VW, Aston Martin, Porsche, and MG Specialist Reveals His Barn Find Stash | Barn Find Hunter

TL;DR

Tom visits Toby Bergen's Long Island shop to explore a rare collection of air-cooled VWs, a racing MG, and an Aston Martin dealership's surviving inventory.

Key Points

• 1.Toby Bergen has run a rare surviving European specialist shop since 1977. He bought the business in 1984, works exclusively on air-cooled VWs, and has 30 cars on his waiting list — a near-extinct business model.
• 2.The shop was an official Aston Martin dealership, selling roughly two cars per year. A 1968 Aston Martin V8 painted in Riotta Blue remains on-site, along with brand-new period Borrani wire wheels that are nearly impossible to source today.
• 3.A 1957 VW Beetle oval-window with a sunroof and South Wind gas heater is among the barn finds. The South Wind gasoline heater — a period option — has been moved through three different buses and can heat a cab to 200°F within a mile.
• 4.A one-of-one California-built MG special raced at Pebble Beach and Buchanan Field in 1955 is the collection's crown jewel. Built on a tubular chassis with MG engine, gearbox, and rear axle, it raced alongside Ken Miles' 'Flying Shingle' and was driven by Jack Dalton.
• 5.The MG's handmade steering wheel was fabricated by Toby from a saw blade. He cut the teeth off a large-diameter saw blade and shaped it into a custom wheel, keeping the original wood wheel but refusing to race with wood in his hands.
• 6.A Lotus Elite from the mid-1970s rounds out the collection, notable for its nearly chassis-free fiberglass monocoque construction. The only metal is a square tube and a round roll-hoop tube — SECA accepted the latter as a roll bar — with fiberglass carrying all structural loads.