A 1965 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Coupé, which was the first car that John Lennon bought on passing his driving test in 1965, is to be sold at Bonhams’ Paris auction of motor cars at the Grand Palais on February 5.
It has attracted a pre-sale estimate of €120 000-€170 000 euros (R1.1 million-R1.5 million).
Philip Norman recounts in his biography John Lennon - A Life: “In February 1965, John passed his driving test, an event that made headline news across the nation. Within hours, every luxury car dealership in the Weybridge area, hoping for business, jammed the road outside Kenwood’s security gates with Maseratis, Aston Martins, and Jaguar XK-Es. John strolled out to inspect this gleaming smorgasbord, eventually selecting a Ferrari.”
Better known is Lennon’s Rolls-Royce Phantom V Limousine, which he had delivered two months later and, subsequently, had painted in psychedelic colours. In the same garage, he also kept a Mini. In his book, John Lennon Imagined: Cultural History of a Rock Star, Janne Mäkelä records that Lennon’s stable consisted of a Mini “for pottering about in”, a Rolls-Royce “for relaxing” and a Ferrari “for zoom”.
However this “stable” was soon to change. On November 12 of the same year, Autocar magazine recorded Brydon Cars as offering for sale a “Ferrari 330 GT fixed-head coupé, 2+2 opalescent silver blue, electric windows, 3 000 miles. Ex-property of John Lennon MBE.”
The Ferrari’s provenance after this is unclear, but by the late 1980’s it was with Modena Engineering, from whom the current vendor bought the car, and it underwent a comprehensive restoration in the mid 1990’s .