Tom Cotter has shifted gears for the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, leaving dusty sheds and rusty sheetmetal in favor of a tour of Detroit landmarks and some noteworthy cars that were designed, engineered, and built in and around the Motor City. His first vehicular deep dive is a look into the history of a very special 1965 Mustang that was built for and owned by Henry Ford II.

The car in question has been owned by Art Cairo, a longtime Ford employee who bought the unique pony car 45 years ago for just $500. Cairo had the car restored and replaced any rotted sheetmetal with new-old stock that he went to great length and expense to track down, making sure that this piece of history is still all Ford.

Cairo shows Tom some of the unique details that set this coupe apart from the millions of other Mustangs built in the ’60s. Perhaps most apparent is the leather interior, which wasn’t offered on early Mustangs. The door jamb also reveals chrome door strikers and a nicely finished seam where the jamb meets the quarter panel rather than a clear overlap and spot welds.

There are also several less-obvious, telltale signs that this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill pony car. For example, the back of the instrument cluster has “Henry Ford’s car” hand-written in marker and there’s a scatter shield bolted to the transmission tunnel. Under the hood is a high-performance K-code 289-cubic-inch V-8 that was not available on early 1965 Mustangs.

This car is just the first of many that Tom will highlight on his special trip through Detroit, so make sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of the hidden gems of Motor City history.

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How many barn finds can Tom find within walking distance of his house? In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom practices what he preaches and is only looking for cars close to his house. Within walking distance to be specific. You wouldn’t believe the variety of cars stashed away in Maine. Take our advice and never bet against Tom when it comes to discovering barn finds.

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Tom Cotter isn’t big on gawking at cars in museums, not because he doesn’t find them fascinating but because he’d rather look for automotive treasure in the wild. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, however, he makes an exception.

While in the Nashville, Tennessee, Tom and his crew meet Jeff Lane and get a behind-the-scenes tour of the unique collection of vehicles in the Lane Motor Museum.

“In the world of auto museums, there are generic museums, and they all seem to have a ’55 Thunderbird, and a Studebaker Avanti, and maybe a Model T,” Tom says. “… We’ve all seen those museums before.”

This is definitely not one of them. Instead, the Lane Museum is home to hundreds of the world’s most unusual cars, most of them on a smaller scale. These oddball vehicles have been a lifelong obsession for Jeff Lane.

“People often call me ‘The King of Weird,’” he says, “which I think is a good bad.”

Tom agrees. Venturing into the basement garage beneath the display area, Jeff explains, “Because we have 550 cars in the collection and we can only display about 125 at a time, we rotate about 60–70 cars per year.”

That means there’s a lot of treasured metal down there. After Jeff points out a 2/3-scale Mini Cooper, it’s time to check out some cars that were actually manufactured to fill a transportation need. First up is a 1928 Martin Aerodynamic, one of three built by Martin Aircraft Company of Garden City, New York. Made with a wood frame and covered in aluminum, it is powered by a rear-mounted, four-cylinder flathead engine and has a snub nose. Walking past a Panhard Formula 4 race car, Jeff shows Tom an all-original, Czech-built 1960 Skoda Octivia with fewer than 2500 miles; a 1938 Citroën Traction Avant Gazogene, which was converted from gasoline to coal power; and two more Martin cars—a chain-driven 1950 Statonette with an Austin four-cylinder engine, and a smaller 1930 Martinette with a windshield that rolls up and down.

The tour continues with a 1945 Erickson Streamliner, a front-wheel-drive one-off that looks like a smaller version of the Dymaxion; a French-built 1952 A. Morin Scootavia Tripousse, with a covered cockpit up front and a rear-mounted scooter that’s operated the driver; a German-built 1951 Hoffman with a motorcycle engine and three wheels; and a 1963 King Midget Roadster microcar with a 10-hp Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine and a top speed of 40 mph.

Outside the museum is the largest vehicle in Lane’s collection, a huge 1959 LARC-LX amphibious U.S. Army vehicle that he bought off eBay. Designed to offload freighters, it is 62 feet long, weighs 200,000 pounds (empty), and has tires that are 9 feet tall. Each wheel is powered by its own diesel engine, which together propel the LARC-LX to a top speed of 28 mph.

As we said, this is no ordinary automotive museum.

“If you’re in Nashville,” Tom says, “you have to visit this place.”

Happy hunting.

Jeff Peek

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Tom Cotter’s North Carolina adventures continue—as does the friends and family theme—in this episode of Barn Find Hunter. After getting to know a family that’s heavily into Japanese hot rods, Tom takes a short drive to meet another fam that wrenches together. While Brian, Lisa, and their son, Gauge, love cars and each other, they don’t love the same marques.

