It has been a while since I cruised the automotive morgue and looked for gnarled, melted, crashed, and otherwise destroyed cool American cars up for purchase on Copart.com. Pretty much every gearhead worth their salt knows Copart as they are a massive collective of junk and salvage yards across the country. The Copart story is pretty incredible and you can look forward to an upcoming book review that documented the whole thing from the humble beginnings at one yard to the publicly traded operation that it is today. But I digress. When I go hunting at Copart for stuff to use in items like this, I am seeking USDA prime choice American iron that has met some sort of horrible end. Why? Because if I showed you stuff that was sitting there fresh and nice no one would bother to take a look. Also, there is some mental challenge in trying to figure out how these catastrophes befell the various cars you will see here and on the flip side, what value they have in their current destroyed state. I’ll post a couple of photos of the cars in question and then the link so you can see the whole listing for them. Lastly, I do this because it is sobering reminder to make sure your stuff is in good shape and won’t fail on you in horrible ways. Also, it may be a reminder to be careful on the highways and by ways because clearly some of these cars met a violent end due to their driver’s suffering a lack of talent at the exact wrong time. OK…now on with the show!

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THIS LISTING OF COPART CADAVERS!

Oh damn! This was a sweet pro touring style 1969 Camaro and it is deader than dead. It looks like someone overcooked a corner and then ran it down some jersey barriers…or a truck came by and just cleaned the side right off the car. The engine is a cross ram equipped small block, the interior is mint, it has nice wheels, great rubber, and clearly there was lots of money laid down on this build. This car has already been bid up to $13,500 which is large dollars when you see what the rest of the stuff is at. Interested? Click the link below –

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LISTING FOR THIS PRO TOURING CAMARO

—————————————-

Sickening! This 1965 Mustang has less than 30,000 original miles! It looks like someone drove it into the back of a dump truck or something but other than the nose being crunched, it looks like a piece that can be saved. With a California title and paint that looks original, it seems like this may have been a CA car for its whole life. Lots of usable stuff and this thing has not been bid on once. What motor? We don’t know for sure but since it has some nice chrome exhaust poking out the pack, we’re guessing 289.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THIS 1965 MUSTANG 

 

————————————————————————————-

This 1970 Cadillac Coupe DeVille is packing a 10:1 compression 472ci Caddy mill that is probably still warm after what looks like the remnants of a blazing inferno that killed the car. The heat was kept mostly under the hood, which is apparently stuck shut. The headlight bezel on the driver;s side appears to have melted from the heat and the metal grill also went all shrinky dink as well but the hood maintained shape and from the cowl back, all is pretty good. It must smell like the Dickens but you get the idea. Lots of good bones here. Current bid is $300 skins. Whadday say?

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LISTING FOR THIS 1970 CADILLAC

 

——————————————————————————————-

This was certainly a hard shot. The 1969 Chevelle shown here took a massive shot into what looks like a telephone pole or tree. With a blown big block making the power, you know that this thing was hauling. Looking at the wheel and tire package this was a “pro touring” style car but judging by the disaster that is the front end, it may have been a faux touring car. One good thing? There are no smashes in the windshield, meaning that the occupants must have been belted in. Boy, the Earth must have shaken when this wreck occurred. NO BIDS YET!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REMAINS OF THIS 1969 CHEVELLE 

 

—————————————————————————————————-

We bet that this 1957 Chrysler Imperial was an incredible car before the fire. We may be selling it short by calling it a fire because there is literally nothing left of it…except the hemi. Yup, if you want to know why people wold be bidding on this insanely charred hulk of a massive 1950s Plymouth, it is for the 392 Hemi sitting under the warped and badly mangled hood. The fire that consumed this car was intense. The entire interior is gone, it looks like the roof may have collapsed on it, and the tires were melted clean off the rims…but hemi! Current bid is ZERO BUCKS.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LISTING FOR THIS 1957 CHRYSLER IMPERIAL 

 

——————————————————————————————————————–

This one hurts to look at. Prior to the massive front end impact, this hugger orange 1971 Camaro must have been a really sweet piece. The worked up big block, pro touring style stance, and great paint all lead us to believe that this was a car someone really loved and cared for. We’re trying to figure out what the car would have hit in an off-set fashion to suffer this type of damage. Note the spiderweb on the passenger side. That’s someone who was not wearing a seatbelt. Ouch. The radiator being pushed into the engine is another sign of the violence this one had. Current bid? $1,550.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LISTING FOR THIS 1971 CAMARO 

 

—————————————————————————————————————-

To this point we have seen fires that started in the engine bay and moved back. This is a fire that seems to have started from the rear (presumably in the fuel tank area) and moved to the front. The 1934 Plymouth coupe that had a big block Chevy for power could probably outrun lots of stuff that it ran into on the street. It could not outrun this fire. It literally looks that the damage stopped at the firewall, but going the wrong way. Ungh.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REMAINS OF THIS 1934 PLYMOUTH – NO BIDS YET

 

—————————————————————————————————–

I am virtually certain that this was suicide. This Corvette somehow caught a glimpse of itself and decided that enough was enough and self combusted. This fire clearly started in the engine bay and wreaked havoc on the rest of the car. Another theory is that someone washed it with a flamethrower. The wheels, the paint, the chicken wire over the headlights? Really? Oh…someone has big $450 on it so far.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LISTING ON THIS CORVETTE

 

————————————————————————————————————————-

Here’s another Chevelle, this one a 1966 model that appears to have been run into the side of a battleship at some point. The car took a HUGE shot to the front end and then careened down whatever it hit and finished the job of mangling itself to death. The impact was hard enough to buckle the doors and it appears that the front suspension was totally killed. There may be parts to save here because bidding has passed $3,000!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LISTING FOR THIS CHEVELLE 

 

—————————————————————————————————————————

SOMEONE BURNED UP UNCLE JESSE’S TRUCK! This must have been the work of the ever-nefarious JD “Boss” Hogg. Not surprisingly, there are no bids on this truck yet and we’re guessing that there won’t be. There’s plenty of rot and rust, the engine is not desirable, and the fire was hot enough to mangle the engine compartment and mangle a large swath of the dash as well. Sorry Ford, you’re a dead heap rolling.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL LISTING FOR THIS TRUCK