Movies, celebs and Royals that add most value to cars revealed including Princess Di and Tupac

While most sectors have been battered by two years of a global pandemic and the resulting economic hardship, one that has boomed in the face of an impending recession is the classic and collectible car market.

Rare and desirable vehicle sales, especially at the higher end of the spectrum, have continued to buck all trends, with deep-pocketed enthusiasts still willing to pay through the nose for the motors they want despite a bleak wider financial backdrop.

And a new report just published has investigated the impact celebrity ownership and association cam have on car values, analysing which movie appearances have the biggest bump on prices and the names in logbooks – from musicians to Royals and even Adolf Hitler – that can increase a motor’s worth.

It’s called the ‘Power List’ and has been formulated by classic car experts Hagerty. 

It has trawled through its huge back catalogue of celebrity-owned and feature-film-appearance cars to have sold through the years, creating a list of 260 in total.

Hagerty compares the sold price (or estimated sale price) with the values for a standard car at that time, which is based on its extensive database of auction and private sales.

For unique and one-off creations – think the Popemobile or a Batmobile – values are compared to a non-movie equivalent of the car it is based on.

The end result is a list of famous people and films that spark the biggest price gap – or ‘delta’ – between the value of the motors compared to a normal one – then ranks them.

John Mayhead, UK Hagerty Price Guide editor, said: ‘Hagerty knows that the provenance of a car is all important, but the team wondered just which celebrities and movies were really influential when it comes to car values. 

‘In typical Hagerty style, we crunched the numbers, with some fascinating results.’

An overall Power List for 2022 featured individuals – some of them fictional – with the biggest impact on vehicle prices. 

James Bond – who topped this list last year – triumphed in 2022, ahead of Paul Walker and Elvis.

However, this top 10 is limited only to those where eight vehicle sales could be tracked. 

Therefore, to see where the most clout is across the board based on a smaller pool of vehicles, there are six separate categories: movies, movie stars; royals; musicians; racing drivers; and ‘notable and notorious’ individuals.

Here’s the full breakdown for each… 

Movies

While the Fast and Furious franchise, Batman and Herbie all make the top ten, it’s 1968 American neo-noir action thriller, Bullitt, that tops the Power List for movies.

It features arguably the greatest car chase scene ever captured on the big screen, with the King of Cool, Steve McQueen, at the wheel of the Highland Green Ford Mustang, careering through the streets of San Francisco in pursuit of a Dodge Charger.

And it’s that very car that has put Bullitt at the top of the rankings. 

The Highland Green 1968 Ford Mustang GT sold at auction in January for a record $3.4million

In the movie, the Mustang was made famous during a ten-minute high-speed car chase. Steve McQueen (above) had raced it through the streets of San Francisco in pursuit of ill-fated characters in a black 1968 Dodge Charger

US auction house Mecum sold the Ford for $3.74million (£2.8million) at an event in Kissimmee, Florida, in January 2020.

Having been concealed from the limelight for 40 years by the family who owned it, the Mustang caused a huge stir when it went to the block two years ago. 

Not only did it have watertight provenance, it also included the letter from Steve McQueen asking to buy ‘his’ car back from them some years ago.

The difference between this value and Hagerty’s ‘standard’ price for a similar-era Mustang of £17,838 results in a massive delta of nearly 16,000 per cent.

Second in the Power List of movies is Risky Business and the ‘hero’ Porsche 928 driven by Tom Cruise. It sold for a world record $1.98million (£1.45million) at a US auction last year

Second in the list is the Porsche 928 to feature in 1983 Tom Cruise film, Risky Business.

The famous line: ‘Porsche. There is no substitute,’ cemented the car’s silver-screen iconic status and saw it sell for at a Barret-Jackson auction in Houston, Texas, last September for a massive $1.98million (£1.45million). 

That was up 4,759 per cent on the value of a standard 928 of the same era. 

Third in the list was the Smokey and the Bandit 1978 Pontiac Firebird, which changed hands for a value 1,544 per cent higher than an example not handled by Burt Reynolds, while fourth place was occupied by an unlikely car from modern cult classic…

That was the 1976 AMC Pacer from 1992 hit Wayne’s World, which sold for a massive £64,823 earlier this year. That’s 1,053 per cent higher than average values.

Movie stars

There aren’t many cooler claims than to owning something belonging to a star of the big screen – and that’s the case even more so with cars.

