[KneeDragger]

Greetings everyone. The image inserted into this thread was taken, by me, in 1987 in Ohio. I believe it to be a 250GTO or LM but am not sure, the car was eventually sold (to whom I don't know) and since I was 16 at the time I didn't have the forthought to snap a picture on the serial number plate (and since I snuck onto the property to take the picture I didn't want to stay too long!). I'm hoping someone can help out!

[Pete04222]

It sure looks like a 250 GTO but the front end just isn't quite right. Given that and the fact they only made 39 of them of which I doubt any ended up on a rusty old car trailer in Ohio, I'd say this is probably one of the replica kits that fits on a Datsun 240Z chassis.

I think the last 250 GTO sold at auction for $5 million.

Here's a 250 GTO kit car for sale on EBay for $10k
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Repli...spagenameZWDVW

[KneeDragger]

At the time i lifted the hood, definately a Ferrari. v12 with 6 2 barrels inside. Car was right hand drive, all aluminum interior no passenger seat. Body was definately aluminum and contained no rust. The problem I see with the front end is that all 250GTO's i've seen have turn signal recesses and this one doesn't. Also note the scoops barely visible on the tops of the fenders. Car sat for years untouched, we used to drive by it every weekend on the way to our grandmothers house and was there before Datsun even produced the Z car.

[KneeDragger]

I knew I wasn't crazy, check out the below link. From '72 till 86 it states that it set out on a trailer in a grass field!

http://www.barchetta.cc/english/All....9GT.250GTO.htm

I feel better now.

[Boxer]

I believe this is the 250 GTO which was donated to a school in Texas and then later sold to gentlemen in Ohio who did level it out in a field for over a decade. The car has now been fully restored but I am not sure where it is curretnly located. Current value is around $18 million.

[marlin]

From the evidence of the photo it is the famous "GTO in a field" #3589GT which was sold to James Korton, Ohio in 1972 and sat on the trailer for 15 years until sold to Frank Gallogly, New York in 1986 and then to Engelbert Steiger, Switzerland in 1988 who had it restored to its former glory.
Saw it at Silverstone in 1997 and again in 1998.
Its the first photo I've seen of it in the field.

[marlin]

[QUOTE=KneeDragger;58182] The image inserted into this thread was taken, by me, in 1987 in Ohio. QUOTE]

Are you sure about the date you took the photo ?

[Pete04222]

I stand corrected. Wow.

KneeDragger, it was the turn signal recesses that I was looking for also. In the link you posted do I read correct that it was sold off the trailer for $4.2 million? If you only knew then what you know now.

[alsaautomotive]

Wasn't Dave Castelhano doing a rebuild when Gallogly sold it to Steiger?????

Anyway period pic..............

[JazzyO]

I'd like to put it on record that if I was St. Peter, Mr. Joe E. Kortan of Ohio would spend the rest of his eternal days in purgatory....

BTW, would the value of a GTO that has been rebuilt like this one also approach $18 million? Was the one recently sold more original or not?


Onno

[alsaautomotive]

I think it's fair to say that 5095 (recently sold @ 18m) is one of maybe 4 or 5 no stories GTO's, in other words ones that weren't stuffed or rebodied 'in period' or heavily restored in the 80's/90's/00's.
But what effect this will have had on the value can only be guaged when another comes to the market.
Steve P's old car sold in early 2005 for £5m - it was not totally original ( ) & has since been subjected to a £1/4m rebuild. What others have come to market more recently than that I don't know - JT? Marlin?

[KneeDragger]

I stand corrected, I was talking to my brother and it was more like '85-'86. I double checked and the gentleman from Jersey bought the car for approx 1 million and resold it to the current owner approximately 2 years later for the 4.2million. Note that the son of Joe Kortan was the one who sold it, I believe Joe passed away prior to the sale. I just stopped by the property today and the barn and house are gone. When the ferrari was on the property there was also a blue 250GT 2+2 (with a bullet hole in the rear decklid much like the hole in the drivers door of the GTO), a Lotus type 11 looking car in the barn, a Rolls Royce Cornich (brown, white convertable top, probably early '70's vintage).

It was nice to finally put closure to this one, it's been bothering me for years. It's nice to know the old urban legends about the classic car on the farm aren't always fiction.

