When one of our readers left a link to a court-ordered estate sale in the comments, I knew we needed to feature it. This isn’t our typical offering, but there are many reasons to get excited about what’s sitting in this hangar. The most obvious is this 1944 P-51 Mustang. These planes were built to fight and they saw a lot of action during World War II and the Korean War. No mention is made of this particular one’s past, but what could be cooler than having a piece of military history? The auction will be held online between June 2-4 and the lots can be viewed by appointment in Southern California. More information on the sale can be found here or keep reading to see what other treasures are hiding in that hangar. Thanks for the tip Victor!

Besides the Mustang, there’s this 1950 Tempco Swift. It may not be as exciting as a fighter plane, but it does appear to be in excellent condition. The bid deposit is much lower too. I’m not sure what I would do with it, but I’m sure there are more than a few people out there who like to fly around in vintage aircraft. Personally, driving around in an old car is scary enough for me!

The old planes are cool and all, but this is what really got me excited! It’s a V-1650 Merlin engine. Packard built these massive V-12s under license from Rolls-Royce. This was most likely a spare for the Mustang, but I know exactly what I would do with it! These things are huge, but they put out some serious horsepower too. So, I would start hunting around for an old firetruck or something of similar heavy duty construction in order to build my own hot rod. Jay Leno has a Bentley with one of these engines fitted and it’s a serious beast. A Bentley or Roller would be nice, but I figured the firetruck chassis would be much cheaper and just as frightening. Hmm, the wheels are turning now…