The Story Behind This $2.5M Lamborghini Barn Find

We’ve all dreamt of finding a rare or ridiculous car in a barn and using it to get rich, but the truth is, it takes a certain kind of person to do the right thing with a barn find car.

It takes a person like Jeff, who found a 1969 Lamborghini Miura rotting away in a garage and decided not to restore it.

Jeff found this Lamborghini Miura in Oregon, where a man named Earl was keeping it. Earl had bought the car to celebrate his retirement and had kept it until he passed away in his 90s. Jeff, who found about the car after five years of searching, managed to get the car from the estate and set about bringing it back to its former glory.

Unfortunately for the Miura, Earl hadn’t driven it in 15 years and parts like the trunk had been eaten away at by mice, to whom Earl took a Buddhist attitude. As a result, there was some work to be done. But instead of just doing a full restoration, Jeff decided to keep the car as original as possible.

SEE ALSO: Special Edition Lamborghini Aventador Pays Tribute to Iconic Miura

Although it led to mice snacking on it, keeping the car in a garage all that time meant that the paint was in pretty good condition. There were, however, a few dents that Jeff managed to take out without harming the paint with the help of a friend. Under the hood, of course, the Miura needed some work, but instead replacing parts, Jeff took them out, fixed them, and put them back.

His patience was rewarded, not only with a gorgeous car, but with the knowledge that the panels and parts had not only been put in by hand, but signed by the craftsmen who made the car. That, of course, meant that there were some imperfections, like the panels that had been drilled twice, because the panel didn’t line up the first time.

It’s all what Jeff calls “perfectly imperfect,” and it’s a beautiful example of what the Miura might have been like when it first left the factory nearly 50 years ago. As a result, Jeff estimates that the car could be worth more than $2.5-million to the right collector.

A version of this story originally appeared on VW Vortex

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