Top 10 celebrity classic car collections
Which famous radio, TV, film, music and fashion stars have the best car collections? Here's our choice of the ten best
The celebrities with the greatest car collections
However you feel about the celebrity world, you have to admit a few of them have some really great car collections.
We've gathered some of our favourites, chosen by balancing the rank of celebrity with the quality of collection. Some of the collections are truly mind-blowing.
Richard Hammond
The former Top Gear star has a great collection of classic cars and bikes, which he keeps at his castle – where else! – in Herefordshire, UK.
The collection ebbs and flows but always features Porsches and Land Rovers, along with an eclectic mix that is thought to still include a 1968 Mustang GT390, a 1963 Opel Kadett, 1942 Ford GPW ‘Jeep’, Range Rover Classic, Land Rover Defender, 1950 Bentley S1, 1931 Lagonda, Jaguar E-type S1, 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 and a Porsche 911.
Howard Donald
Take That! star Howard has quietly assembled a great collection of cars, which includes a Ferrari F40 and several Porsches, not to mention a wonderful 1965 911.
He’s long been a fan of track days but in the last couple of years he’s started racing, first with an HRDC Austin A35 and moving onto Mk1 Cortina, 1953 Porsche 356 and early Porsche 911.
Adam Carolla
Comedian Adam Carolla has become best known for his collection of ex-Paul Newman race cars, and his BRE race Datsuns. He owns one of just two existing BRE Datsun 510s (the other one is in the Nissan museum) and the famous Hawaiian Tropic Porsche 935.
The collection, which numbers around 30 cars, also includes several Lamborghinis, a Group 44 race Triumph TR6 and even the ex-BRE Hino race truck.
Tim Allen
He plays car enthusiast Tim ‘the tool man’ Taylor in hit TV show Home Improvement, and in real life Tim Allen is just as mad about cars, if not more so. Tim was brought up in Michigan, so it’s perhaps no surprise that his collection is big on Fords, many of them hot rods, though there’s also a a UK-built RS200 rally homologation special too.
He also owns Cobras, many, many muscle cars including a special order 1968 Chevrolet Camaro 427 COPO and a 1964 Chevelle SS, as well as a modified Beetle and a 2004 Porsche Carrera GT.
Eric Clapton
Guitar god Clapton is a Ferrari man, through and through, to the point that he’s even had one specially built – the 458-based SPC-12 EC, which stands for Special Project Car number 12 Eric Clapton).
There’s also a Daytona, 575M Maranello, 350 Spider, 275 GTB, 512 BB, Dino, Enzo, F40 and more. He’s also big on hot rods, and owns several including a ’49 Ford Coupe.
Jerry Seinfeld
Actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s car collection in Manhattan is well-known as featuring a large number of Porches of all ages – at times there have been around 150 cars in the collection with nearly 50 of those being Porsches.
In 2016 Seinfeld cleared out 17 cars, mostly Porsches, raising $22m. There are still plenty left though! They include a Porsche Carrera GT, Fiat 500, Lamborghini Miura and many more.
Jay Kay
Several Jamiroquai albums and videos feature classic cars, and the grounds of Jay Kay’s house include plenty of storage for his famed models, which over the years have included everything from Fiat 500 and BMW 2002 Turbo to Lamborghini Diablo and even an exquisite Maserati A6 GCS.
He’s sold a few lately (including his one-off Ferrari 330 GT shooting brake but usually it’s only to make way for more – he’s owned well over 100 cars since the success of his first album, Virtual Insanity, allowed him the funds to start buying the iconic models that he loves. They’ve included Ferrari Enzo, Audi Quattro Sport, Porsche 911 2.7 RS Carrera and Porsche 918 Spyder.
Nick Mason
The modest drummer of Pink Floyd has been collecting cars since the late-1960s, and famously paid £35,000 for his Ferrari 250 GTO – now worth around £30m – when he bought it in 1977. That’s just one of around 300 cars that Nick owned.
The current collection includes plenty of historic race cars, including an Aston Martin International, Maserati Birdcage and Ferrari 512 LM, as well as roadgoing Ferrari F40, Mini Cooper and many more, as part of his Ten Tenths collection. His dream car – the Austin Seven that he owned as a teenager – still eludes him though, missing presumed scrapped.
Ralph Lauren
Appropriately for someone so revered in fashion, Ralph Lauren’s cars arguably form the most beautiful collection in the world. He started collecting cars as soon as his fledgling clothes business began to make money in the 1970s, with one of his first purchases a Porsche 930 Turbo.
Now his collection of around 70 cars includes such icons as a Blower Bentley, Alfa 8C 2900, Bugatti 57 SC Atlantic, Jaguar D-type, Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, McLaren F1 and Ferrari LaFerrari.
Jay Leno
He’s the king of car collectors, with over 150 cars and 90 motorcycles kept in a series of stunning warehouses – complete with ever-active workshop and kitchen – in Burbank, LA.
What’s great is that everything is there because Jay loves it, not because it’s collectible or valuable. So there are steam cars, supercars (including McLaren's F1 and P1), standard and modified muscle cars and even the road-legal ‘Chrysler Tank Car’ powered by the engine from an M47 Patton tank.
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