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Bill "Coyote" Johnson's secret collection of over 100 muscle cars was nestled past bunches of trees in Red Oak, Iowa.
Now they're going up for auction.
Coyote Johnson, nicknamed after the cartoon characters Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner from the Looney Tunes series, has been collecting muscle cars from his "glory days," according to VanDerBrink Auctions. Johnson used to pour through classified ads in the Des Moines Register and Omaha World-Herald looking for the cars to build his collection, according to the Des Moines Register.
He has since amassed a collection of over 100 vehicles, 93 of which will be up for auction. Johnson, a third-generation contractor, built five sheds to house his large collection.
The admiration for muscle cars came when Johnson's mother bought him a green and white 1969 Road Runner that he later used for drag races, the newspaper reported. His collection now includes the likes of a 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe and a 1971 Dodge Super Bee.
Johnson plans on keeping around a dozen of his cars, and the rest will be auctioned off on September 14 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Red Oak, Iowa.
Take a look at his extensive collection, public for the first time:
Coyote Johnson looked through classified ads in the Des Moines Register and Omaha World-Herald to find his collectibles, according to the Des Moines Register.
He has been buying them since he was 16 and built sheds to store them in.
The collection has never been seen by the public.
Over the past 40 years, Johnson has collected over 100 muscle cars, including Chevrolets, Pontiacs, and Fords.
He is auctioning off 93 of them.
Johnson got his moniker from chasing his preferred car, the “Road Runners”, paying homage to the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner Looney Tunes cartoon series.
Coyote used to drag race his Road Runners.
The cars were kept in Red Oak, a small town in Iowa.
This past winter, Coyote Johnson’s workshop caught on fire, and his girlfriend and daughter have been pushing him to slim down his collection, according to the Des Moines Register.
Johnson and his team are now cleaning up and repairing each car before the auction.
He is keeping about a dozen of the cars for himself, including a copper-colored Plymouth Barracuda from 1976, the last year they were produced.
“I just like 'em, I guess,” Johnson told the Des Moines Register when asked why he was keeping the specific cars.
Johnson's first acquisition was in high school, a green and white 1969 Road Runner gifted to him by his mother.
Johnson is a third-generation contractor and started his own company in Red Oak.
He would purchase the cars, restore them, drive them a bit, and then park them in the sheds.
Johnson built everything on his 20-acre property, according to the Des Moines Register.
He built five sheds on his property total to store his collection of cars.
The auction will be held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds on September 14.
