Mike
provided me with two pics of John Lennon driving his Mini ! These
pics are up for auction, hence the big Sotheby's text in it, but
it still gives a good impression !
The second pics shows John in the rear-view mirror ! |
John
Lennon
1940 - 1980
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INTRODUCTION
John
Lennon's Mini is shrouded in mystery. There is
footage of John Lennon getting out of a Mini at Abbey
Road (see BW pictures on the sides). This was in December
1966 (thanks Mike Weaver). That Mini, LGF 696D
is in fact his own Mini built by Radford, that as far
as anyone knows was stolen at some point ( there are a
lot of stories about this Mini ..).
It
is Black in colour including the wheels, bumpers and seats.
Heritage Records say it's an Austin Cooper 'S' built on
the 14th of February 1965 and despatched to Car Mart Ltd.
of London on the 3rd March 1965.
| Above
is a picture of John Lennon, sitting in George Harrison's
psychedelic painted Mini at West Malling Aerodrome.
Many publications use this picture erroneously stating
that this was John's Mini. For a start, he's sitting
in the passenger seat ! |
The log book shows it was registered in London on the
8th February 1966 as LGF 696D, that is almost a year from
when the car was built, but the Beatles were in the States
most of 1965.
It also seems that along with this Mini George's Mini
(which was green at the time not yet psychedelic) and
the Ringo Mini (LLO) and another Mini (also with a LLO
--- D number) which was Pauls, were registered and may
have been a gift from the record company.
More pictures of the Psychedelic painted Mini in the George
Harrison-section.
INTERESTING FACTS / STORIES
From an Interview with Chris Hutchins, NME March
11, 1966, answering the question wether he worried his
money would not last him his lifetime: "I thought
about this a while back and decided I'd been a bit extravagant
and bought too many cars, so I put the Ferrari and the
Mini up for sale. Then one of the accountants said I was
allright, so I got the cars back".
In a book about Paul 'Many Years From Now ", by Barry
Miles, it says that on the 8 Nov 1966 John turned up at
the Indica Gallery were they were setting up Yoko's exhibition,
and she tried to get John to take her with him when he
left, but he said 'no' and climbed in the back of his
black-glass chauffeur-driven Cooper S-Mini and speeded
off.
In a 1964 Beatles Monthly it says that John bought his
wife a Mini (it must have been for his wife only John
did not pass his driving test till 1965). This story was
confirmed later in an NME article of December 4, 1964;
quote: "and Cyn's (Cynthia Lennon) got the Mini -
she's just passed her driving test"..
It is said that before the Lennons went to live in the
US about 1971 they gave a lady that used to clean for
them a White Mini, maybe a 1967 one. I'm looking for confimation
on this one. The story goes this was a Mini Yoko Ono owned.
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