{"id":83724,"date":"2024-12-16T12:23:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=83724"},"modified":"2024-12-06T09:12:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T14:12:42","slug":"buried-treasures-and-hidden-gems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/heritage\/2024\/12\/buried-treasures-and-hidden-gems.html","title":{"rendered":"Buried Treasures and Hidden Gems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s one of the most highly talked about displays during the annual Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) show<\/a>, the “Barn Finds and Hidden Gems” exhibit. Here, some of the rarest muscle cars have been dragged out of fields, farms, old quarries, inactive limestone mines, garages, decommissioned train stations, closed-down schools, shipping containers, warehouses and, yes, even barns. These ragged machines rolling on dry rotted tires that can barely hold air, get pushed into the show still covered in decades of dust, dirt, bird droppings and even mice excrement. Not only do these old tattered cars glaze your eyeballs, but the stench from the interior will also have you gagging and searching for an N95 face mask. If these former warriors of stop-light skirmishes, drag strip duels or late-night interludes during senior prom could talk, what tales they could tell. They lived hard and fast throughout the 1970s while their owners recklessly flung them around like a tornado ravaging a mobile home park.<\/p>\n\n\n

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While the “barn finds” phenomenon is not new, many individuals like to claim ownership of this major aspect of the car hobby, one person stands above the numerous posers. His name is Ryan Brutt and through his tireless efforts, has single-handedly changed the way enthusiasts search out old muscle cars. Ryan\u2019s findings and discoveries have been covered in the pages of Hot Rod<\/em> magazine for years. He\u2019s traveled the backroads of this wonderful country in his 2009 Challenger R\/T and has racked up almost 300,000 miles on his quest to unearth old muscle cars. The catchphrase \u201cThey\u2019re Still Out There\u201d is due in part to Ryan playing explorer, detective and investigative journalist. His intel comes from word of mouth, folklore or even a phone call from an unknown enthusiast who \u201cKnows a guy who knows a guy that spotted this odd car with a tall wing sitting in a barn somewhere in Iowa.\u201d Usually, that\u2019s all it takes for this 40-year-old bachelor to fire up his HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> engine-powered Dodge and head out on another adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI was influenced a great deal by Steve Magnante and how he\u2019d hunt for old cars. It was different back then before the internet and cell phone cameras. Today, more of these hidden cars that have been buried or lost for decades are being discovered which is a good thing for the hobby,\u201d said Ryan. With a diverse display of old Mopar\u00ae<\/sub><\/strong> muscle cars at this year\u2019s MCACN show, Ryan was able to round up a few through his efforts of managing and coordinating the “Barn Find and Hidden Gems” display. Ryan works with all the owners and makes sure the exhibit goes off without any issues or drama. \u201cThere were a few cars I was directly involved with through my travels. One was the 1968 HEMI Coronet R\/T convertible with great history. I also spoke to the owner of the 1970 Plymouth \u2019Cuda ex-drag car that was located in Minnesota. We had so many cool Mopars from all over the country that came out to the show. We also pride ourselves that every car in the \u2018Barn Finds and Hidden Gems\u2019 display is unique and rare. We do not let just any car in, we make sure that the car is something special. So every year, you have something to look forward to that is completely fresh and, yes, we\u2019ve begun working on the 2025 MCACN show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s a glimpse of some worn, tattered and shabby Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars with a couple of honorable mentions from AMC thrown in for good measure. Don\u2019t look at them as rusty hulks of steel, but rather as diamonds in the rough!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s one of the most highly talked about displays during the annual Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) show, the “Barn Finds and Hidden Gems” exhibit. Here, some of the rarest muscle cars have been dragged out of fields, farms, old quarries, inactive limestone mines, garages, decommissioned train stations, closed-down schools, shipping containers, warehouses and, yes, even barns. These ragged machines rolling on dry rotted tires that can barely hold air, get pushed into the show still covered in decades of dust, dirt, bird droppings and even mice excrement. Not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":83702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2622],"tags":[2948,2949],"class_list":["post-83724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heritage","tag-dodge-classics","tag-plymouth-classics"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BurriedTreasures_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/BurriedTreasures_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83724"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83737,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83724\/revisions\/83737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}