‘Biggest car graveyard EVER’ belongs to collector who has so many motors he’s forgotten where he keeps them
A COLLECTOR with the "biggest car graveyard ever" has so many motors, he's forgotten where he keeps them.
A motors expert responsible for what's been dubbed the "Nebraska Truck Hoard" decided to put almost 1,000 up for auction.
Rob van Vleet has been snapping up and stashing classic vehicles for 30 years, kept across his sprawling territory in the US Mid-West.
A vast haul has gone under the hammer - including buses and trucks used for Hollywood films and dating back more than a century.
A YouTube user last year shared footage he captured of the abandoned Second World War ammunition plant in Sidney, Nebraska, where many of Rob's motors are stored.
The film showed several versions of the rare Diamond T truck model, International Harvester vehicles and a 1937 REO Speedwagon pick-up.
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Among the most-prized was a 1915 Stewart Motor truck, alongside others including Ford cab-over trucks from the late 1930s and a 1937 Chevrolet dairy vehicle.
And Rob has admitted he hoards so many, he has long since lost count - as well as struggling to remember where he keeps them all, car collector community website reported.
He said: "Out here in Nebraska there's no trees, so you can see those trucks way off in the distance and a few hours later you'll finally reach them."
Some 950 of his vehicles were put up for sale in the so-called Nebraska Truck Hoard Auction, organised by Kraupie's Auctioneers.
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Many were bought by Rob during his travels as a heavy scrap-hauler.
He said: "My formula when I was going around is that I'd buy them for $75, knowing they were worth $650 for scrap."
The salvaged trucks put on offer included a 1939 GMC "movie bus" - apparently one of eight ordered by mogul Howard Hughes to serve as Hollywood film set dressing rooms.
Rob's version, from Oakland in California, is said to have been used by pin-up actress Jane Russell for 1943 Western classic The Outlaws.
Another on sale was a dilapidated Diamond T used by Canadian distillers Seagram's in the 1930s and 1940s, with a mobile billboard on it to get around a ban on beer and other alcohol adverts in print.
And Rob also put up for sale a Willys "high-cab" pick-up truck with its driving seat raised by the previous owner, a World War Two veteran named Burrows who used it to spray crops.
Rob insisted he would keep a good supply of his salvaged trucks despite the auctions last year and another one recently - while carrying on collecting more.
He said: "I still remember buying my first bubblenose Peterbilt. That was so much fun - I was giddy that day and I want to get that feeling back."
Another classic car "graveyard" has just been found in the French countryside, with 50 motors left to rot.
Vintage vehicles including a £44,000 bulletproof Mercedes and 1947 Harley-Davidson were uncovered at a California castle.
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A field full of classic cars was snapped up after being left for decades - while two iconic sports motors, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari, were found in a barn.
Meanwhile, a United Arab Emirates billionaire owns one of the strangest car collections in the world - mostly old army jeeps.
