Stolen Ferrari found after close to 30 years under a busy river
Firefighters on a diving exercise stumbled upon the scarlet classic
Want the best place to hide a stolen car? Try the bottom of a Dutch river, that’s where this Ferrari Mondial lay hidden for more than 25 years before being found, dragged back up, and now put on display in Amsterdam.
The 1987 Mondial was stolen in the early 1990s, says the NL Times report we found through Interesting Engineering. The owner reported it stolen back then and, obviously, the police weren’t able to find it. Insurance paid out for the loss, the owner probably bought a new car, and the world moved on.
Until late last month when fire brigade members went on a diving exercise in the IJ River, the body of water that makes up Amsterdam’s waterfront. Probably the last thing they were expecting to find was this vintage Ferrari, but there it was lying on the bottom.
Ferrari Mondial | Photo: De Ooyevaar Autodemontage/Facebook
The car came out as a wreck, with all the glass gone along with one of the wheels, a hood folded like paper, and an engine cover with more holes than metal. And a missing door. Still, it’s not the rustiest car we’ve seen this week, and that’s before they rinsed it off showing an interior that doesn’t look all that bad.
It was destined for scrap, or at least being stripped for parts, but social media outcry is asking for it to be put on display at a local aquarium where special tanks replicate the underwater junkyards of the city’s canals. It seems like a cool addition to that local fish landscape, but for now, says Top Gear NL, it’ll be on display at the car dismantler that owns the Canal Mondial.
