Abandoned Ferrari and Cobra go up for sale... for millions

Got a garage, or a shed, or some form of large container that you haven’t checked in a while? Check again. Right now. Chances are, you’ve forgotten you left an exquisitely rare classic Ferrari - worth millions - in there.

It happens quite a lot, apparently. The latest is this: a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB, which was purchased by the current owner in March of 1985. He remembered he bought this car right up until 1991, at which point he put it into his new garage and clearly forgot he bought it.

Because it sat there for some 26 years. Not that it’s rare or anything: it’s one of 205 built to ‘Long Nose’ spec, and of those 205, one of 80 built from aluminium. Oh wait, it is actually quite rare.

Said owner is now ready to sell his collection of cars, and pulled the dusty Ferrari from the garage. It apparently only needed “some minor mechanical sorting” before the 3.3-litre V12 burst into life. Solid.

Gooding & Company reckons it’ll sell for between $2.5m and $3.25m. In other ‘look what I found in the shed’ news, the same owner also parked a rather gorgeous 1967 Shelby 427 Cobra in the same garage as the 275, in 1991 (though he put 6,000 miles on it in the preceding 11 years).

It’s dusty. It’s got a wooden steering wheel. The Ford engine still works. And it’s amazing. Gooding reckons this one will go for over $1m. Both will go under the hammer at Gooding's Amelia Island sale on 9 March.

Now what are you still doing here? Go and check the shed...