THE MANY CARS OF PETER SELLERS

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 28^th 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