“I’ve always been a car guy … an old-school Fox-body guy,” says Brian, the patriarch. “When my son turned 18, we planned to build a car together.”

Brian thought that car would be a Fox-body Mustang. He was wrong.

“[Gauge] said, ‘Dad, I want a [Toyota] Supra. I said, ‘The only way you’re going to make horsepower is with a V-8, so let’s go get a Fox-body and build that thing, and it’ll be a hot rod.’ And he said, ‘Nah. Nah.’”

Supra it would be. Turns out, Brian never should have doubted his son. Gauge bought a gorgeous, one-owner 1989 Supra from a man in Missouri about seven years ago for $6K. Not bad, when you consider this one cost about $28,000 new (or about $67,000 today), and the only thing wrong with it was some spiderwebbing on the hood’s paint. Gauge had it repainted in its original color, and it looks new. It is powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-liter VVTi straight-six that produces 600 horsepower.

That isn’t Gauge’s only Supra. He also owns a 1987 with a Ford 302 mated to a Borg-Warner T5 transmission, that he planned to utilize as a drift car. However, Gauge says: “It’s hard to drift carbureted motors because they bog down in the corners. Now it’s just kind of hanging out.”

A couple of Gauge’s friends stop by to show Tom their cars, too. Cameron owns a late-model Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a 4.6-liter V-8 from a Cobra that produces about 530 hp, while Zach drives a 2003 Mercedes-Benz CLK 55 AMG with a 5.5-liter V-8 that makes almost 400 horses.

Pushing on to Rock Hill, South Carolina, Tom meets Shea, who is into Datsuns and Nissans. He bought his first, a gold-painted 280Z, almost a decade ago. He hot-rodded it himself. “It’s been a slow learning process,” he says, “but I’ve rebuilt everything on it”—including welding the floor pans and frame rails, adding coilover suspension and bucket seats, and making mechanical changes to the straight-six engine.

Shea also owns a rare 1977 Datsun 810, a model which Tom says essentially took the Z’s engine and put it into a four-door sedan, as well as a 1989 240SX that now has an L-Series straight-six turbo that was swapped for the original four-cylinder mill.

“Wow, you’ve got it bad,” Tom says.

“Yeah … It’s a bug,” Shea admits. “I think Hot Wheels [toy cars] were first trap … [and] I remember seeing a Datsun at a car meet when I was like 12 years old. It was in rough shape. It wasn’t painted, it was dented, it was running on like four cylinders, but the shape of it just really caught my eye. That’s kind of what fueled it for finding one later on … It was just a rabbit hole from there.”

Before this episode closes, we go back to where we started—in North Carolina with Brian, Lisa, and Gauge—and take a peek at Lisa’s 2000 Lexus GS300, which will soon receive a 2JZ inline-six engine. Tom hears that it cranks out 600 horsepower, and just has to ask … “Do you need 600?”

“Hey,” Lisa says, “I’ve got to get to the grocery store, you know.”

Happy hunting.

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Tom Cotter always says he’s more interested in the story than the car, and on this episode of Barn Find Hunter, while Tom searches for automotive treasure in near Nashville, he’s told a great story about a rare 1937 Riley Lynx. Yes, a Riley Lynx. OK, so maybe the car and the story are equally cool.

First things first. Tom rolls past a house in Columbia, Tennessee, and spots a Porsche 928 in the yard. He stops, of course, and meets Michael, who immediately recognizes him. Michael says the Porsche isn’t his, but he has a 1955 Cadillac Series 62 in his garage that he’s owned for 20 years. Later he explains that the Caddy was his daily driver in 1987 … 35 years ago. Hmmmm. You’re forgiven for the timeline snafu, Michael—probably just starstruck like the rest of us.

The Cadillac, which was originally blue with a white top, is powered by a 331-cubic-inch V-8 and has factory air-conditioning and power disc brakes. Stepping outside, Michael shows Tom his 1982 Mercedes-Benz 380SL, a 1963 Ford Econoline with a swapped 289 V-8, and a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 220D. “It’s rusty,” Michael says of the Benz, “but I like the rust in it.”

Down the road a bit, Tom spies a classic Chrysler but can’t find anyone home, so he moves on. Then he stops for a Chevrolet El Camino, but the owner isn’t interested in being interviewed. Coincidentally enough, another El Camino is across the street, and this time its owner, Brian, is happy to chat.

He explains that he purchased this top-of-the-line 1980s El Camino Conquistador with H.O. 305 engine six years ago, and he’s driven it many times. Although the “Elky” has been sitting for a couple of months, he says he’ll never sell it. Tom lights up when Brian explains that he does home repairs and sometimes receives cars in trade, since it aligns with some advice that he offered in his most recent book, Secrets of the Barn Find Hunter.

