| Paul
McCartney's Mini is now proudly displayed next to John Lennon's
Mercedes at the Sarasota
Classic Car Museum in Florida. A friend
of mine visited the museum in October 2004 and made some pictures
for me. I was particularly pleased to see two pictures taken from
this website displayed on the window. |
|
| Click
on Thumbnail to enlarge |
|
INTRODUCTION
Paul
McCartney had a 1965 Radford Mini Cooper 'S'. It was an
early Radford, not a GT version like Lennon and Harrison's.
The car was finished in Aston Martin California
Sage Green Metallic. It also featured rear lights from
the Aston Martin factory. It also got non-stock features
like a new black leather interior, inside map lighting,
a sunroof, very rare halogen headlamps and built-in fog
lamps recessed into the grille.
He was pictured in this Mini on a number of occasions
on his own in 1965 and with Linda in 1968 (this
picture is in the Beatles book 'The Beatles Files', see
thumbnails left for picture). The Mini came up for sale
in 1996 in the U.S.A .
Paul's
Mini GGJ 382C has been auctioned in Pebble Beach, California
by Christie's. This took place on August 29,1999. After
that it was again auctioned off again in 2002 by Bonhams,
after being restored.
The Mini didn't exactly look like the Mini Paul drove,
nor was the fact that it was owned by Paul McCartney mentioned
by Christie's ! It has changed colour and the interior
has been revamped.
Mike Fisher restored the car to it's original 'Paul McCartney'
spec. See
picture below, it looks just like it was. A truly brilliant
job by Mike Fisher. The Mini is currently owned by Martin
Godbey and displayed in Sarasota, Florida, alongside John
Lennons 1965 mercedes-benz 230SL roadster. Please visit
the website
of the museum for more info.
INTERESTING FACTS / STORIES
In
a book about Paul, "Many Years From Now ", by Barry
Miles, it says that the first night he met Linda, they
and Lulu went back to Paul's house in his Mini.
Paul,
Alistair Taylor, and Paul's sheepdog Martha climbed into
GGJ 382C in early 1967 and drove to Primrose Hill, and
saw a strange man walking about. This was later Paul's
inspiration for "The Fool On The Hill" (Source is believed
to be Hunter Davies). Thanks to Mike Weaver that info.
I
was told that a book by a Beatles fan has a reference
to Paul driving down the street in his Blue Mini reg.
number LLO 804D (this is not the Green one he owned but
LLO 836D, the so called Ringo Mini !). Will follow that
up.
|
|
|
|
