The John Lennon’s Rolls – Royce Phantom V

The most colorful car in the world


John Lennon’s Phantom V was showed at the Rolls – Royce “The Great Eight Phantoms” exhibition on the Bond Street – a block of London on which Lennon himself ran the car several times in the late 1960s. 

The color of the auto is often referred as the psychedelic color. Some shades, especially the dominant yellow, overlap with the album cover. The swirls on the body are not in any arbitrary order – they reproduce the patterns that were used to decorate the gypsy caravans and barges. The large image of the zodiac signs crowns the roof. 

John Lennon regularly drove his extravagant Phantom V until 1969 (although he also owned a less flashy white Phantom V). It was the car on which he with his fellow bandmates went to collect the Order of the British Empire Medal. In the 1969 John Lennon returned to the palace to renounce the title in protest, including the Vietnam War. In the 1970 the car was transported to the USA because the famous singer was there. Occasionally the most colorful auto carried other prominent rock stars, including The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and The Moody Blues. In 1970 the car followed In 1977 Phantom V was transferred to the branch of the Smithsonian Institute and eventually became a part of the collection of the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada.