If you are a frequent reader of The Backdoor, you might have seen the small article published a few days ago about cars and rock and roll artists. And you might have wondered whom I will feature in the first piece. A hard-core rock and roller, a hyper speed metal freak, a guitar god, who? Well I can easily say that you are all wrong. This article is about the grand daddy of them all, The Beatles; and more specifically John Lennon. While he was acclaimed as a great vocalist and song writer he had an odd taste in automobiles. And I wanted to talk about the oddest of them all, his 1965 Rolls Royce Phantom V. Now you might be thinking about what could be so odd about a rich man and his Rolls? While the car that itself was not all that odd, the way he accessorized the car most certainly was.

Built in 1965 by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, in Crewe, Cheshire, it was delivered to Lennon on June 3rd 1965 with the license plate number FJB111C. The car was fitted with a limousine body by Mulltner Park Ward and finished in Valentines Black. A guarantee was issued to him on the 19th June of the same year.

As some of you might know Rolls Royce is known for making big cars with a lot of metal work. This particular car reached 19ft in length and three tons in weight. By all means this was a very big car. But Lennon was far from finishing his cars make over.

On December 21, 1965, John ordered a Sterno Radio Telephone and the number WEYBRIDGE 46676 assigned to it. And in 1966 he modified the rear seat to convert it in to a double-bed and a custom interior/exterior sound system was also incorporated at this time into vehicle with something that is known as a Loud Hailer; which is a portable music player that was popular at that time. The ipod of the 1960’s if you will.

While spending all this cash on remodeling and refurbishing his vehicle, Lennon thought that he might as well make it a ‘Bed Room on Wheels’ and added a Sony TV, a telephone and a refrigerator.

In 1966 the car went for a mileage check and the odometer had clocked 6,673 miles and on March 28, that same year, the car clocked in at 11,181 miles. Later, on February 4, in 1967, the odometer would record 29,283 miles clocked on the Rolls-Royce. Interestingly enough, John had his chauffeur and car sent over to Spain in 1966, while he was filming “How I Won the War.” By this time his Rolls Royce Phantom V was painted with a matt black overall, which included the radiator and chrome trim.

By April 1967 Lennon was getting a bit restless with the whole ‘matt black’ idea. So he took it upon him self to visit J.P. Fallon Limited, a coachworks company located in Chertsey, Surrey. As you can clearly see he wanted to do things that were odd for that time period and he wanted to continue that with the cars paint work. So he decided to paint the car ‘psychedelic.’ He was inspired to do this by an idea given to him by a Dutch gypsy painter.

After discussing the idea, J.P. Fallon Limited commissioned Steve Weaver’s pattern of scroll and flowers for the Phantom V. The cost for having the work done came in at a whopping £2,000 and the car was painted by the original gypsies who made the gypsy wagon that was in Lennon’s garden.

Now doing something like this to any other car would have been acceptable in Britain. But doing such a thing to a Rolls Royce created a bit of controversy and public outrage because the Rolls Royce is considered to be a symbol of British dignity. This attitude climaxed when an old lady in downtown London attacked the car with her umbrella shouting “You swine, you swine! How dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce?”

Due to unavoidable circumstances (The Editor made me do it) I have to bring you the next part of this article on the next weeks issue in which the car goes to America!