Here comes the SEL: George Harrison’s Merc for sale

By Marc McLaren
News
 | 17 Dec 2018
Here comes the SEL: George Harrison’s Merc for sale

Beatles legend George Harrison was a renowned petrolhead with a penchant for supercars, but when it came to a daily driver he preferred this stately Mercedes 500SEL – and now you could follow in his footsteps. 

A 1984 Mercedes-Benz 500SEL AMG (W126), it was purchased new by the man behind such classics as Here Comes the Sun and Something, and promptly treated to a raft of upgrades. 

Now it’s up for grabs at Anglia Car Auctions’ January sale in King’s Lynn, where it’ll be offered with an estimate of £50-70,000; not a bad price for a Merc with some serious rock’n’roll history behind it. 

Here comes the SEL: George Harrison’s Merc for sale

Here comes the SEL: George Harrison’s Merc for sale
Here comes the SEL: George Harrison’s Merc for sale

Although each of the Fab Four had a taste for flashy motors, Harrison is generally considered to be the biggest enthusiast. He was a huge Formula One fan who said that his love of motorsport predated his love of music, and at various times he owned a Ferrari 365GTC, Dino 246GTS, Jaguar E-type, Aston Martin DB4, McLaren F1 and Porsche 928, among others.

Cars rarely lasted longer than a few years in his collection, though, which makes this Merc all the more special.

Harrison bought it from new and immediately sent it off to Strattons of Wilmslow, at the time the UK’s only official importer of AMG Mercs, where it had its suspension lowered and was fitted with uprated bodykit and Penta alloys. It was treated to a couple of interior upgrades, too, among them the addition of a wired-in mobile phone.

Having spent more than £85,000 on improvements, the former Beatle was clearly determined to get his money’s worth from his 500SEL and duly covered around 30,000 miles in it during the next decade and a half. 

The car even appeared in the official video to The Beatles’ 1996 song Real Love, albeit fleetingly, and can also be seen in this humorous exchange:  

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In 2000, around a year before his death, Harrison passed the car on to his good friend and percussionist Ray Cooper and it’s changed hands a couple of times since then.

Placed in storage between 2013 and 2017, it was sold in March this year as part of a collection of Beatles memorabilia, fetching £43,200. Since then it’s been subject to mechanical recommissioning and a cosmetic refresh, with around another £10,000 spent on it.

It goes to auction with 61,000 miles on the clock, an extensive history file including DVLA letter confirming the car was first registered to George Harrison, magazine articles from 2014 and 2017 and other documents.

Fancy it? The auction takes place on Saturday, 26 January 2019. You can view a full listing for the car here.

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