South African collector Michelle Hambly-Grobler wants to complete a barn find. She is looking for the engine that once powered Stirling Moss' Porsche 718 RS 61 Spyder.
The fabled barn find does indeed occur from time to time. One such discovery came to light in South Africa. The over sixty-year-old race car from the former South African Formula One championship turned up near Hermanus. It’s not uncommon to see whales here. The car, by contrast, is one of a kind.
The find is now parked—with a restored exterior—in Michelle Hambly-Grobler’s ample garage in Cape Town’s trendy suburb of Woodstock. On the inside, however, the car lacks precisely what would make it a rightful member of the collection: a Porsche engine. Hambly-Grobler bought it and had it restored all the same. She had pursued the one-of-a-kind model for years, and in early 2020 the initial finder was finally ready to sell. Since then, she’s mounted a worldwide search for the car’s original beating heart: a Carrera engine, model designation type 547. Displacement: 1,587 cc.
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