John Lennon’s priceless Rolls-Royce has arrived back on British tarmac for the first time in more than 40 YEARS.
The ‘carparazzi’ have been lining London’s streets and visiting hotel car parks this summer to take photos of the exotic motors owned by Middle-Eastern playboys.
But the rarest and most valuable car to arrive in the capital could be the 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V first owned by the legendary Beatle.
It is back in the UK for the first time since 1970 and these photos show the gargantuan limo parked on a central London street before being eased carefully into a showroom.
Lennon originally ordered the car in black and had it customised in rock star fashion, converting the rear seat into a double bed and having a TV, phone, fridge and record player installed.
In 1967, to coincide with the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, he then commissioned Surrey coachbuilders JP Fallon to give it a psychedelic paint-job.
Lennon used the Rolls-Royce in 1969 to return his MBE to Buckingham Palace in protest against the Vietnam War, among other things.
The car was shipped to the USA in 1970 and in the mid-1980s it was sold through Sotheby’s for a-then world record $2.29 million.
For most of the time since it has been on display at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
It has returned to the UK to mark the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper and the unveiling of the new Rolls-Royce Phantom, which will take place later this week.
It is on display at Bonhams alongside seven other Phantoms from the past 92 years, including models previously owned by Fred Astaire and Field Marshall Montgomery.
The exhibition, on New Bond Street, opens on July 29 and runs until August 2.