‘Holy Grail’ 1986 Honda ATC250R 3-Wheeler Still in Crate Sells for $200K

A collection of Honda all-terrain cycles that included a still-crated 1986 ATC250R was offered up for sale by a mystery owner in New York—and quickly snapped up by customers with deep pockets. The collection was on consignment with D&A Restorations, based in Louisiana, and sold in just days. After plenty of buzz in the vintage off-road and ATV community, the three-wheeler that never left the box fetched an unheard-of price: $200,000 all-in.

According to Travis Gisclair, who shared the update on behalf of D&A, the 1986 ATC250R in the lot prompted the offer that effectively ended bidding right then and there. The lot was described in the original listing as the “holy grail,” and it’s clear that the D&A wasn’t overselling it much; $200,000 is still enough to buy you a house in many parts of the USA. Honda’s trike was the gold standard for performance three-wheelers during the early ’80s, and despite its age, it’s still regarded as a segment-defining all-terrain vehicle.

In this case, $200,000 got this lucky buyer a new-in-box 1986 Honda ATC (“All Terrain Cycle”) 250R. The 246cc two-stroke made a whopping 38 horsepower and 29 pound-feet of torque. That’s about half the power of the typical economy car of the mid-1980s, and in something with a curb weight that barely crested 300 pounds. For their sake, we hope our rich mystery buyer wears a helmet.

Who am I kidding? This thing is never going for a rip in the mud. Feel how you will about it, but as several comments on the original Facebook post noted, it’s not much different than a piece of art.

The 1985-1986 models are especially desirable because they represent the pinnacle of design and performance for the original ATC250R. This was already Honda’s third design for the trike, which had just launched in 1981. If the comments on the posts embedded above are to be believed, this example was not entirely pristine, having acquired some patina over its nearly 40 years in storage.

A barn find is a barn find, whether we’re talking about never-restored Camaros or never-opened Honda trikes. Both can apparently fetch about the same money, and while the market for the latter may seem smaller, it clearly exists.

Got a tip? Send it in: tips@thedrive.com

The post ‘Holy Grail’ 1986 Honda ATC250R 3-Wheeler Still in Crate Sells for $200K appeared first on The Drive.