Beatle John Lennon bought a 1964 Mulliner Park Ward Phantom V, finished in Valentine’s black. Everything was black except for the radiator, even the wheels. Lennon asked for the radiator to be black as well, but Rolls Royce refused.[5]
Originally the car was customized from Park Ward with black leather upholstery, a cocktail cabinet with fine-wood trim, a writing table, reading lamps, a seven-piece his-and-hers black-hide luggage set, and a Perdio portable television. I wonder if had a meditation spot in the back seat.
The car needed a new paint job after Lennon used it in Spain during his filming of Richard Lester’s How I Won the War. Artist Steve Weaver painted the red, orange, green and blue swirls, floral side panels, and a Libra on the roof.
In 1977 Lennon donated the yellow Phantom V to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum at the Smithsonian Institution to cover an IRS bill of $250,000. The Cooper-Hewitt sold the car in 1985 for $2,299,000 to Canadian businessman Jim Pattison, who donated it to the Province of British Columbia. It was on display during Expo 86 in Vancouver, and since 1993 it has been in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada.