They were left to die. Cool rarities were found on the territory of the former USSR
"Zhiguli" which growing into the ground and landscape or old foreign cars in
the courtyards of panel houses in a quiet districts of the cities of the former USSR
is a sad but familiar sight. However, there are much sadder stories, when sports cars
and limousines from the West, rare for the former Soviet Union, were forgotten and abandoned.
1. Maserati 3200 GT In the city on the Neva river, an abandoned
Maserati 3200 GT was discovered, which was dying in an abandoned parking lot like the car itself.
Apparently, the coupe was in a serious accident and the owner decided not to bother
with repairing it. Maserati's hood is dented,
the front bumper and wheels are missing, the body is covered with rust in some places. An
inglorious finale for a glorious car, which was only 4795 copies for the whole world.
The Maserati 3200 GT was produced from 1998 to 2002, until it was replaced by the Coupe model
(in fact, a restyled 3200 GT). The coupe with its characteristic taillight boomerangs was powered by
a V8 engine, the displacement of which is shown in the name. The 3200 GT accelerated to 100
kilometres per hour in 5.2 seconds, and its top speed reached 280 kilometres per hour.
In Western Europe, such a car can cost more than 50 thousand euros if the mileage
is within 100 thousand kilometres, and the condition is close to perfect.
2. Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG The Mercedes-Benz SLS,
despite a similar circulation, is valued much higher: the cheapest SLS on Automotive.ru costs
almost 200 thousand dollars! I wonder how much the dismantled SLS from the parking lot in Syktyvkar,
which has been standing in the open air for a year and waiting for its fate, can cost?
This car of 2011 was purchased abroad for the collection.
But something confused the customs officials, and the supercar with doors like "seagull wings"
went to a special parking lot. They tried to sell the car
at an auction, but the bid never reached the reserve, which, I guess, was rather big.
Let me remind, that the SLS supercar was produced in the German Sindel-Fingen from 2010 to 2015
(including the racing version of the SLS GT3). The car became the successor of the famous 300 SL
Gullwing and has pleased with a number of special versions. There were even plans to release an
electric car based on the SLS, but the project did not go further than a couple of prototypes,
which were rolled at exhibitions and demonstrated in TV programs.
3. Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 It is difficult to logically
explain how the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 could be in such a weird position.
The first thing that comes to mind: the car had an accident and the owner simply
did not want to restore it. This option is prompted by the missing right front fender,
as well as the torn off right door. By the way, in the movie "The Dark Knight" the grey
LP640 also gets a powerful blow to the right. What if this is the same car ...
The car is equipped with a 6.5-litre V12 engine that produces 640 horsepower.
The supercar accelerates to 100 kilometres per hour in 3.5 seconds, and its top speed reaches 340
kilometres per hour. In Western Europe, they are asking for this car minimum 150 thousand euros.
4. Rolls-Royce Silver Spur II
If the ceiling had not collapsed in one of the garages of the cooperative in Kharkov, then
hardly anyone would have known that Rolls-Royce Silver Spur II is still stored in the city.
In the 1990s, the car was often seen on the city streets: they say that it belonged to a local
crime boss. But one day Rolls disappeared and it was unknown where it is until 2016.
When the ceiling in the garage could not stand, the car was hastily rolled out into the air.
And since then, the limousine, which was one of the copy of only 1,658 pieces, has been standing
in the open air. They say that the current owners do not really care about the fate of the car,
and because of the problematic documents it is very difficult to sell it.
Like all Rolls of that period, the Silver Spur II was powered by a 6.75 litre
V8 engine. In fact, this is the same engine that until recently was installed on the Bentley
Mulsanne, only naturally aspirated and not so highly accelerated. By the way, the Kharkiv Silver
Spur is also differ with its rich set: a tube TV with two headphone jacks is installed on the back
seat - a rarity for the early 90s. 5. Alpine GTA
Not only in the suburbs of St. Petersburg you can find rare sports cars. One of them slowly dies
right in the parking lot of the northern capital. And the vandals only accelerates this process.
People says that this yellow Alpine GTA have been stalled for 23 years. The fact that the
car has stood motionless for a long time is evidenced by both old-style license plates
and an extremely shabby look: the headlights and glasses of the car are broken, the body is dented
in some places. It seems that the vandals did not recognise the rarity.
The GTA model was the last civilian car of Renault-Alpine company before the long lull that
ended some time ago with the release of the A110. Despite the classic silhouette for the granturer
and the 2 + 2 landing formula, the car, like all Alpine for public roads, has a rear-engined
layout and in the 1980s was considered a full-fledged competitor to the Porsche 944.
