“Hunter’s Secrets in Search of a Barn”

Tom Cotter has been finding old vehicles in farm buildings since he was 12 years old. And despite a long career as a motorsport marketing manager, he is best known for this skill. He starred in the YouTube series and podcast about it and posted a lot about the process. “I work for my 19^th I’m booking now, but about 11-12 of them are about the finds in the barn, ”he said Car and driver.

Several of these books have collected stories about individual brands of cars and motorcycles: Cobra in the barn, Hammy in the barn, Corvette in the barn, Vincent in the barnand Harley in the barn. Another series catalogs finds from various trips: Route 66 Barn finds, Motor City barn finds.

But he claims his new book, The secrets of the barn. Find a hunter ($ 30.00, motorcycles), was “probably the easiest book I could write because it’s just based on what I’ve been doing all my life.”

Provided by: motorcycle

As the title suggests, this book explains Cotter’s tactics in finding hidden old cars. Among them, always look left and right to look behind the buildings while you drive, interview long-term employees at local gas stations and don’t be afraid to stop every time you see a field of rotten old cars, as they can be just disposable. on foot in front of hidden bishops, rooks and queens.

The most important thing is to have the right vehicle to perform your searches. Instead of Cotter – a 1939 Ford woodie station wagon, which he found in the barn when he was 15 years old. (We forgot to ask if he found his wife, children, job, house and publisher in the barn.)

“When people see it on the porch, it doesn’t matter when they act. They see me as real. Or at least it continues a relationship that would have ended much faster if I hadn’t had this car,” he said. “The lesson is: if you’re looking for an interesting car, it helps to drive an interesting car.”

The bigger question this series raises is, is it in the barn finds that so makes people deserve a dozen books about them and hundreds of YouTube episodes and podcasts? “I think it’s an adult version of the treasure hunt,” Cotter says.

Also, apparently, there is some transcendence of fantasy. “It’s honest. It’s real life,” Cotter said. And real people. “It’s also a factor of human interest. The car is a catalyst for reviving interesting stories,” he added.

Cotter’s favorite such story in the book concerns a widow in Texas. Her husband’s death left her a beggar, and her son called him to sell one remaining asset so the bank would not levy a foreclosure on her home. “And he said the magic word: Porsche,” Cotter said.

The woman’s husband owned a 1957 Porsche 356 A Speedster when they cared, but he later stopped driving it when he contracted ALS, a disease that eventually led to his death, and he lay in a garage for 40 years. The boat flew down and met the widow. Talking for a long time, she led him to the car. “It was covered with tablecloths, but was in good condition. Not restored,” said Cotter.

Because RM Auctions in Hershey specialized in cars for storage, he persuaded her to bring orange bath there and he joined her and the car for sale. “While the car was betting – 50,000, 75,000, 100,000 – she was literally holding my hand and crying on my shoulder,” he said. It was eventually sold for $ 341,000. “And at the end she looked up at the ceiling, or at the sky, and said, ‘He’s still taking care of me,'” Cotter said. “Everyone heard. without fear of losing it. “

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