THE MANY CARS OF PETER SELLERS
By Ellie Priestley |
2nd July, 2020
Peter Sellers, who died forty years ago today, was quite possibly the greatest actor of post-war British cinema, despite a spate of dreadful pictures towards the end of his life. He is also associated with his devotion to motor cars that went beyond fascination to the point of fanaticism. A 1963 article estimated that Sellers had spent £136,000 (£2,404,000 in 2020 terms) on 74 vehicles – some sources estimate the figure was 83. The great man once reflected that in his childhood, he vowed ‘– ‘if I ever had enough money, I would buy cars, cars, cars’.
In the early days of the actor’s stardom with The Goon Show, he favoured the likes of the Jowett Javelin, the MG Magnette and TF and the Renault 4CV. There was also an AC that Sellers owned for just 90 minutes - ‘Took it back in the afternoon. Traded it for a very early one and a half litre Jag’. As the 1950s progressed, the fleet encompassed a Daimler Conquest, a Rover P4 105S, two Sunbeam Talbots, two Sunbeam Rapiers, two Riley One Point Fives and a Jaguar Mk. VII.
By the end of the decade Seller’s film career allowed him to purchase a Bentley S1 Continental with H. J. Mulliner coachwork. There was also a Silver Cloud S1 acquired from Cary Grant, which he subsequently advertised in The Times - ‘Titled Car Wishes to Dispose of Owner’. In the early 1960s Sellers variously owned a Bristol 407 - ‘perfect’, a Lincoln Continental Convertible - ‘never had a car with such superb attention to detail’ and a Buick Riviera. As his secretary Hattie Stevenson once noted, he was on ‘a one-man quest for perfection in acting, cameras and cars’.
As to the model most associated with the actor, there are perhaps four candidates. The first is the Ferrari 500 Superfast acquired by Sellers on 28th June 1965 for £11,518 - (£190,714 in 2020). The second is the Aston Martin DB4 GT that he drove on screen in the wonderful 1963 comedy The Wrong Arm of the Law. Here is its engaging in an unequal battle with a police Wolseley 6/90 Series III
The GT specification included a shorter wheelbase and a body skinned in 18-gauge aluminium alloy. The 302bhp engine featured triple Weber 45 DCOE carburettors, twin-plug cylinder heads and a compression ratio of 9:1. As for the top speed, the Aston Martin was capable of 153 mph, with 0-60 in just over six seconds.
41 DPX – chassis number DB4GT/0157/R – is one of 45 RHD models; the remaining 30 were LHD. It was also one of just three to be fitted with rear seats. The GT was delivered to Ken Rudd’s Brooklands dealership in March 1961 and Sellers acquired the DB4 after the completion of filming in the following year. Fifty-six years later, the Aston Martin was auctioned for a mere £2.65 million.
The third candidate is one that set the trend for in 1962 Sellers commissioned Hooper & Co. to transform his Morris Mini Cooper into the ultimate town car. He instructed the coachbuilder to fit 51 modifications ‘and anything else you can think of”, including seats trimmed in Connolly hide, electric window and radio aerials, Yale door locks and Lucas fog and spot lamps. The interior included a vanity case while the body was resprayed in “Royal Purple”.
The Mini also sported “wicker” exterior decorations courtesy of Geoff Francis, who had previously worked in the Royal Coaches – a fact that no doubt appealed to the actor. It also seems that Sellers ordered Downton engine modifications not long after he took delivery. The total cost of the modifications was in the region of £1,900 (more than a new Jaguar 3.8 Mk. 2,) and the total amount including the price of the standard car, was £2,600; £47, 178 in 2020.
The press understandably referred to the “Hooper Cooper” as “The World’s Most Expensive Mini”. Sellers later had H R Owen install a sunroof to further enhance its appeal as fashionable transport du jour.
Today, the car is alive, well and undergoing extensive restoration somewhere in the East Midlands.
And finally, there is “Old Min” – aka a 1930 Austin “Heavy” 12 Open Road Tourer de Luxe. Spike Milligan acquired it in the 1950s - hence the nickname – but Sellers almost inevitably coveted this fine car; ownership seems to have transferred between the two no less than four times. By 1979 the Austin was gifted to Milligan, but Sellers was distressed to learn that his colleague was not properly caring for Min and so he retrieved her just ten days later.
Old Min recently underwent a restoration by R S Williams Limited to standards that Peter Sellers would have approved of – for the pre-war Austin is believed to be the only car that he genuinely loved. And for my own PS motoring film scene – it has to be Harry the Teddy Boy at the wheel of The Ladykillers’ 1939 Packard Super Eight.
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