The Barn Find Hunter is at it again.
Quite literally, Tom Cotter has written the book of hunting down barn find cars. He shows us magic pretty often on his YouTube show Barn Find Hunter, and this time is certainly no exception. Digging through St. George, Utah he uncovers one of the most unique and fascinating cars ever: a fiberglass Cisitalia designed by Pininfarina. It was raced on the Bonneville Salt Flats using half a Duesenberg engine, too.
If you haven’t watched the video yet, you should at least by the time you finish reading this article. This car is actually an Atlas coupe, but was created in the early part of the 1950s using the mold for the Cisitalia 202 Coupe which was designed by Pininfarina. It belonged to Robert Petersen of Petersen Publishing, who also founded the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, so that’s quite the pedigree. The Cisitalia is a striking car, having been displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, however this particular example is a little rough, to say the least.
That isn’t the only rare car featured in the episode. Another guy shows off his 1964 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier, which he was in the midst of restoring. Like so many of us, he acquired the vehicle and it sat for a few years before he finally had the time and probably the money to really start tearing into it. No doubt he’ll be showing the beauty off once all the work is done.
Most people don’t know much about St. George, but it’s a city with a deep and long history. The people there are definitely into classic cars, something you’ll notice by spending some time at the local haunts in the summertime. In fact, many excellent meets are held around the area during the warmer months, with owners of course making the trek to places like Moab where formal and informal car shows are surprisingly plentiful. Tom certainly hit paydirt by poking around town, as this is not the first time he’s done an episode there.