus is great. Like everyone else, I'd love that one in my collection. I'm thinking that the red car poking it's nose into the background of the second picture is a Dallara?

Edit, no it's a Ferrari. I just looked at the link that someone provided.

Second edit, it's funny the author in that link declares them worth only scrap. I think if the owner auctioned them off they might find willing bidders.

[McLovin]

They're not really "replicas" in the sense that a beck spyder is a replica.

Those F1s are just nonfunctional shells. You can see there is, for example, no functional suspension at all. There's no chassis capable of carrying a drivetrain. There's no brakes, no electrical, nothing.

I'm sure someone would pay something, but it's a limited market. They take up a lot of space.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Ultimate man cave wall art.