I've never been inclined to sniff around barn doors. In fact, where I live on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, I rarely see a barn; quite a contrast to my home province of Ontario where barns are as common as rural road signs. This makes me a poor candidate as a seeker of "barn finds," a term used to identify old cars in (hopefully) good condition that have been uncovered after decades of being hidden away by a deceased owner. The Brits are best at this, although how such a small island could hide so many old cars in so many barns is a mystery.

Here in North America barn finds still happen. Thanks to the Autoblog site's writers I can share this 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing coupe. According to them this example, with a white finish and red leather interior, "was recently found in a barn where it sat in storage, undriven, for the past 30 years. It's only had one owner since 1969, and while it looks pretty beat up, that just means it's ripe for a full restoration."

Whoever buys it might consider having the work done by Rudi Koniczek's shop, acknowledged as the world's foremost 300SL restoration center, just down the road from here in Victoria, BC. The car is for sale (price upon request) from Aston Martin of New England. Good examples can easily sell for $400,000 so as Autoblog suggests, "you can bet somebody's going to grab this one and give it the TLC it deserves." BTW, I don't agree with the site's commentator that the 300SL's performance "wasn't much of a performer." In its day the 300SL was a supercar.