The Hagerty Power List of the most influential actors on motor values includes the likes of Denzel Washington, Daniel Craig and Nicolas Cage.

This 2002 Chevrolet Corvette earned Paul Newman the number one spot in the movie star Power List. It was the last car he ever raced

Paul Newman pictured in his leading role in 1982 film, The Verdict

But topping the list is Paul Newman, the American actor who famously starred in movies including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Verdict (1982) – and also had a penchant for donning a helmet and taking to the track.

Newman, who died in 2008, owned everything from VW Beetles to racing Datsuns and Porsches. 

Yet he was named the ‘movie star with the highest car cachet’ based on the sale of one competition vehicle in particular…

Paul Walker was second in the list. Hagerty said it tracked a massive 20 cars associated with the late Fast and Furious lead actor. This Supra, which featured in two of the films, had the biggest delta of all

That is a 2002 Chevrolet Corvette that achieved a massive 624 per cent delta when it sold at RM Auctions Amelia Island sale in 2012. 

The racing car changed hands for $275,000 (£175,237) – well above the standard value of $38,000 (£24,000), largely because it was the last car ever raced by the actor before he passed away. It even wore the number 83, which happened to be Newman’s age when he took to the wheel.

A close second in the list is Paul Walker. 

Hagerty said it tracked a massive 20 cars associated with the late Fast and Furious lead actor.

The highest price ever fetched for a Fast and Furious car is the 1994 Toyota Supra driven by Walker in both The Fast and the Furious in 2001 and 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003 – it sold for $550,000 (£394,237) last year, representing a movie margin of 784 per cent.

Some 22 cars previously belonging to Steve McQueen were also reviewed and put The Great Escape actor in fourth spot.

The sheer volume of motors sold with these two actors’ names in the logbook shows the continual power of the pair who have become synonymous with four wheels as well as the big screen. 

Royalty

This is one of the lists where Hagerty couldn’t track a top 10, so the shortened rankings is for eight individuals with Royalty links.

The Queen and Prince Phillip make the cut – as you would imagine – along with Prince William and Princess Margaret.

But it’s Princes Diana who is still the Royal icon whose former ownership has the biggest impact on car prices.

This is based on the values of four motors that belonged to the People’s Princess, two of which have sold recently at auction.

Princess Diana topped the list based on the sales of four of her previously-owned cars. This 1980 Ford Escort, an engagement gift from Prince Charles, recently sold for £52,640 – which was 527% above an standard example’s value

Princess Diana driving her Ford Escort car at The Guards Polo Club. Bodyguard Colin trimming accompanies her on 16 June 19

Last year, her 1981 Ford Escort Ghia, an engagement gift from Prince Charles, sold to a museum in South America for £52,640 – a 527 per cent delta – while her beloved 1994 Audi Cabriolet blew the roof off at Silverstone’s NEC sale in 2016, fetching £54,000 – or 2,473 per cent more than an equivalent Audi. 

That latter car has failed to sell since on three separate occasions since, due in each occasion to bidding not reaching the reserve prices, which were all well above the 2016 sale figure.

The four sales totalled almost £240,000, with an average value increase over standard cars of 813 per cent.

Surprisingly, Her Majesty the Queen is down the list in eighth spot.

That said, the list of nine cars associated with the Queen is dominated by Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Daimlers, which are all valuable models in their own right and therefore have reduced the delta impact. 

‘That means the added ‘value’ of the Queen’s connection isn’t quite so high,’ says Hagerty.

Musicians 

There are some real petrolheads in the list of musicians with the biggest car value clout, with 13 motors linked to Elvis, 13 to Elton John and 14 to Rod Stewart.

Hagerty also tracked the value increase figures for 10 cars previously owned by Jamiroquai front man, Jay Kay, who is one of Britain’s most renowned classic motor enthusiasts from the world of music.

Yet Jay Kay – who does make it into the overall list based on eight car sales or more – still can’t manage to break into the Power List in this category. 

Instead, the top of the rankings is a pretty gruesome place. That’s because the two biggest deltas are based on the sale value of cars in which famous rappers were shot dead in.

Tupac Shakur was shot four times on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas. He died six days later

The car which the rapper was travelling in when he was shot dead was sold at auction in 2019 for a staggering $1.75 million (£1.3 million)

Just six months after the death of Tupac Shakur, Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G.) was gunned down while being driven through LA

The green Suburban that Notorious B.I.G. was shot dead in sold for $1.5million in 2017 – an increase of 18,650% compared to a standard version of that car

The deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. remain two of the highest profile unsolved murders in recent history, which is why collectors paid big sums for their tragic vehicles. 

