Baby, you can drive (and own) Ringo Starr’s Facel coupe

Michael James

The rare 1964 Facel coupe once owned by Ringo Starr.

Baby, you can drive (and own) his car. A rare 1964 Facel Vega Facel II owned by Ringo Starr will be auctioned by Bonhams auction house on Dec. 1 and is expected to sell for approximately $500,000.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Starr purchased the deep burgundy two-door coupe at a car show in 1964. He paid the equivalent of $68,000 in today’s dollars and owned the right-hand-drive car for four years.

Facel a French manufacturer, had a short tenure as a luxurious automaker of power classics compared to Rolls-Royce. It built around 2,900 cars.

The rare 1964 Facel coupe once owned by Ringo Starr.
The rare 1964 Facel coupe once owned by Ringo Starr.

This Facel II is one of only 182 ever made, with only 26 of those sold with the right-hand-drive like Starr’s. The four-seat coupe is also one of only two built with a manual transmission and a 6.7-liter Chrysler Typhoon V-8 with 390 horsepower.

The auction house believes the car will sell for between $485,000 and $566,000.

Bonhams sold John Lennon’s 1965 Ferrari 330 GT coupe for $582,000 at a July auction in England. A year ago, a 1964 Aston Martin once owned by Paul McCartney sold for just under $500,000 (before commission) at a London auction held by RM Auctions.

Article Last Updated: October 7, 2013.

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