Music and Motors: The Beatles

The Beatles are often regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of all time. Almost any band can trace their roots back to the ‘Fab Four’.

As well as being an ultra-successful musical act, the Beatles were also petrolheads – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr have all owned some fantastic cars over the years. Funnily enough, despite the name, the go-to car for the group was not the Volkswagen Beetle but the Mini. All four owned a succession of the Oxford-built car. Maybe it had something to do with the spelling of the German machine’s name…

Of the four of them, Harrison was the biggest ‘car guy’, and that wasn’t just because of a passing resemblance to 1996 Formula 1 champion Damon Hill.

When the band hit the big-time, Harrison purchased a Jaguar Mk II – a big step up from the old Ford Anglia he had when the group was formed. As Harrison and the band’s fame grew, so did his penchant for fancy cars. In 1964 Harrison bought a Jaguar E-Type, and a year later an Aston Martin DB5. Both were followed by a Ferrari 365 GTC in 1969.

Post Beatles, Harrison’s passion for cars continued. In 1979 he drove an ex-Stirling Moss Lotus 18 F1 car in the Gunnar Nilsson Memorial Trophy at Donington Park, while in the 1990s Harrison got his hands on a Light Car Company Rocket and a McLaren F1. Only around 100 F1s were made, each costing at least £600,000 new – nowadays if you want your own F1, you might want to double that figure… then add another zero. If you’re after Harrison’s black F1, that figure would likely rise considerably again.

Don’t expect the car to hit the market any time soon though. After Harrison’s untimely death from lung cancer in 2001, rumour has it that Eric Clapton tried to buy the car, but it has remained in the Harrison family’s ownership ever since.

As well as supercars and sports cars, Harrison also owned a pair of Mercedes 600 Pullmans. The guitarist bought his second of the dictators’ favourite from John Lennon, who offloaded his when he moved to the US in the 1970s.

Like Harrison, Lennon owned a string of high-end cars during his all-too-short life. He started early, too – upon passing his driving test, Lennon bought a blue Ferrari 330 GT 2+2. For a bit of context,  I didn’t buy a supercar a couple of hours after passing my driving test, I bought a crappy Citroen C1 a month after getting my licence.

On the whole Lennon’s car collection was, shall we say, more unusual than Harrison’s. There was of course other exuberant-but-expected purchases like a Mercedes 230 SL and an Iso Rivolta Fidia S4, but there was also a hearse. Lennon’s 1956 Austin Princess hearse was featured on Channel 4 show Worlds Most Expensive Cars where it failed to meet its reserve at RM Sotheby’s London auction in 2016. It later sold for for over £120,000 at an auction in Arizona.

Of course, we can’t talk about Lennon’s unusual car collection with mentioning that Rolls-Royce. Lennon’s Phantom V certainly wasn’t bland. It became synonymous with the band in the late-’60s thanks to its distinctive psychedelic yellow and red paint job. Paint job aside, the car was actually well ahead of its time. When Lennon first bought the car in 1965 (a couple of years prior to the nutty artwork) he had it fitted with a TV and a fridge – features that are pretty much standard on modern Rollers, but we’re talking more than 50 years ago here.

The Rolls-Royce wasn’t the only car of Lennon’s to sport a ‘unique’ paint job. He also owned a Bentley decorated with a similar design. Thankfully when he moved to America Lennon bought a much more subtle Chrysler Station Wagon, which allowed him to slip under the radar while being stuck in New York traffic.

Of the four Beatles, Harrison and Lennon had the most interesting car histories, but that doesn’t mean than Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr didn’t also indulge in their own fancy four-wheeled purchases.

Like Harrison, McCartney toasted the Beatles’ early success by buying an Aston Martin – in his case, a DB6 – and the car has an important place in Beatles history. And in drunk party singalong history. And in general British history.

Why? Well, McCartney’s DB6 was fitted with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and it was on that exact tape setup that the original ideas for Beatles hit Hey Jude were originally recorded. The song is basically Britain’s back-up national anthem, and it all began in an Aston Martin. Rule Britannia!

As well as the Aston, McCartney has also famously owned at least two classic Lamborghinis, a 400 GT and an Espada S2; and a succession of Land Rovers. McCartney also owned an Austin Healey 3000, which he crashed and was killed in back in 1966 – if you believe that nonsense.

Finally, there’s Ringo Starr. Like the rest of the Beatles, the drummer was a Mini man, owning several, but he was also partial to a Mercedes. Starr has owned several cars from the Stuttgart brand, including a 1960 190SL (the car which preceded the 230SL owned by Lennon), a 1984 190E AMG, and a 2000 CL55 AMG.

Of course, as with his bandmates, Starr did have at least one ‘unusual’ choice in his garage – A Facel Vega II. The French GT car cost as much as a London home back in the ’60s, so it’s no wonder only 180 were made. It did allow Starr to be in an exclusive club alongside the likes of Frank Sinatra, Pablo Picasso, and Princess Grace of Monaco who all also owned Facel Vegas.

Naturally, the Beatles will always be known for their music and their massive influence on pop culture which endures to this day, but it’s also good to know that the boys from Liverpool have impacted the automotive world as well.