Where is John Lennon's Mini?

[mab01uk]

http://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/news/a ... s-weekend/

[Pete]

The hammer went down at £22K which equates to £26K including buyers premium. Sounds like alot of money but remember it's a Radford, it's mostly complete, not in that bad a shape and has great provenance going back to original owner George's brother Peter Harrison, via Epstein's company not some made up car from fresh air. The good news is it's gone to an enthusiast as opposed to an unscrupulous dealer and will get a sympathetic restoration.I'm hopefully going to be able to help the new owner out with it's history and original 60's photos from the first owner.

[Old English White]

An excellent result all round and good to hear that it has gone to an enthusiast who'll care for it and get it back on the road where it belongs

[mab01uk]

New images of the Lennons and their Maxi emerge
The Liverpool Echo has revealed some fascinating new images of John Lennon with Yoko Ono, and children Julian and Kyoko, taken during one of their final visits to Liverpool. The pictures show the family enjoying their trip in an Austin Maxi – surprisingly modest transport for a pop star at at the height of his success.
http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/news/ne ... xi-emerge/

[Pete]

Those pictures have been around for quite a while but yes he wasn't the most confident of drivers by all accounts.
There's very few pictures around of Cynthia's Austin 1100 but she did have one , which like Peter Harrison's Radford was another Brydor supplied car. Spoke to Pauline Harrison again recently and she's still unhappy at the way Coys (mis)described that Radford.

[mab01uk]

The Story of Two Phantoms
Rolls Royce Phantom (No 1) - Body designed by Mulliner Park Ward
http://www.jpfallon.co.uk/

J P Fallon Ltd delivered Phantom reg No FJB 111C, to Johns Lennons house on May 25th 1967. The paintwork which was originally black had been painted yellow and decorated overall with a Romany inspired floral design. Marijke Koger part of the collective artists kown as The Fool had suggested he paint the Rolls in the same style as The Gypsy caravan that he had at his home in Weybridge.

Fallons engaged local artist Steve Weaver to design and paint the new finish for the car. The car was delivered just days before the release of The Sergeant Pepper Album and seemed perfect for the "Summer of Love".

The car was eventually shipped to the United States when John moved to New York in 1971.In 1977 Lennon donated the car to The Cooper Hewitt Museum as part of a deal with The U.S. tax authorities. In 1985 the Museum. auctioned The Phantom. It sold for a staggering $2,299,000, a world record for an item of Rock n Roll memorabilia. A year later it was gifted to The Province of British Columbia and The Royal British Columbia Museum.So now Canada is the custodian of the worlds most famous Rolls Royce. It is very occasionally loaned out to other museums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBNEySQxQg4

P Fallon Ltd took delivery of Phantom reg No FKJ 349C on September 6th 2014. Nicknamed Lancelot, the car had been stored for over 20 years clocking up a mere 1000 miles since 1994.
The car had been stripped down to bare metal and painted Garnet over Black. Rolls Royce specialists Overtons were then commisioned to rebuild the engine with several upgrades.
The interior was removed and trimmed in red. The black interior of John’s original car we felt was too dark and red suits the 60’s feel far better!. The ashtrays are solid silver with 18ct gold Rolls Royce insignia.

The exterior artwork was applied by Artists Paul Karslake ,Rob Collard and Josh Green. Firstly, the artists started with a base coat of yellow, then the gypsy floral pattern was painted on by hand. The glaziers then tinted the windows in the same way as they did on the first Phantom creating a lovely contrast between the black glass and the yellow bodywork. Last but not least Peter Morris who worked on John’s original car painted the wheels.
Being sticklers for detail, we even tracked down the same four badges John had on the front grill of his Phantom including The Variety Club of Great Britain Badge. Even the tax disc dispalyed on the windscreen expires in December 1967!
Fallons then fitted a sound system which any Rock Star would be proud of!

On December 19th 2014 the Phantom left the workshop in London, and for the first time in nearly 50 years John’s original vision of The Rolls Phantom can again be seen on the streets of Britain and Europe.

The Link
Peter Morris of JP Fallon Ltd
"In 1968 I was working as an apprentice when Johns car came into our workshop in Gardners corner London. The car had been curbed with scratches along the side. My job was to retouch some of the flowers and the rest of the design on the near side.
On Fallon's version of the car I have hand painted The wheels in the exact way it was done back in 1967."