[JazzyO]

Originally Posted by alsaautomotive

I think it's fair to say that 5095 (recently sold @ 18m) is one of maybe 4 or 5 no stories GTO's, in other words ones that weren't stuffed or rebodied 'in period' or heavily restored in the 80's/90's/00's.
But what effect this will have had on the value can only be guaged when another comes to the market.
Steve P's old car sold in early 2005 for £5m - it was not totally original ( ) & has since been subjected to a £1/4m rebuild. What others have come to market more recently than that I don't know - JT? Marlin?

That's what I figured.

BTW, Steve P's old car is the one which restoration featured in Octane Magazine early this year, isn't? My word, was it looking pretty when finished.


Onno

[jtremlett]

Originally Posted by alsaautomotive

...Steve P's old car sold in early 2005 for £5m - it was not totally original ( ) & has since been subjected to a £1/4m rebuild...

I was told £8 million.

Originally Posted by JazzyO

BTW, Steve P's old car is the one which restoration featured in Octane Magazine early this year, isn't? My word, was it looking pretty when finished.

Yes. Whether it was better before or after the "restoration" rather depends on your point of view...

Jonathan

[alsaautomotive]

Originally Posted by jtremlett

I was told £8 million.

Could well have been - I got this 2nd (or poss 3rd) hand (from whom you can guess!!)

Originally Posted by jtremlett

Yes. Whether it was better before or after the "restoration" rather depends on your point of view...

Jonathan

I agree that it's been totally overdone, it was a shed before, but it was nonetheless a useable shed.

[viscount aero]

Wow 4 million for a junk car, then restored to 18 million in value. That's mind-boggling. I'm happy to know that this fantastic work of art and machinery has been found and revitalized to living glory. Nice survivor story.

[jimsyntax]

Folks, I had to join this forum just to add to this story. I grew up in North Royalton. I had watched this car and others for years. In the drive were several old 2.5 Ferraris, one with a tree growing through the sunroof. There were many other cars: model T dirt track racer, misc Lambos, lesser Ferraris, a Sunoco sports racer, and the common Triumphs and Healeys. The main attraction was the GTO, sitting on a trailer with Chromed wire wheels. Mr. Kortan would never venture out to discuss the vehicles. After a few years of talking about this car, my cousin Tony (member of east a coast Ferrari club) finally "humored" me and agree to go see the car when he was in Ohio visiting for Christmas. He had the same doubts, and was amazed to see the car. The more recent history of the car is now public... but it was one of the missing GTOs.

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by jimsyntax

Folks, I had to join this forum just to add to this story. I grew up in North Royalton. I had watched this car and others for years. In the drive were several old 2.5 Ferraris, one with a tree growing through the sunroof. There were many other cars: model T dirt track racer, misc Lambos, lesser Ferraris, a Sunoco sports racer, and the common Triumphs and Healeys. The main attraction was the GTO, sitting on a trailer with Chromed wire wheels. Mr. Kortan would never venture out to discuss the vehicles. After a few years of talking about this car, my cousin Tony (member of east a coast Ferrari club) finally "humored" me and agree to go see the car when he was in Ohio visiting for Christmas. He had the same doubts, and was amazed to see the car. The more recent history of the car is now public... but it was one of the missing GTOs.

I have also heard this story and seen a couple of pictures. Call it the $18 million flower pot.

[Dmitri]

I don't have much to add to this thread other than noting that I had never heard of this story before, but it is incredible that a single car (even though the model may have a cult following) has induced such a stir and has so much history in itself. Who would have thought it sat in a field for so many years...then finally be restored. Wow...$18 million flower pot indeed.

[triumphnutter]

So I'm half listening to the news the other day and I hear them talking about some rare Ferrari 250 (one of 36 or 39?) that went to auction and fetched some ridiculously huge coin. Got me thinking about my youth and how I remember Kortan's yard, full of collectible cars just rotting away. I lived a few miles away from him. I went to school with his daughter and she was on my bus route thru grade school. I had no idea what the cars were at the time (I was in 8th grade in 79 and watched that yard since I can remember), but we all knew they were supposed to be really collectible. It was well known that Mr. Kortan was not in the market to let them go, that he liked them just the way they were.... unprotected, just parked in the field or in the dilapidated barn, rotting away. He had no interest in showing them to anyone. I'm not even sure if anyone actually knew what was all in that barn. A few years back, the daughter told me how she and her brothers used to sled ride down the hood of that Ferrari when they were kids! Man if that doesn't want to make you cry.

Anyway, nothing much to add here, just amazing what you can find on the internet. That picture in the field sure brings back memories!