Is This the Biggest “Barn Find” Ever?

The term “barn find” has been all the rage in the old-car hobby in recent years, to the point that it has been badly overworked and is at risk of losing any real meaning.  Coined originally to describe old cars stored away for many years in unrestored condition, often quite literally in a barn, the term has been applied more recently to any neglected used car, whether or not the car in question has any significant value.

But a barn in the middle of Pennsylvania has yielded what may be the biggest genuine barn find ever, and collectors from all over the country are taking notice.  To tell the full story, we first have to go back more than 90 years, to the days of the Roaring 20s and the luxurious Rolls-Royce automobiles of that time.

Rolls-Royce was founded in 1904 by Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce, and by the end of the first World War, during which the company manufactured aircraft engines, the company’s automobiles were already developing a reputation for superior design, engineering, quality, and luxury.  In 1921, due to customer demand in the United States, Rolls-Royce opened a new factory in Springfield, Massachusetts, and it was during the prosperous 1920s that Rolls-Royce automobiles became emblematic of the conspicuous and decadent lifestyles of the rich and carefree.

Then the stock market crashed and the Great Depression set in. The Massachusetts Rolls-Royce factory closed in 1931 and production was consolidated in England. But during the depths of the Depression, a young man in the town of Dudleyville, PA, was fascinated by the Roll- Royce cars that had come out of the Massachusetts factory. Edgar Winterfeldt was captivated by the beauty and power of the expensive and exclusive cars. For the most part, newspaper and magazine articles were his window into the world of Rolls-Royce, because they were a scarce sight on the rural roads surrounding Dudleyville. Rolls-Royce cars were owned by the steel men of Pittsburgh to the west or the money men of New York to the east, not the farmers of central Pennsylvania.

Edgar may have held Rolls-Royce dreams but he lived in a Ford reality. A tattered Model T was his first and only car prior to his joining the Army to serve in World War II. There he served in Europe in the latter stages of the war, and was among the first soldiers in Germany following the war’s end.

After the war Edgar returned to his native Pennsylvania, and like so many returning GIs he married and took up farming. With his wife Gladys he operated a modest but thriving dairy farm in Lancaster County. They were successful but not financially wealthy, living within their means, running the farm, and raising a family. A succession of Fords, rooted in the simplicity and durability of that first Model T, served as the family car.

But Edgar never lost his fascination with the U.S.-built Rolls-Royce cars of the 1920s. By that time Rolls were already coveted by collectors. Edgar dreamed of the prestige and status that ownership of a Rolls-Royce would bring to someone such as himself. Still, even with a successful farming operation, the thought of owning an automobile of the size and stature of a Rolls-Royce  was pure fantasy for him.

Not being in a position to afford a Rolls, Edgar Winterfeldt decided to build one himself. As a farmer he did not have a lot of free time, but he enjoyed tinkering in the barn and concluded that building his own Rolls-Royce would be a fulfilling pastime. The project began, according to later interviews with Gladys and the Winterfeldt children, in 1949.

Edgar decided specifically to build a 1924 Rolls. But, not content to build just another 1924 Rolls, he decided to build one befitting the car’s large reputation and his own outsized dreams.  Edgar Winterfeldt began construction on a 1924 Rolls-Royce scaled up to two times the original car’s dimensions!

It is unclear as to why he chose to build a replica that was twice the size of the original. It could be due to his having available to him the chassis of a surplus military truck, found at auction at the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation near Lebanon, but the family does not recall whether the chassis came first or the idea came first.  What the family does recall is that he was proud of the fact that the enormous Rolls, when parked in front of the barn, could be seen easily by passers-by on the road in front of the farm, whereas a “normal” sized car might be overlooked.

After securing the chassis Edgar set about finding a suitable engine.  An original 1924 Rolls-Royce would of course have been powered by a Rolls-Royce engine, which inspired Edgar to track down a Rolls-Royce aircraft engine for his project.  Specifically, he found an engine based on the last design by Henry Royce, the Merlin aero engine.  This engine, a supercharged V12, was fitted into many World War II aircraft and ultimately into military tanks as well, and more than 160,000 were built.  Production included more than 30,000 engines built by the Ford Motor Company in the UK, and this Ford connection led Edgar to another surplus auction from which a Merlin, less its supercharger, came home with him.

Virtually everything else for the project, except tires, either was made by Edgar himself or adapted to the purpose.  The headlights, for example, were more military surplus items from a searchlight assembly.  The steering wheel, which when scaled up needed to be nearly three feet in diameter, came from a piece of irrigation equipment.  The wheel rims were tractor items, but Edgar made and installed the spokes.

Naturally, the project took some years to complete, and in one sense it never was completed.  From an appearance standpoint it was finished by 1954, at which time the black and white photograph accompanying this article was taken.  But the car did not move under its own power nor run at all at that point.  In fact, Edgar never really got the Merlin engine to run properly, and at some point in 1959 or so the car went back into the barn, never to come out again.

Edgar Winterfeldt’s grandson Robbie Winterfeldt holds the cleaned and polished oversized Rolls Royce hood ornament “Spirit of Ecstasy,” custom-made in the 1950s at 14″ tall and 10 1/2 lbs.

Until now.  Edgar Winterfeldt died in 2012 at age 88.  His widow, Gladys, is still with us at age 91 today but confined to an assisted living facility. The children, two sons and a daughter, did not follow their father into farming and so it has become necessary to sell the farm and its contents.  Which is why the giant 1924 Rolls-Royce saw the light of day last summer for the first time in more than 56 years.  It truly is a “barn find,” and seemingly without question the biggest one ever.

The car, which is now missing a few bits and pieces but mostly complete, will be sold at auction on an unspecified future date.  But first, Edgar and Gladys’ youngest son and two of their six grandchildren have been endeavoring to clean it up and possibly even get it to run.  Their plan has been that before the car is sold, they want to display it in front of the barn, where it can be seen from the road, one last time, in tribute to Edgar.

The car will go on display in front of the barn this Saturday, April first.

Photos courtesy of Thomas and John Knoll.