Star cars sale: Elton John’s Daytona and Wayne Newton’s SL up for grabs
They both had long-standing Las Vegas residencies, and now Sir Elton John and Wayne Newton both have unusual automobiles up for auction.
Having previously exhausted our Elton puns when the Rocket Man’s Maserati went under the hammer, we’ll start with Wayne’s wonderfully weird 1981 Mercedes 380SL. In Wayne’s world the standard Benz wasn’t enough, so he turned to Long Island coachbuilder Niko Sokol. The boat-tailed convertible is equipped with a foldable hardtop replacing both the fabric roof and the SL’s removable lid. The spare wheel sits atop the trunk, and the headlamps were moved inboard. There’s plenty of real gold to replace the brightwork, including the side vents, the center of the BBS wheels, and the wild door handles. Oddly, the interior is completely original.
The car has been driven just 2000 miles and spent most of its life in a museum at Wayne’s Casa de Shenandoah mansion in Vegas along with a large menagerie of exotic animals, which thankfully don’t appear to have been allowed near the Mercedes. For sale at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas auction, it is offered with no reserve, so one lucky buyer could soon be saying danke schoen to quite a deal.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Silverstone Auctions is selling a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona owned by Sir Elton John from 1973 to 1975. The Rosso Chiro Daytona is one of only 158 right-hand-drive models produced by Maranello. Powered by the legendary 347-hp 4.4-liter Colombo V-12, the Daytona could outrun a Lamborghini Miura with a top speed of 174 mph.
Sir Elton bought the car after rocketing to fame with the number one album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player but probably didn’t get to drive his Ferrari much as he was working on the even more successful follow-up, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Successive owners have clearly enjoyed the Daytona: The odometer now reads 82,000 miles. The Daytona has a Ferrari Classiche red book and a massive history file that includes a restoration of the Nero leather interior in 2017.
The guide price is £440,000–£500,000 ($621,400–$706,000) and the auction takes place on June 5, when we’ll find out if Saturday night’s alright for bidding.
