PHANTOM’S POWER ENDURES
John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls-Royce helps herald the new Phantom VIII
Rolls-Royce found a novel way to introduce its new Phantom VIII model by bringing together examples of every Phantom model made over the past 92 years.
That includes the most famous Rolls-Royce, originally purchased by John Lennon in 1965 and given a psychedelic paint job two years later.
The three-tonne Rolls-Royce Phantom V has been owned by the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria since it was donated by Vancouver billionaire Jimmy Pattison following its display at Expo 86. The car was recently airfreighted to England for display.
Calling it the gathering of the greatest Phantoms in history, the BMW-owned manufacturer of the world-leading luxury brand brought the most famous examples of the marque together under one roof. The Great Eight Phantoms Exhibition began Thursday at Bonham’s on Bond Street, Mayfair, London.
John Lennon was 25 years old and didn’t know how to drive when he took delivery of the valentines black Phantom V on June 3, 1965. The car would be used to transport the Fab Four to Buckingham Palace, where they were honoured as Members of the British Empire.
“The Beatles’ accountant had advised them to each buy a car to avoid a 90 per cent tax,” says Royal B.C. Museum history curator Lorne Hammond. “John intended to one up the others with better taste. With his long hair, he went into the dealership in London and ordered the Phantom V with every option.”
At the beginning of 1966, Lennon had the rear seat converted to a fold-out double bed, a radio telephone installed, a record player and sound system fitted along with a Sony TV and a refrigerator.
In 1967, the year the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released, Lennon’s Rolls was given a Gypsy-like flower-power paint job in Romany scroll designs.
Lennon’s newly redecorated limo drew negative attention when an elderly Londoner attacked it with her umbrella yelling: “You swine. How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce.”
The Rolls was shipped to New York in 1970, when Lennon moved there, and was used to ferry other rock stars around, including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and the Moody Blues. Lennon would subsequently donate the car to the Smithsonian Institute to solve tax problems.
Jimmy Pattison bought the car at auction for $2.9 million for display at his Ripley’s Believe It Or Not “odditorium” in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and subsequently displayed it in Vancouver at the Expo 86 World’s Fair.
Examples of seven series of Rolls-Royce Phantoms — beginning in 1925 that preceded the just-unveiled Phantom VIII — begin with the Phantom I bought new by famous Broadway and Hollywood dancer Fred Astaire. The 1927 chauffeur-driven, right-hand-drive single cabriolet town car, with coachwork by Hooper, was finished in Brewster Green with black wings and featured a black leather roof. Astaire kept his prized Rolls-Royce town car until 1950. It has been loaned for display by the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Second series Phantoms are represented by the 1933 Phantom II Continental Sir Malcolm Campbell took delivery of shortly after he became the fastest man on land. He set the land speed record at 438 km/h in his famous Blue Bird at Daytona Beach on Feb. 22, 1933. The heavy car, capable of speeds up to 150 km/h, was delivered in a pearlescent light blue colour achieved by ground herring scales being added to the paint.
The Phantom III in the exhibit was used by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery as his personal transportation in the run-up to D-Day. The massive sedan ferried leaders — including Winston Churchill, Gen. Eisenhower and King George VI — to D-Day planning sessions. The fully restored Phantom III, in its original green, will be displayed at this year’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
The Aga Khan’s Phantom IV that is part of the exhibit was ordered by the leader of the Nizari Ismaili Muslim community. He was among 18 heads of state to commission a Rolls-Royce Phantom IV. The Sedanca de Ville-styled luxury car, which took two years to build, features a sumptuous red Connolly leather interior.
The next Phantom series to Lennon’s Phantom V is one of the world’s most recognized Rolls-Royce models. The Phantom VI has been used by Queen Elizabeth since 1997, when it was gifted by the U.K. Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The custom-built Royal claret and black Phantom VI is famous for its towering roofline and for conveying Prince William and Kate Middleton to their wedding in 2011.
The first Phantom VII to be built at the new factory in Goodwood, England, in 2003 rounds out the seven generations of Rolls-Royce Phantom cars heralding the arrival of the new Phantom VIII.