For 6 years of production, only 6494 cars were manufactured, so the prices started to grow in
the last couple of years: a well-groomed specimen with a range of up to 100 thousand kilometres
in 2020 will be 40 thousand euros. 6. Honda NSX
This unfortunate Honda NSX was discovered and taken away before the nature finally took it over.
Surprisingly, the supercar, which seemed to be abandoned in the middle of a forest belt
near St. Petersburg, was in fact on a private property. Just the site was not fenced off,
that’s why in 2017 the foresters accidentally found the car. Then through the Internet
community they managed to find out how the mid-engine Honda ended up among the trees.
The car arrived to Russia from Germany in 2005. On its basis, it was planned to create a unit
with a 1000-horsepower engine, but at a certain stage, the contractors
and the customer did not agree on the money, and the NSX returned to the owner without an engine.
For quite a long time it stood in the forest, until passersby
found it and gave car to publicity. After the news of the abandoned NSX
spread throughout the automotive media, the car was bought out for restoration.
So it is likely that it is already decorating someone's collection. And we hope it does.
7. ЗиЛ-41042 The "Black Doctor" which dies
in the Odessa port has long become a local legend. Surely there would be many people who would be
willing to pay for the rarest Soviet station wagon, but 41042 became victim to a bureaucratic
swamp, from which it could no longer get out. Four cars were made for the whole world,
which in Soviet times cost 180 thousand roubles - astronomical money at that time. The elongated
ZIL in the station wagon body was intended for emergency hospitalisation
of senior party officials, although the car itself did not carry medical equipment on board - except
for a first-aid kit and stretcher. The left passenger door of the station wagon was fake:
a spare wheel in the cabin was behind it. But in the case of this car,
it seems that no one is interested anymore. 8. Replica Porsche 959
The original Porsche 959 was built under “Group B” regulations and was considered
the most technically advanced supercar of the 1980s. Therefore, now a model, which released
in a circulation of only 345 copies, costs a lot of money, even a damaged coupe will cost
425 thousand dollars, and a well-maintained car will cost about half a million!
If the car in the photographs was a real Porsche 959, its cost would be at the level of a couple
of hundred thousand dollars, even despite the deplorable state. Fortunately (or unfortunately),
these pictures show a replica based on 911 (930). The car was discovered quite recently in the
Moscow region. Among the elements that says that it is a replica are non-original wheels with five
bolts (in 959 the wheels were fastened with a central nut), as well as distorted proportions,
especially in the stern area. The car is in the most neglected state: the paint on the body is
burnt out, the panels are cracked or rusted, some of the glass is simply missing. Even
though it's a copy, it still hurts to watch. 9. Maybach Zeppelin DS8 Spohn Stromlinie
There are even more questions about this car, which was found in the Vyshgorod forest near Kiev.
Judging by the outlines, this is the rarest Maybach Zeppelin Spohn Stromlinie,
only two were built before the Second World War! But how could the rarest limousine
end up in the forest belt? The question is open. However, it is possible that this Maybach is a
great replica of the car, which been produced in such a small amount because of to the
policy of the German party at that time: Adolf Hitler believed that such limousines
with an eight-litre V12 were too much. Although he did not hesitate to drive luxurious Mercedes.
Anyway, the Maybach Zeppelin DS8 Spohn Stromlinie was the flagship project of the Karosseriebau
Hermann Spohn. The car was first shown at the 1932 Berlin Motor Show. The fate of the car
found near the capital of Ukraine remains unknown. 10. BMW 850i
For a long time "eight" E31 was abandoned as well, in one of the parking lots of the Dniepr.
Old-style license plates and a huge layer of dust hinted that the rare "shark", which prices are
skyrocketing, had not seen sunlight for a long time. But, as in the case of the St. Petersburg
NSX, the car began a second life as soon as they started talking about it on the Internet.
The news of the BMW 850i doomed to the inglorious death got to the media and was replicated in 2016,
and the next year the “eight” left the parking lot. At the beginning of 2019,
the car, but already washed, serviced, on Alpine discs and with modern numbers,
was put up for sale for 30 thousand dollars. I think, the car was sold quickly, because
representatives of the E31 body rarely appear on market.
The car forgotten in the Dniepr is an ordinary 850i with an automatic transmission,
that is to say, the most massive version of the 8 series of that generation. More than 20
thousand of such cars were produced, but most of them went overseas to the United States.