Midlife crisis much? When Michael, the owner of this phenomenal collection, turned 50, he gifted himself 50 classic cars from the 1950s as a birthday present. He parked all of them in the woods surrounding his house to let them decay... 'I can't help it, I have a morbid interest', he says cheerfully. The 'car sculpture park' didn't come about without a fight, however. The local government initially considered it an illegal junkyard. A complaint about environmental pollution followed. He registered the woods and their rusting contents as an 'art project' and opened it to the public, after which the local government left him alone.

Among the cars are classic beauties such as a Plymouth Savoy (1954), a Buick Special Dynaflow, a Citroën Traction Avant, a BMW 340, a Borgward Hansa 1500, a Moskvitch 400 (semi-buried in the ground), a Mercedes Benz 170S (all from 1950), but also a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith and a Jaguar XK120. With the latter he won a Grand Prix in the 1980s...