Celebrity Cars – Which Made a Killing, Which Went For a Steal?

There’s really nothing in the world that can add value to a car like the name of a famous face in its logbook. Even if they’ve been known to drive it like a prat…in fact in some cases this can help…it’s the kind of thing that can take any car from any year and any brand right into a different price league.

Of course, not every famous face has this kind of effect on a car – there will always be those that make no difference at all or could even send the car’s value plummeting. Still, it’s interesting to look from time to time at precisely what effect some of Britain’s most famous names have had on their former cars – some of which are still rocketing in value while others are hanging around like nasty smells.

Paul McCartney’s Aston Martin DB5

Kicking off with a positive example of what a famous face can do, Paul McCartney bought himself a stunning Aston Martin DB5 right at the time the Beatles were at their most famous. His car became a legendary sight not only for its outer glory, but also for the fact that it was the only one on Earth to have a record player fitted to the dashboard. Unsurprisingly, when it went under the hammer fairly recently it sold for a pretty painful £307,500.

Winston Churchill’s Land Rover

The Land Rover always has been and will be one of the most iconic vehicles to come out of the UK. Right now, a Series 1 in decent enough nick will set you back around £20,000 which is of course a fair whack more than many of the newer models. However, if you manage to get hold of the exact car that was driven by Churchill…good luck with that…you can ask well in excess of £130,000 for the thing.

Princess Diana’s Rolls Royce Silver Shadow

Back in the 70s, the average Rolls-Royce wasn’t nearly the kind of status symbol it was today – most were seen as nothing more than bog standard runarounds for royalty and famous faces, certainly nothing to turn any real heads. These days though, certain examples are anything but average in terms of price – take for instance the unique bullet-proof Roller built for Charles and Diana’s first trip to America. Cheap enough at the time, sold for $2 million at auction…wow!

Elton John’s Ferrari Testarossa

Well it cost the man himself bugger all as it was a gift, so anything on its resale value was a bonus! Still, he didn’t use it too many times and its mint condition interior and exterior saw it fetch triple the standard book price – it sold for $200,000.

Eric Clapton’s Porsche Cayenne Turbo

Not long after Eric Clapton sold his Porsche Cayenne Turbo for an inexplicably reasonable £28,000, he apparently got in touch with Ferrari and asked them to build him a custom car for a seven-figure sum.

Adrian Smith’s Jaguar XJS

And finally, it seems that being the guitarist in a heavy metal band doesn’t do a great deal for a car’s value these days, with Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith having only taken home £5,000 for his nice enough Jaguar XJS.