On 7 September 1996 Tupac was travelling through Las Vegas in a new BMW 750iL, leased by Death Row Records. As he stopped at a red light on East Flamingo Road a Cadillac pulled alongside and the rear seat passenger opened fire.  He was hit four times and died six days later. 

The very car he was travelling in was listed by Celebrity Cars Las Vegas in November 2019, having been restored and all traces of the violent attack removed.

The sale price was $1.75million, which was a mark-up of 8,233 per cent on the mid-nineties 7 Series. 

Just six months after Tupac’s death, Christopher Wallace – aka Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G. – was shot on 9 March 1997 while travelling in a GMC Suburban SUV in Los Angeles while promoting his second album, Life After Death.

In 2017, that 1997 GMC Suburban sold for $1.5million, an increase of 18,650 per cent compared to a standard version of that car. It had been used for a family for years and still had a bullet hole through one of the seatbelts.

Racing drivers

There are plenty of British motorsport icons, past and present, featuring in this list.

Sir Stirling Moss and John Surtees are notable inclusions from yesteryear, whose names on a car’s logbook has seen them sell for values well above the usual.

Carroll Shelby pictured here with Roy Jackson-Moore and Donald Healey with the Austin Healey 100 Six after setting new records at the Bonneville Salt Flats

Carroll Shelby, pictured behind the wheel of a 2006 Ford Shelby Gt-h at the New York International Auto Show. He passed away in 2012

This 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 was sold by Mecum in January 2021. Shelby owned the car new until his death. It sold for $5.94million (£4.37million) – a delta of 183% to put him top of this list

Moving into the current era, Jensen Button and multiple F1 champion Lewis Hamilton are other drivers who easily make the top 10 power list of racers.

But in pole position is a US icon who not only took victory at Le Mans, set speed records at Bonneville and has three national titles in his decorated career but also went on to become a proficient team manager and tuner of some of America’s greatest sports cars… 

Number one spot goes to Mr Carroll Shelby.

Appropriately, it is a 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 that puts the former bomber pilot at the top of the racing driver Power List.

At the Mecum Kissimmee auction in January 2021 the car, which Shelby owned from new until his death in 2012, sold for $5.94million (£4.37million). 

That’s a delta of 183 per cent.

Shelby died on May 10 2012 at the age of 89 having suffered a serious heart ailment for decades.

Notable and notorious

The final category ranked by Hagerty encompasses big names from a variety of backgrounds to cover off all remaining high-profile names.

That means this list is by far the most eclectic mix of people – and throws up a few surprises along the way.

This 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser open-top limousine was formerly used by Adolf Hitler. When it went under the hammer in 2018, it sold for $7m (£5,059,997) – a 132% delta

Such as Adolf Hitler ranking in sixth place – one spot above Kris Jenner – in the Power List, with vehicles associated with one of history’s most notorious leaders achieving an average of 125 per cent more than similar cars.

Two sales of the dictator’s drives were reviewed: a 1938 Lancia Astura and a 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser open limousine – the latter offered for a massive $7million (£5,059,997) at Worldwide Auctioneers Scottsdale in 2018, which was a 132 per cent delta.

Also making the order are Popes past and present, boxing legend Muhammad Ali and famed car collector Jay Leno.

Apollo astronauts took the number one spot in this list of notable and notorious individuals, based on the 2011 sale of this 1964 Lincoln Continental that was used for four NASA missions

But topping the list is Apollo astronauts based on a single vehicle sale in 2011.

This was a 1964 Lincoln Continental used to parade Pope Paul VI through Chicago and was later used to transport astronauts for four Apollo missions.

When it went under the hammer at the Bonhams Quail Lodge auction over a decade ago, it achieved a stratospheric £132,762.

That was a 1,882 per cent rise over a conventional Continental of the same era.

It should be pointed out that this Lincoln was a complete one-off, designed on request for the Vatican to have a 160-inch wheelbase, running boards, a landaulet roof and a special raised pedestal for the Pope to perch upon.

It was later commandeered for NASA astronauts from Apollo 8, 11, 13 and 15, which means several of its occupants had been to the moon and back.

> Want to read the full report? Head over to Hagerty’s extensive coverage to read about individual and movie to make it into its Power List for 2022