"If you would like to see the transformation of our black Rolls Royce Phantom into a tribute to John Lennon's Psychedelic Rolls, please take a look at our gallery where you will see photographic documentation of the whole process. It was a long and winding road, but the results are second to none!"
http://www.jpfallon.co.uk/gallery

[atlanticdave]

Cool thread, two of my fav subjects, minis and the Beatles. I read earlier in the thread that someone suggested Macca's car was written off in 67, so why then is there later in the thread a pic of him during Let It Be sessions (early 69) with the car in shot behind him? Maybe not a total write off perhaps?

D

[mab01uk]

Surrey Comet (Local Newspaper) From August 11, 1966
"A CHAUFFEUR-driven Rolls-Royce carrying members of the Beatles was caught speeding in Bushy Park.
The car clocked a speed of 48mph as passengers Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and John Lennon attempted to escape a Mini full of teenage girls that was following them.
The Rolls was owned by Mr Lennon, who lived in St George’s Hill, Weybridge at the time."

[Pete]

George Harrison definately got a ticket in London for speeding in his black Radford.

[pad4]

Jim cut one up didnt he pete . one which has now re-appeared (surprisingly)

[Pete]

Don't know? Which one?

[Nevsmini]

Ringo's I would imagine. But he must have sold on the book, dash and doors

[Pete]

I just asked Jim and he remembers buying it as a rotten hatchback from Merseyside, this was in the 80s. I think he only bought it for the engine, box and discs. The car went to Bob Brookes who broke ALOT of really interesting cars up and the parts went all over the place, as did the IDs! Jim can't remember the reg number but remembers that it had a steel hatch with the original bootlid incorporated (as per late '65 to mid '66 Radfords?) and was cut up at Bob's. There's just not enough pictures of Ringo's car about to say there's any connection (unless that was a joke Nev! ). It'd be good to find more pics of Ringo's car (never seen a contemporary rear shot) and get a date from the Beatles Museum as to when the supposed Ringo car first appeared there (when it was light blue).

[mab01uk]

Stella McCartney went out for a drive in George Harrison's Mini recently......

Quote:
"Mr Harrison's mini... olivia, thank you for the ride of a lifetime! X Stella"
Scroll down for more....
https://www.facebook.com/stellamccartney/?ref=nf

[dodge44]

Rummaging in the box of old mags for something else and stumbled on the Practical Classic article on Ringo's Radford from Feb 1992. Apologies if it's already available elsewhere but have made a pdf and uploaded to MS 'One drive' just in case it's of interest :

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AiJsFUv2vaVgiTMyq8i3fBbQG7pt

[mab01uk]

Rummaging in the box of old mags for something else and stumbled on the Practical Classic article on Ringo's Radford from Feb 1992. Apologies if it's already available elsewhere but have made a pdf and uploaded to MS 'One drive' just in case it's of interest :

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AiJsFUv2vaVgiTMyq8i3fBbQG7pt

Thanks for posting/scanning the article which I have downloaded and makes for an interesting read. I have the same mag in a box somewhere but it would take me several hours to find it and like you I would probably get sidetracked by other things while rummaging for it!

[JC T ONE]

Rummaging in the box of old mags for something else and stumbled on the Practical Classic article on Ringo's Radford from Feb 1992. Apologies if it's already available elsewhere but have made a pdf and uploaded to MS 'One drive' just in case it's of interest :

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AiJsFUv2vaVgiTMyq8i3fBbQG7pt

Not sure if others can see it ? (upload very pixled) but in this article can you see the Hooper,s dash & badges -

The seats are also wrong for a car of this vintage.

[mk1]

Not at all pixelated for me, excellent copy!

[mab01uk]

Rummaging in the box of old mags for something else and stumbled on the Practical Classic article on Ringo's Radford from Feb 1992. Apologies if it's already available elsewhere but have made a pdf and uploaded to MS 'One drive' just in case it's of interest :

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AiJsFUv2vaVgiTMyq8i3fBbQG7pt

Not sure if others can see it ? (upload very pixled) but in this article can you see the Hooper,s dash & badges -

The seats are also wrong for a car of this vintage.

[JC T ONE]

Much better - thanks