This wild 230-car barn find hoard is up for grabs
We’ve all been there. You buy a yellow Lancia B20, then, 40 years later, you find yourself with a collection of 230 cars. It’s like popping into a supermarket for a pint of milk, only to leave with enough groceries to feed a family of four for a week.
Granted, Ad Palmen’s story isn’t typical—the Dutchman’s collection even manages to overshadow Paul Cowland’s—but many of us of dream of owning an assemblage of classics. It’s like owning a grown-up version of the box of toy cars you had as a kid.
For four decades, Palmen lived the dream, introducing new cars to his fleet, slowly amassing one of the largest private collections in Europe.
Palmen maintained the cars, but rarely showed the collection to anyone beyond a circle of trusted friends and family. Due to his age and what the auction house calls “various circumstances,” the collection will now be sold, with the cars going under the hammer in May.
In chronological terms, the collection spans everything from a 1912 Singer to a 2006 Opel Movano pickup, but the list warrants close scrutiny. Take a look at the list on the Classic Car Auctions website and let us know what you’d like to take home from the Netherlands.
It’s an eclectic mix, featuring the likes of a Simca Aronde Oceane, Alfa Romeo Zagato 2600 SZ, Lancia Aurelia B50 Cabriolet Pininfarina, Delahaye 135M, Tatra T87, Rolls-Royce Camargue, AC Bristol Aceca, Studebaker President and no fewer than seven Facel Vegas.
Fancy a modern classic? The collection includes a Renault 19 Cabriolet, Land Rover Discovery, Jaguar XJS 4.0 Convertible, Mazda RX-7 (FC3C), Volvo 480 and Lancia Thema.
Add several motorcycles, mopeds, items of furniture, a tractor and a Hymer motorhome, and the collection hits 280 lots.
According to the Classic Car Auctions website, “It is unlikely that anyone will ever see a collection of this calibre and condition again in their lifetime.”
The team in the Netherlands now has the unenviable task of documenting and photographing every car, listing them on the website and dealing with the hundreds, if not thousands, of requests for more info.
We’ll bring you details of the star lots in due course, but in the meantime, just revel in the pics and raise a glass of Advocaat to a chap who had the Dutch courage to amass such a wonderful collection.
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Via Hagerty UK
If I can’t take it with me, I ain’t going!
Oddball collection. A Mazda RX-7?
I don’t understand the people who criticize guys like this. Most of us wouldn’t have our classic car if someone didn’t save it. Somebodys’ dream dies every time a car goes to the crusher. Personally I wish there were more car hoarders. Think about it.
I do criticize those who leave them in the marsh or trees to rust and decay, and then absolutely refuse any interested offers to buy them.
Facel Vega please.
Let’s see – the MG TF, Ford Model A roadster, Sunbeam Alpine, Studebaker Avanti, 1956 Thunderbird, 1962 Thunderbird, 1966 Jaguar E-type, and one of the Vespas. That’ll do it for me.
I could probably afford the Vespa.
So why are they all covered in a heavy layer of filth? Makes them look a bunch of crap.
That’s not dust, that’s patina!
There was a small fire which destroyed a Corvette and put a layer of soot on most other cars. Some say that small fire was the event that started it all.
I like to see sweaty cars. I don’t want to own them in that condition but I like ’em. Go to a fancy car show where rows of beautiful cars have been restored to perfect condition. Next to that row of beauty, park a sweaty old car from the same era as the restored examples. Now step back and watch the masses gather around the old, unrestored car. I’ve seen this happen lots of time. Not too long ago, I was at a show where a row of NASCAR wing cars (Plymouth Superbirds and Dodge Daytonas) were on display. Next to that row (actually, across the isle) were two Superbirds that were found in a barn. People FLOCKED to them. It was pretty cool!
I guess I’m a mini-hoarder! I only have 39 vehicles in my collection! Proud to say all General Motors products! State Farm and Hagerty love me! More than half of which run and drive, if I had more storage I’d probably own more!
Your department of motor vehicle licensing section loves you, too.
Looks like a museum without a curator and unappreciated. Hoards are the biggest waist of all. Restore them, drive them or curate them so that you and others can enjoy them. Don’t let them sit and become mouse hotels.
I enjoyed the article, even though 230 cars gathering dust, bird droppings and used as rodent condos is not my cup of tea. Great thing about old cars – there’s something for everyone to enjoy, whether one or a collection. Some day, 40 years from now, there will be a barn find of 230 EV’s that couldn’t afford new battery packs. My very supportive wife of 50+ years thinks we have too many classics at 5, but they are all driven and used regularly and that’s part of the deal. I do all my own restorations at home, but no non used/enjoyed vehicles are allowed.
I was well on my way to becoming the American version of the Dutch guy, with my garage full of a Pontiac TransAm and a 1929 Ford Tudor. Now I have room for my wife’s Chevy Malibu and my riding mower. My Pontiac G6 sits forlorn in the driveway. My neighbor who had lusted over my collection for 10 years finally caught me in a moment of weakness and the cars went away on a flatbed, to possibly live again.
I salute the Dutch guy for surpassing me.
You say that Palmen maintained the cars, but they certainly don’t look maintained. From the photos, most of them look to be in very poor condition, covered in dust and what looks like mould. I think it’s going to take buyers with very deep pockets to bring these cars back to life.
Nah, that’ll buff right out!
Where I live there’s a guy with several properties all of which contain gobs of rotting vehicles of every make and condition. The one that brings me to tears the most is the one I’ve watched slowly return to mother nature over the last 30 years> a 1959 El Camino. Yesterday I saw a new addition > what appears to be a relatively young shiny red 4 door. With its rear passenger window rolled down. In the rain. Forever.
Most of us will not own 230 cars in a life time BUT I imagine many of us sold cars in the past in order to fund the purchase of the next car and years later thought, “Gee it would have been nice to have kept a car we sold.” Here’s a guy who didn’t have to make that choice. He bought a car he like and then saw another car he liked and kept both – or eventually all the cars he liked. Not a bad deal if you could do it.
I’d love to go with a blank check from Jay Leno with instructions to the effect: “Jim, buy anything and everything you want; and let us restore them together.”
Jim P