“One of the things I recommend is, make friends with somebody that can go on private property legally—like you can,” Tom says, referring to Brian. “You can go to some places that I can’t get to and look inside the garage and find stuff. So can UPS people, police officers, landscapers … You’ve got the ideal job, man.”

After cruising through the towns of Leiper’s Fork and Franklin, Tom follows up on a lead and meets Mike, who owns a garage full of classics, some with sentimental value and some that are extremely rare. Tom says he’s heard that Mike has some stories worth sharing.

“Anybody who’s got this crap has stories,” Mike jokes, gesturing to the cars inside. But not all stories are as fascinating as his.

Starting with a 1930 Ford Model A Deluxe Coupe, Mike says, “I bought this car 62 years ago when I was 13 years old. I paid $30 for it, and I drove it to high school and drove it to college. My dad and I restored this car, and I don’t know if I can bring myself to sell it. He’s dead now, and that car is my dad.”

Mike says he fell in love with MGTC sports cars back in the day and now owns one, but a friend said, “You’re a family man—you need a Riley Lynx.” If you’ve never heard of a Riley Lynx, you’re forgiven. They’re so rare that when Mike joined a Riley club and shared that he was looking for a Lynx, he bought the first one he was offered, a 1937 version, “sight unseen.”

“The lady who sold it raced it in the Singapore Vintage Grand Prix at the age of 17 in 1972,” Mike says. “So, suddenly I have a car with history.”

He also owns a ’37 Riley Kestrel Sprite sedan with art deco fastback styling. “It’s a delightful car,” he says. “It has amenities you wouldn’t believe for 1937,” including sunroof, semi-automatic transmission, magneto ignition, and a four-cylinder hemi engine.

Mike says there are five or fewer examples of both Riley cars known to be in the U.S. To learn more about these rare Rileys—and discover the identity of the car that Mike says “delivers as much fun as you can have in a car without having sex”—watch this episode of Barn Find Hunter.

“You never know where you’re going to find cars,” Tom says. “There might be a Mike in your town—get to know him.”

Happy hunting.

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Tom Cotter’s “comfort zone” is pretty broad. From legendary classics to rarely seen rides, the Barn Find Hunter has a wealth of automotive knowledge. Japanese hot rods? That’s a different story, but he’s intrigued and willing to learn.

In this episode, Tom meets a North Carolina family that’s “all in” when it comes to Japanese domestic market (JDM) vehicles. And none of their cars have remained stock.

“This a special morning for us because we’ve never spent any time on any episode of Barn Find Hunter around cars of this era,” Tom says. “… Before muscle cars were around, you had to build your own. You could take a low-performance car and make it high performance with cam shafts and headers and carburetors. Now, people are building hot rods by [altering their computer and] modifying them in ways I’ve never seen before. They don’t have to go inside the motor, they just have to plug something in. It’s pretty cool.”

First we meet 19-year-old Sergio, who is in the Honda PACT (Professional Automotive Career Training) Program at his college and plans to be “working for Honda very soon.” Sergio admits: “The car stuff is my life. When I wake up, the first thing I think about is my car, then breakfast.”

He owns a 2001 Honda Prelude Type SH. “There are only 241 left in the United States,” he says. “The rest have been crashed, bashed, and left to rust.” He plans to increase output of the Prelude’s DOHC VTEC engine from its 205–220 stock hp to 300 someday, but “I’ll stick to 250 until I’m out of college.”

Sergio’s love of cars starts at the top with his parents, Julio and Jennifer. Julio’s baby is his gorgeous Lexus IS 300, which he painted himself. Jennifer liked the car so much that she had to have one too. Hers is an automatic, however; she tried to learn how to drive a stick and grew tired of stalling.

Then there’s Julio Jr., who also owns an IS 300; Jonathon, who owns a 2010 Scion TC; and Jasmine, who owns a 1996 Honda Civic DX coupe, although she can’t legally drive it until she gets her license in October.

“I feel very fortunate to have been kind of brought into this family,” Tom says. “It’s such a great thing to have your family involved in the same interest that you have.”

You’ll have to watch to get the scope of their love of JDM. Perhaps you’ll learn something, like Tom did.

Happy hunting.

Jeff Peek

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In the first 7 1/2 years of the Barn Find Hunter series, Tom Cotter discovered one Opel GT. In this episode, however, he finds more than a dozen—and learns a little about their history along the way.

