THIS OLD CAR OF MINE...
Yours for £1.4m ... Rod’s gift to himself when Maggie May topped charts
A LAMBORGHINI once owned by rock icon Rod Stewart is expected to fetch up to £1.4million at auction.
Sir Rod, 73, once said he wanted to become a musician ‘to earn enough money to buy a nice car’, which he eventually did for around £10,000.
He bought the Lamborghini Miura P400 S new in London in 1971 – the year Maggie May shot to number one in the charts.
The superstar’s supercar will be sold at RM Sotheby’s in London in September, when it is estimated to fetch £1.2-1.4million. The Miura, a rare right-hand drive example, has been restored and comes with original records and delivery note.
The buyer will also receive a photo of Stewart’s then girlfriend, the model Dee Harrington, standing alongside the Lamborghini.
William Smith, RM Sotheby’s car specialist, said: ‘The Lamborghini Miura has a known ownership history from new, and the restoration work carried out by Lamborghini Polo Storico makes this example truly flawless. The Miura has been kept in such fine condition, it looks to this day just as it would have been delivered to Rod Stewart in the 1970s.’
The car was delivered new to Stewart in 1971 by Lamborghini Concessionaires Ltd. of Alie Street, London.
A file including the car’s original records from the dealership is included in the sale, together with the original delivery note that denotes the car’s original specification with right-hand drive, factory air conditioning and seatbelts.
The car was eventually sold by Stewart. It was later restored at Lamborghini’s in-house classic restoration department for more than £265,000.
The Lamborghini, which still retains its original registration ‘JLL 831K’, will be displayed for three days at Blenheim Palace ahead of the sale. Last week, Sir Rod slashed the price of his mansion by almost £3million after struggling to find a buyer.
He put Wood House in Epping, Essex, on the market for £7.5million two years ago, but is now asking for £4,725,000.
By November 2016, the singer, who is worth around £160million according to ‘rich lists’, had cut the price by £550,000 and he reduced it by a further £1million to £5.95million earlier this year.