A recent hike through a local State Park revealed some interesting wrecked cars. This stretch of trail runs below – quite far below – California Route 9, a twisty road through the coastal mountains which is busy with commuters during the week, and fast moving motorcycles and sports cars on weekends. Not clear if these are actual wrecks, or stolen cars pushed off the road. First, a Healey 3000 (I’m assuming it’s a 3000, but I suppose it could be a 100-4).
Yes, that appears to be pink paint visible in places. Any Healey experts know if that was the tint of the primer or undercoat applied in Longbridge (or were these built in Abingdon)?
A short distance along we discovered this Beetle. Closer to the trail, it had attracted some graffiti.
For the most part, the local Open Space agencies have been hauling these cars out over the years and I’m surprised that these remain. Interestingly, most that I have seen have been imports; VW’s are found in several parks, and there’s an older Vauxhall or English Ford well buried in another local open space, only revealing a few square inches of bodywork that I couldn’t identify.
Photo from the Internet
One of the most famous local trail cars was this Porsche 914, which gave its name to the “914 Trail” popular with mountain bikers, but it was hauled away long ago.
I am surprised that the big Healey hasn’t been rescued long before now, for parts if nothing else.
Your abandoned-in-the-woods cars are a lot more exotic than we typically see in the midwest. Whenever I see something like this I wonder how it got there.
As part of my Environmental Science class, my students and I go to local forests to look for clues to the history of the area. In addition to geological and biological evidence, we occasionally find old vehicles and parts thereof in places that are not now accessible to vehicles.
The ages of the vehicles and evidence from the surrounding forest suggest that they were deposited there when the area was deforested, and that the forest has since grown up around the hulks.
We are in CT, most of which was deforested from colonial and post-Revolutionary times to between 100 and 50 years ago, so cars that were once left out to pasture on farms now appear among the trees that have reclaimed the land since agriculture migrated elsewhere.
We have seen some real old ones such as Model Ts, up to cars from the 1960s in our travels. Like the stone walls, cellarholes, and broken bottles, they are part of the story of how our ancestors used the land over the years. Though these things are often overlooked or ignored, they share their story to those who take the time to listen to them.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing that, that’s really interesting. It’s like when you see trees that have wrapped around a bicycle or grown up through a car’s engine bay.
Thank you for the kind words.
Cars, and other objects in our environment, tell stories, and one of the things I enjoy most about being a teacher is learning to interpret the signs that are evidence of the stories and passing the knowledge along to others.
All those bullet holes can’t be good news for people hunting parts.
Many of the cars that my students and I find in the forest also show signs of having been “hunted.” They make pretty easy targets, but the carcass is tough to drag out.
Good question. Maybe it was just a place where locals dumped their imports when they expired? Or when they spun out?
The Healey might be a 100/6?
I found a picture on Yelp of the other trail car I mentioned; not an English Ford, but is it an Opel or a Vauxhall Victor? I found this picture on Yelp but have seen this car myself, in a nice Open Space area not too far from San Francisco Airport. When I saw it it was much more buried.
Yes, F series Victor, series II 1959-60.
Thanks. These weren’t unknown but not common around here in my childhood, early 1969’s.
Back in the 90s there were quite a few abandoned wrecks off the side of Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO. I remember seeing a mid-80s Celica and several Beetles. I think they were probably stolen and it cost more to haul them 500 feet up to the road than they were worth in salvage money. I haven’t ridden my bike up their lately so I don’t know if they’re still around.
Still my favorite:
https://thecitypaperbogota.com/travel/pacific-travel-guide/the-lost-corvair/1429
I’ve definitely seen rustier Healeys…
And nice brake drum on the Beetle, I could get some parts from that one 🙂
My question is at this point in time why haul them away? I’m sure whatever “contaminants” they had have already done there worst so I can’t see it being an environmental issue.
Or am I just being a typical car guy and happy these old timer’s escaped the crusher?
They need to be hauled away. I have a major problem with humans who simply abandon cars anywhere they please. It becomes a major, major problem when the place happens to be a State or Federal Park such as this State Park above.
I’ve seen worse than the Healey on Barnfinds. Great article BTW.
There’s a road nearby me that winds it’s way up a mountain to a panoramic view overlooking the city below. It’s one way and the moment the one way system starts and the the houses end, car drivers tend to hit the throttle with gay abandon.
Not a good idea. A mere hundred feet into this section, the road does a dramatic 120 degree blind left hand turn.
There’s the remains of a fair number of vehicles that have failed this turn and tumbled down the wooded hillside. The fire department removes the bodies and cars quickly but a great deal of fibre glass bits remain.
IIR there was a something on Porsche site about a mountain biker who would past an abandoned wreck on the trail for months if not years till he did some research on the cowl tag. He found out it was an ultra rare model that he later rescued.
The Healey appears to be a 100-6, and it’s probably worth something to someone as parts, or even as a restoration given the value of these things now.