Continuing his trip through Tennessee, Tom first meets Dave, who is retired from Nissan after 30 years as the manager of the Nissan Heritage Collection of about 60 cars. Dave now runs a vintage car parts business and also has a decent collection of classics, including a handful of Nissan Z cars. Although the Z cars—including a special edition Shiro Z—are front and center in Dave’s warehouse, he also has a mostly original 1966 Dodge Coronet 440, a ’67 Morris Minor 1000, a Jaguar E-Type with a V-12 and four-speed transmission, and an Austin Marina 1800.

“(It’s) one of about six in the country,” Dave says of the Marina. “I found this one in a warehouse in Ohio with no drivetrain and no fuel tank, but it was a rust-free car. (Now) it’s a very good driver.”

After thanking Dave for showing him around, Tom gets back into his 1939 Ford woody wagon and drives more than an hour to meet Harold, who Tom says “has an obsession with Opel.” He isn’t kidding.

“The official count stopped at 12,” he says of the Opels on his property. “It’s bad enough that I have that many. . . I really don’t want to know.”

Tom comments that the 1968–73 Opel GT looks a lot like a C3 Corvette, which explains why Europeans called the German-built GT the “Baby Corvette.” The question is, could the baby be the father? Harold says that when it comes to which came first, the C3 or the GT, it’s a “chicken or egg” thing. We know that the original Corvette was codenamed “Project Opel” (more than a decade before the Opel concept debuted at the 1965 Paris Auto Show), but perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that the C3 and the final iteration of the Opel GT share characteristics with the 1965 Mako Shark II concept. Since Opel was once GM’s main European brand, could their design teams have collaborated? We’ll leave that for others to debate. As for us, let’s get back to Tom in Tennessee …

Harold says he bought his first Opel GT in 1982. “I liked the styling … liked the handling. It’s good that I’m not into ‘go-fast’ (however) because they don’t. . . They’re slow.”

In addition to all of the GTs on Harold’s property, Tom spies an Opel 1900 sedan and a Kadett wagon. Glancing at a large pole barn, he asks Harold, “Why are so many outside?”

Harold offers some good advice to anyone who has ever regretted not buying something when they had the chance. “When you find a stash of Opel parts or something you need, you need to snatch it up then whether you have the room or not, because it may not come around again.”

That makes perfect sense to Tom, especially considering how scarce Opel GTs seem to be—or at least they seemed to be before he visited Harold in Tennessee.

Happy Hunting.

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Tom Cotter is back in the Nashville area and he’s singing a familiar tune: where can I find some classic cars? Just outside the city, the Barn Find Hunter passes a partially covered car that catches his eye, and it proves to be the beginning of an eventful day in Tennessee.

The car that Tom spied, a black BMW, is owned by Bill, a longtime car guy who explains that he drove the car until the transmission began acting up. Nearby there’s also a couple of Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams. Tom asks if they’re for sale.

“Everything’s for sale,” Bill says, repeating an old adage. “There was a time (when) you’d come by and ask me that and I’d say ‘no.’”

The short stop, Tom says, proves that “if you’re driving down the road and you see one car, that may mean there are other cars hidden around the property.”

Soon it’s time to follow up on another car that caught Tom’s attention the day before, a yellow Henry J gasser that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We meet AJ, who shares ownership with his dad, who says there are about 80 cars on the property, and 62 or 63 are registered. His father drove the yellow Henry J in high school. Tom spots another Henry J, along with a dune buggy that AJ says has “maybe seen two miles since we got it 12 years ago. We can’t seem to get it running right.”

Oh, but there’s more. Lots and lots more. Among the dozens of cars parked on the property is a 1955 Chevy gasser with a 350-cubic-inch V-8 bored to 360. Tom asks the same question he asked Bill at the previous stop: Would they ever sell any of the cars? AJ chuckles before answering.

“No,” he admits. “We buy ’em, wash ’em, clean ’em, and drive ’em. We want to restore ’em, but we won’t ever do it.”

As Tom walks through the rows and rows of automobiles, he marvels at how eclectic the collection is. There’s a 1965 Chevrolet El Camino, a Plymouth Duster, a ’57 Chevy four-door, a ’64 Ford Comet, a ’65 Ford Mustang, a Dodge Dart, a ’57 Chevy Be Air wagon, a Range Rover, a Ford Torino, and more.

“We like ’em all,” AJ says. “Anything we can get our hands on, we’ll get it.”

Tom is impressed. “Places like this are rare,” he says. “If you’re lucky enough to meet the owners, maybe you’ll get a tour … It’s like a little museum.”

Of course, you’ll never know until you get out there and look.

As Tom says, “Happy hunting.”

