{"id":58205,"date":"2021-12-15T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=58205"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:46","slug":"meet-the-auto-archaeologist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/gallery\/2021\/12\/meet-the-auto-archaeologist.html","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Auto Archaeologist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many dictionaries define an archaeologist as \u201ca person who studies human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.\u201d But Ryan Brutt has applied this skill set to unearthing rare and vintage muscle cars that have been buried in barns and garages for decades. And while these vehicles may not be remnants of a lost Inca civilization, a forgotten colony in the New World or a World War I trench located along on the Western Front, Ryan\u2019s finds are just as important. You\u2019ll never see Ryan\u2019s discoveries on the pages of National Geographic<\/em>, but you will find them in a host of automotive magazines, websites and in person, as we recently saw first-hand at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN)<\/a>. We\u2019re not sure who created the whole “barn find” phenomenon, but Ryan was definitely on the forefront of the movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ryan, who\u2019s only 36 years old, began his hunt for these four-wheeled, V8-powered diamonds in the rough over five years ago. Growing up in Skokie, Illinois, his father was a mechanic and mother was a teacher\u2019s aide. His father was a “car guy” and took Ryan to a few shows, but it wasn\u2019t something that occupied their lives 24\/7. Ryan, a self-admitted “train nut”, loves all things mechanical as long as they\u2019re powerful and make a lot of noise. Maybe that\u2019s why he gravitated to muscle cars that were built decades before he was born. The defining moment for him came when he was getting a CD player installed in his car and he noticed a 1971 Plymouth \u2018Cuda buried between two work bays in the shop covered up with a bunch of junk. \u201cThis thing was so cool with the gilled fenders, menacing grille and right there a whole new world opened up for me, not just in muscle cars, but barn finding,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cWhen I found the 1971 \u2018Cuda in the shop, it flipped the switch in my brain. I was blown away by this awesome car just sitting here, buried in a random shop in Chicago. Since I found this car by accident, I was sure I could find other even cooler cars if I actually worked at it. With my Dad\u2019s friends being in the classic car hobby, it started the slippery slope to where I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That “slippery slope” has taken Ryan all over the country searching out buried and hidden muscle cars while accumulating over 250,000 miles on his trusty 2009 Challenger R\/T that has served him as well. Ryan also has a 1971 Sublime Green Challenger he\u2019s been building for years, but with his crazy travel schedule that also includes contributing to Hot Rod<\/a><\/em> magazine and authoring two books on his cool barn finds, time to work on the \u201971 is hard to come by. \u201cThe first book was just a way to culminate some of my writings and photography. A way to put it into memory beyond the internet and magazines. I could only publish 120-ish pictures out of the thousands I had taken. It was a real challenge figuring out what stayed and what went. But both books turned out well,\u201d declared Ryan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now you can see how Ryan has little time to finish his personal car projects. He\u2019s also trying to revive a 1970 Plymouth HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> engine-powered \u2018Cuda his father bought new. But it\u2019s the traveling and being on the road that takes up a majority of Ryan\u2019s time, as he\u2019s on a mission to find and document vintage cars that have been left for dead in barns, garages and even fields. \u201cI travel as often as I can and used to do far more before COVID hit, but I\u2019ve scaled it down with everything going on,\u201d noted Ryan. \u201cIf something pops up that I must shoot right away, I will run out and do it. But it\u2019s usually every other weekend. Or a week here or there. I have a map I\u2019ve created through the years with pins showing the leads on cars. So, when I travel, it allows me to hit up a bunch of stuff at one time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Upon his travels over the years, Ryan has uncovered a lot of rare iron that has not seen daylight in decades. According to Ryan, \u201cI\u2019ve found tons of amazing cars, multiple HEMI \u2018Cudas, Yenko Camaros, T\/A Challengers, AAR \u2018Cudas. Every one is amazing with its own story and history. My favorite in recent memory is probably the Purple ’70 HEMI \u2018Cuda in the backyard, with grapevines growing around the 426 HEMI with Hilborn injector stacks.\u201d Now, Ryan\u2019s passion of being an auto archaeologist does have its “interesting” and “tense” moments: \u201cThe weirdest one was a guy in Iowa. I had posted online that I was traveling through Iowa looking for barn finds. A gentleman (who was not the owner) said to go check out this town, there was a guy there with cool cars. He said nothing else, no name, no address, just the town,\u201d reminisced Ryan. \u201cSo, I went to this small rural town in Iowa and found the guy. And as I pulled on the median of the road, he was waiting in the driveway for me.  It was odd for me, but I said what the heck. I walked up the driveway and introduced myself. At that point, he told me he knew who I was, and that I was ruining the car hobby and was a horrible person. So, I defended myself for about an hour, until his wife came out, and she started yelling at me. She then said she was going to call the cops for trespassing, I told her we were on the median of the road, and it was public property. After that, I gave them my card, wished them well and left. Well, they still filed a police report on me, and I received a call from the Iowa State Police informing me of this fact. Ironically, the trooper sided with me! Saying the people were ‘a bit unstable’ and just to leave them alone, which I guaranteed him I would! Then the crazy owner went onto an online forum to blast me. Crazy stuff to say the least!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking toward the future, Ryan doesn\u2019t see the barn find movement slowing down anytime soon. \u201cMore and more collections are going to come out in the open with that age group getting older and wanting the cash out of their collections. So, I\u2019m excited to see what will be coming out of the woodwork,\u201d grinned Ryan. With the barn finds exhibit growing every year at the MCACN event, show organizer Bob Ashton and Ryan put a great effort into making this display a fan favorite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As with any archaeologist, Ryan never stops exploring and digging to uncover rare artifacts from another era. With Ryan on the hunt for these treasures, his quest won\u2019t end anytime soon. In the meantime, check out these amazing Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> barn finds Ryan located for this year\u2019s MCACN show! <\/p>\n\n\n\n