John Lennon and His Rolls-Royce Art Car

John Lennon's Art Car was manufactured in 1965 by the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, Crewe, Cheshire. This Phantom V was then delivered to John Lennon on June 3, 1965 that was 19 feet long and weighed three tons.

In 1966, the car had the rear seat modified to convert to a double bed. A custom interior/exterior sound system was installed along with a "loud hailer." Other features that John Lennon had installed at this time were: Sony television; telephone and a portable refrigerator.

Originally the car was painted matt black overall but John got tired of it and in April of 1967, visited J.P. Fallon Limited, a coachworks company located in Chertsey, Surrey. They then commissioned "The Fool" - a Dutch team of gypsy artists, to paint the car "psychedelic" at a cost of £2,000 (or about $4,200 Cdn).

John’s newly painted psychedelic car drew some public outrage when a old woman, in London’s downtown, attacked the car using her umbrella and yelling: "You swine, you swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce." Obviously, the Rolls-Royce is passionately regarded in England as one of the many symbols of British dignity!

This is one car we won't be seeing in any of the parades, and by far the most expensive and famous art cars that was bought for $2,299,000 in 1985 by Mr. Jim Pattison’s Ripley International Inc. for exhibition at Ripley’s "Believe It Or Not" museum.

John Lennon's car is featured in more detail in this tribute youtube video of him and his Rolls-Royce, with the "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" sound track