Ringo Starr bought a Ford Zephyr to transport his drums around. Look, I know there are readers out there who thought the Zephyr could have rivalled Holden at the time. But let me say just one thing. They built them in New Zealand. Don’t get me wrong. Like all nouveau riche (I know: better to be nouveau riche than never riche at all), as soon as the pounds started rolling in the boys went and bought posh cars. Well after all they named the group after a popular VW model. And they wrote songs about their posh cars.
OK. Before we get into this next section please avert the kiddies’ eyes, put them to bed or let them watch Grand Prix, where James Garner is so wholesome he makes Mother Teresa look like the girl from the naughty corner.
Naturally the first song that comes into your head (no double entendre intended) is of course, Baby You Can Drive My Car. Drive my car is an old blues expression for sex. (I told you to avert their eyes.) Then there was the one from the lads at our big four, Penny Lane. “On the corner is a banker with a motor car, And little children laugh at him behind his back, and the banker never wears a mac, in the pouring rain, very strange.” Lucky no drug influence on these songs. Remember Don’t Pass Me By. Written by Ringo it was a huge hit in Scandinavia. It carried the immortal line, “You were in a car crash and you lost your hair.” No wonder he drove a Zephyr.
Then we move to A Day In The Life. (Are you sure the kiddies are not reading over your shoulder?). “I read the news today oh boy, about a lucky man who made the grade, and though the news was rather sad, well I just had to laugh. I saw the photograph, he blew his mind out in a car, he didn’t notice that the lights had changed.”
Former Hamilton Island resident George Harrison (and my saying former is not in any way suggesting living on an tropical island owned by very good winemakers could shorten your time on this planet before you cark it, but George did die at 58 despite suggesting he wouldn’t drop off his mortal coil till 64) was a true petrolhead.
Just a short plug here for the 2014 Robert Oatley Signature Series Heathcote Shiraz that our very own James Halliday ranks at No 92 which I bought recently for $22 and was far superior to my normal buy, the Warburn Estate Shiraz Cabernet cask for which I have been paying $20 for four litres. Please don’t forget the contribution Tom Angove made to Australia 51 years ago when he invented wine in a box.
Anyway, George was a mate of Jackie Stewart and drove Stirling Moss’s Lotus 18 F1 car. Did I tell you Stirl and I never drop names, but next year I will publish the pic of us together at his place in Mayfair? I brought the cask.
George also owned a Jaguar XKE, a platinum-silver 1965 Aston Martin DB5, a Ferrari 365 GTC, a McLaren F1 supercar and a Light Car Company Rocket designed by Gordon Murray.
OK the reason I am writing all this stuff is because: 1, I am in shock after the editor pulled me outside yesterday and told me I had to write more about motorcycles because he rides one and one of the owners of this fine weekend newspaper and online offering used to race them; and 2, Worldwide Auctions are selling John Lennon’s 1965 Merc 230SL in Scottsdale next month.
Look, it would be fair to say that while Lenno owned some good gear he wasn’t a real petrolhead. Apart from anything else he couldn’t see all that well, which does make it difficult when you are coming into turn two at 300km/h in the middle of some traffic or coming into a roundabout. As I remember the last time this very beautiful Pagoda was up for sale was in 2011 and they were asking £495,000 for it. It sold for around £331,000. If you buy this you will be in good company. Kate Moss and Nico Rosberg still drive one. On my theory that everyone follows Nico, John Key and John Gillam will also have one soon.
This is a shortened version of the original article. To read the rest go to: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/motoring/from-early-beatles-to-posh-cars-motors-inspired-fab-four/news-story/0f275872b70e3f0b45e209fe9a45d73c
