BEAST IN THE BARN

The allure of the “barn find” has lost some of its luster over the past decade or so. It seems that every dusty car suddenly wears the moniker as a badge of honor and perceived value. As hot rodders, it’s easy to read between the lines and debunk the pretenders, but occasionally, a hidden treasure is legitimately found in a barn. In the case of this behemoth of an engine, it’s one of several remaining automotive artifacts in the Jim Smith estate, and it’s sitting in the dirt beneath the tin roof of a barn that has been standing far longer than hemispherical combustion chambers have existed.

Although Jim passed away several years ago, we recently