For non-petrolheads, the thought of storing away precious classic cars might seem a bit weird. Why hide something of beauty? Why keep an object that you clearly love away from the admiring eyes of the world?
The answer is simple: these vehicles are more than just cars. They mean an awful lot more than their job as mode of transport suggests. They need caring for and protecting if they’re to last a lifetime.
What a shame, then, that some of the most famous cars in the world have been (and there’s unfortunately no better word for it) ‘misplaced’.
History is littered with tales of legendary cars that have been inadvertently consigned to the history books, and in this blog post, we’ve picked out four whose disappearance is particularly cruel.
If you can stomach the thought of losing such a thing, read on…
The Futura was an aptly-named concept car built by Lincoln in 1955. Its tight lines, sharp angles and futuristic headlights were unlike any car of the time, but just like most concept cars, it never enjoyed full production.
In truth, this particular motor wasn’t really lost, but the concept was, and that’s what we’re mourning here. Why was it lost? For one very simple reason: the Futura was bought for $1 by a chap named George Barris, who turned it into the Batmobile driven by Adam West (that’s why car pictured below looks so familiar).
Barris later sold the car at auction for a tidy $4.6m. A nice investment for him, but what a shame the Futura never made it onto the road!
No matter how many flashy, brand new Astons the most recent Bond films send our way, there’s unlikely to be another that is more revered than the original DB5 driven by 007 in the early movies.
In 1997, a DB5 that featured in Goldfinger was stolen from an aircraft hanger. Tragically, it has never been recovered.
Arguably, few people have graced the earth who look as cool behind the wheel of a car than the late, great James Dean. And far from being all show, Dean was actually an accomplished race driver.
A lover of Porsches, the movie star favoured race-tuned motors, and eventually swapped his 356 Speedster for a 550 Spyder - a full-blown race car that unfortunately turned out to be something of a fatal choice.
In 1955, Dean crashed the car while driving to a race in California, and cut his life tragically short. The remains for the 550 Spyder subsequently toured the country, but went missing during one of the journeys, never to be seen again.
It wasn’t just a huge cruise liner that sunk to the depths of the North Atlantic on that fateful journey in 1912 - within its hold resided a Renault Coupe de Ville. And while there have been several replicas built since, the original remains in its final resting place on the ocean floor.
Feeling sad about these lost motors? Don’t be - at least we still have great stories to tell about them! Main image credit
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