Million Dollar Car Graveyard

Former racing driver Michael Fröhlich, from Dusseldorf, Germany, has purposely crashed the cars into trees, buried them in mud and parked them on cliff faces in his estate’s garden in the middle of the German Neanderthal.

His collections includes a Jaguar XK120 worth $170,000 (€150,000), a Porsche 356 racer and a Buick worth $17,000 (€15,000).

Perhaps his most interesting collectable is a Rolls Royce, with a purposefully misspelt 'Buckingham Palace’ - replacing the B with an F - emblazoned on the side with a replica of the Queen Elizabeth at the wheel.

Michael also recently sold the limousine that ferried around Adolf Hitler to a Russian investor and he features part of the Berlin Wall in his park, which purposely separates a rotting car from the east and west side of Germany.

After winning a grand prix race in Germany, 1984, in his very own Jaguar XK120, 66-year-old Michael decided to collect one vintage car for each year of his life until 2000.

Michael said: "The story of this park is a story of my life. There are 50 pieces of my life, 50 pieces of the year of myself. I wanted to demonstrate that nature is stronger than human brain, or human engineering.

"It’s a matter of taste and a matter of freedom and what you can do – what you’re allowed to do.

“When I started with this they looked nearly not new, but they looked a little bit ugly – used cars - and now you can see the nature. The nature is the boss,” he added.

Michael was sat down by his father at a young age and told to make something of his life by the time he turned 50.

And it seems the collector succeeded with his father’s request and by the year 2000 he had 50 vintage cars on show in his forest sculpture park.

Michael said: “My father was very proud of me and he was the only one. My mother laughed about this crazy collection in the garden."

Despite the nature of his decaying cars, some of the contents in Michael’s forest are still worth thousands of pounds.

He said: “The most expensive car is my racecar because I spent a lot of time and money to prepare this.

“Thirty-two years ago I raced the Jaguar XK120, and the value was 100,000 German marks and today it would be 150,000 euros."

Every year hundreds of car enthusiasts and creatives visit Michael’s sculpture park and he is more than aware that not everyone will agree with what he has done to the vehicles.

He said: “I think 60% or 70% like it and 30% or 40% are not very amused that I take these cars and leave them in the park to have their own way.

“It’s a matter of taste and a matter of freedom and what you can do – what you’re aloud to do. 

"A lot of people like it, but a lot of people dislike it. Well that’s life – I don’t care.”