What may be the world’s most famous car is outta sight most of the time but it is not forgotten.
The Royal B.C. Museum has posted the job of caring for the mechanical needs of its bright yellow 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V, first owned and customized by Beatle John Lennon.
Jim Walters, owner of Bristol Motors, which specializes in Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles, was the car’s caretaker between 1993 and 2015. B.C. regulations now require the opportunity to be posted publicly, he said.
Walters plans to apply.
The museum intends to line up mechanical services as needed for three years, with options to renew for two one-year periods, bid documents state. The closing date is Feb. 18.
Walters’s time with the car started after he was contacted 23 years ago to do some work on a Rolls.
Entering an underground parking lot, he was “flabbergasted” to see Lennon’s car. “To be asked to look after the car was a mind-blowing experience.”
Under an agreement with the museum, Walters stored the car for free, paid its insurance and was able to use it in advertising.
That eventually turned into a paid arrangement.
Lennon’s Rolls was a gift from Vancouver businessman and philanthropist Jim Pattison, who bought it for $2.3 million in the 1980s when it was auctioned by the Smithsonian Museum.
Pattison displayed it at one of his Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museums, later donating it to the province, which had it in a Cloverdale museum before sending it to the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria.
Taking care of the car has been a labour of love for Walters. “It really is an icon of a generation,” the 61-year-old said.
“I grew up with the Beatles.”
The car spent a decade in Walters’s showroom, which was then on Chatham Street. Today, it is stored in a secret, secure location.
Lennon commissioned its distinctive Romany-inspired floral and scroll patterns. A double bed in the back seat, a refrigerator, record player, television and telephone were also added.
The Rolls has about 56,000 kilometres on it and is in “extremely good condition,” Walters said.
It was taken out every six months in an enclosed trailer to a private location and driven at 30 kilometres an hour, he said.
“That keeps the gas from getting stale. It keeps the carbs from sticking. It keeps the brakes working properly,” he said.
The ride is “very quiet, very, very smooth. You don’t feel bumps in the road. It literally floats along.”
This touring limousine measures 20 feet (about six metres) bumper-to-bumper and weighs almost three tonnes, Walters said.
It has been displayed locally and at special events elsewhere.
“It is one of a kind. It is probably the most famous car in the world.”
