Customer Reviews

The Cobra in the Barn: Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have scouted, searched, and on occasion bought an old car that has been sitting somewhere without a "for sale" sign on it. This book reads like the journal I'd like to write. The cars and their circumstances are mostly unique situations, and the lost/found and long term pursuit angles are the best. For the most part the buyers have a genuine interest, if not a personal one, in the cars they seek. Thankfully, the megabucks trophy collectors and hoarders who fill their warehouses (and ruin it for most everyone else) don't dominate the book.
If you are looking for high end writing and extensive stories, or if you only like certain cars, this book may not be as much fun for you. It is not Peter Egan's "Side Glances." Some accounts are better than others, but overall it is an enjoyable and entertaining book.

I bought this great book along with Egans Leanings 2. Both books are great for a quick 'shot in the arm' of gearhead wonderland. Cotter has compiled this wonderful selection of stories and presented it in a very tasteful package. High quality paper and equally good photographs make for a satisfing read. Well recommended for any automotive enthusiast.

Cotter has done a wonderful job of assembling short stories about finding old, desirable cars. The stories are different enough that they do not become repetitive and they don't get bogged down in the detail. The pictures are well done and add interest to the book. I enjoyed this easy to read book probably because it is as much about the people as it is about the cars they find. Very well done.

Guys and gals who love cars (and those who care about those obsessed people), this book is for you. You'll relish reading about people as crazy as you are about finding and restoring old cars.

Eureka! Dream cars such as a 1938 woody station wagon--or Rolls, desirable Porsches, Cobra and many more specialty cars were found in old sheds, barns and garages.

With most old cars, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, usually from unforgettable memories of their youth (hmmmn). Now this person is a grown up and has money to spend on that dream.

Like buying a dog, buying a needs-some-work car is the cheapest part of owning it. The idea is to find an old car, drag it home, and then bring it back to live, with money and a lot of elbow grease.

Author Tom Cotter thinks, reads and breathes old cars...and he loves the hunt. He's the right guy for this wonderful job of writing about old cars and the people who love them.

Even if you don't love old cars like the people in this book, you'll still enjoy reading their quest, success and disappointments. You might even get the urge.

Now if I could only find a ....

Armchair Interviews says: A great gift book for a car lover--especially one who takes a neglected and abused heap of metal and makes it a dream come true. Anyone for a COX 6057 Cobra that needs just a little paint and a few "minor" body repairs?

Good book for the waiting room of an upscale independent auto repair shop or the "reading room" in you own home; i.e. circumstances where you don't expect to read a book cover to cover. Some of the vignettes are very well written. Some are not. The latter fact is more noticeable because they all have the same story line. Several of those near the end of the book immerse the reader in minutiae about a particular car's history that only that car's owner could possibly care about. Overall, I enjoyed the portions I read, but will pass it on to a friend confident that he will do the same when he's finished with it.

I looked forward to reading this book about stories of unbelievable barn/garage finds and the circumstances that lead to these amazing cars abandonment & the subsequent rediscovery many years later. These stories should appeal to car lovers and treasure hunters alike; I can not imagine finding, like the book's title implies, a Cobra in an abandoned barn (even if it was repainted an ugly brown & a raccoon was calling it its home). The stories truly temp me to stop & look in every old barn/garage I drive by to see what gem might be resting under the roof.
I would have liked a bit more historical background about the the cars that were discovered but that's being picky. The photos of the cars were great -- unbelievable to fathom that someone would let such amazing automobiles sit unprotected & unloved. The photo gallery at the end of the book -- all shot an undisclosed garage/property in Europe -- will amaze you & make you cringe as there are countless breahtaking cars (we're talking old Bugattis & the like) sit sadly in a tired, filthy garage & overgrown property. After seeing them you'll want to embark on your on odyssey to track them down!

The Cobra in the barn is an excellent book. The stories are interesting, fact filled, and entertaining. The short length of each story makes you eager to get to the next one to see what new, exotic car will be discovered. Some of the stories are heartwarming, some are sad. The rescue of the car and it's eventual return to glory is the satisfying conclusion in most cases. However, not all stories have a happy conclusion.

Overall, an excellent read for those of us who enjoy the automotive hobby, and it should appeal to those who enjoy a good, historical story as well.

More compelling a book than I had expected. Would think the tale would become repetitive, but surprisingly not so. Different writers and styles help to mix it up. Fun before and after photos. A good book for incremental reading; falling asleep in bed, during morning constitutional. Helps, that my first car came out of a barn.

This book was enjoyable and really shows what is still hidng out there for anyone to find. My only criticism of the book is that it is a series of articles all by different people written in their own words. Some sections are written better than others, and the writing style changes often. I would have liked a few more pictures, but overall the book does a good job presenting what it was intended to present.

It's worth getting if you are an enthusiast who likes to turn his/her own wrench.

Every car nut dreams of the great "barn find," and this book seemed to promise vignettes of some of the best, but disppointed me in a few ways. The quality of the writing covers a spectrum from "what I did on my summer vacation" type ramblings to the professional prose of Road and Track's Peter Egan. I had to read a couple of the stories two or three times to clarify who the people were and what the perspective of the writer was. Some of the chapters lacked photographs, or decent photographs, so the reader is left to imagine what was actually discovered, which would seem like a no-no for a book like this. Some beautiful photos were attached at the end of the book, said to be in some "mystery location" so that really did not connect to the rest of the book. My only other comment would be that if you're expecting this to be all about sports cars, it's not...several of the chapters are about big old touring cars, one-offs, woodies, and limousines. A decent read for car enthusiasts but not great. If I was editing it, I'd chop a lot of the banter and make the stories clear, and make sure there were photos to document each story from "find" to post-restoration if that was the end of the story.