— Jeff Peek

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Nashville is a popular destination spot for music fans from around the world, but Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter isn’t visiting central Tennessee for its country music. He’s there in search of hidden automotive treasure, and there’s plenty to be found in Music City.

First stop is Anderson Auto Repair, which is closing down after decades in business. Lee Anderson and Stanley Jones opened the shop together, and the two specialized in hot rods. Anderson passed away in November 2021, so Tom meets Jones to check out the place. After inspecting some flood-damaged cars sitting outside, Tom goes inside and is fascinated with an old Frazer, built between 1946–51 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The car hasn’t moved in a while; the oil change sticker inside the door reads 11-8-64.

Just when it appears this stop will be a short one, Jones mentions that he recently purchased a couple of classics—a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette convertible and a ’39 Chevy hot rod—in case Tom wants to take a look. Of course he does. Jones explains that he originally bought Sting Ray in the mid-1970s for $1750. He added a 350-cubic-inch truck engine and a five-speed transmission, then sold the ’Vette to his brother-in-law. It’s been sitting for 35 years, Jones says, and when his brother-in-law passed away, he ended up with it again.

“Did you buy it back for $1700?” Tom asks.

“No. No,” Jones says with a grin. “It cost a bit more than that.”

Back on the road again, Tom stops outside a fenced-in area that contains several classics—a Crosley chassis, Studebaker wagon, Pontiac Bonneville, and Pontiac Star Chief—but there’s no sign of anyone on the property.

“This is the bane of my existence,” he says. “You drive past a place … and you find some cars … and there’s nobody here. It’s locked up. In barn-find hunting, (you) can’t win sometimes.”

He finds a sure thing, however, when he stops to visit motorcycle expert Somer Hooker, who starts things off by showing a trio of sweet Italian sports cars: a 1964 Alfa Romeo Sprint, a 1964 Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale, and a 1961 Giulietta Spider 1300 with 19,000 original miles. Then it’s on to the motorcycles.

Hooker is especially fond of Honda S90 bikes, of which he has several, and then uncovers a first-year 1969 Honda 750, which is all original and features a four-cylinder engines and disc brakes. “People still say it’s one of the most significant motorcycles,” he says. “It pivoted the whole world of motorcycling right there.”

And with that, Tom asks us to come back soon for another Barn Find Hunter episode from Nashville before he sings this familiar tune: Happy hunting.

Jeff Peek

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Sometimes Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter has so much fun the first time around that he retraces his route. This time around, Tom visits some old friends who were included in his 2015 book Barn Find Road Trip: 3 Guys, 14 Days and 1000 Lost Collector Cars Discovered.

First up is C.T. IV, who lives in Virginia, just like his forefathers—also named C.T.—did. C.T. IV’s father, C.T. III, ran an auto repair and travel trailer sales/service business that is now home to a bunch of Buick Reattas and handful of other classics. Before taking a closer look at the nicest Reattas in the bunch, Tom wants to know about a 1947 Dodge truck parked nearby. Turns out C.T. IV’s grandfather, C.T. Jr. (technically C.T. II), bought it new.

“He would load corn in that, and I’d ride with him to a place in Winchester that processed the corn into feed for the cattle,” C.T. IV says.

The family farm is gone, but the truck remains. After a short walk to look at a dozen or so classics parked outside in a wooded area, Tom is ready to see the best Reattas, which are parked inside a semi trailer. C.T. IV explains that his dad liked Reattas so much that they’re going to have one engraved on his headstone when he dies.

The three low-mileage Reattas tucked safely away in the trailer are for sale, $10,000 each. As of the time that Tom pays him a visit, C.T. IV has not parted ways with any of the Buicks—though he has received some offers.

“As opposed to most Barn Find Hunter episodes,” Tom says, “when nothing is for sale (or you hear) ‘Maybe I’d sell that’ …”

C.T. IV adamantly finishes the sentence: “They’re for sale.”

Then it’s off to Paul Wilson’s place for a peek at a home-grown project. Technically, it’s the second iteration of what Paul envisions as the perfect body for a 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500. “I put myself into the position of an Italian designer in 1948,” he says. “(This is) what they could have made in 1948 if only they had looked at it like I do.”

We’d love to describe what it looks like—or, more accurately, what they both look like—but you’ll have to see for yourself.

“Paul, it looks fantastic,” Tom says, to which Paul replies, “I have to admit it’s (turning) out pretty well.”

Paul has done almost all of the work himself. “Most of it is very satisfying,” he says, “because you work on a little thing and then at the end of the day you say, ‘Oh, man, isn’t that beautiful?’”

We definitely think so.

Happy hunting.

Jeff Peek

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