For whatever reason, collecting cars tends to be a more popular hobby among the rich and famous than collecting stamps or seashells. But a few particularly auto-maniacal celebrities have elevated the art of car collecting to a new level. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most expensive car collections of the rich and famous.
Fashion mogul Ralph Lauren has one of the most famous car collections in the world, estimated to be worth some $350 million. That’s a reflection of not mere quantity (although there’s little chance of Ralph running out of cars any time soon), but incredible quality as well, with a 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic Coupe (one of just four ever made), a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, a 1995 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing Coupe, and not one but five 1950 Jaguar XK120 Roadsters, just some of the works of automotive art sitting in his expansive garage. Lauren is almost as famous for his car collection as he is for his fashion empire, and in 2011 he brought some of his best cars to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris for an exhibition.
Of all the celebrity car collectors out there, Jay Leno is probably the one who has spent the most time in his garage – he even got a TV show out of it, aptly entitled Jay Leno's Garage. Jay's interest in cars turns toward the eccentric and the historical, with such items as two Doble steam cars, a surviving Duesenberg Model X, one of just nine surviving Chrysler Turbine Cars, and two cars that were once the property of Howard Hughes. The collection has been estimated to be worth as much as $150 million. He owns several McLarens. One of the single most expensive cars in his stable is a McLaren F1 which is likely worth $17 – $20 million on its own. The F1 is so valuable that McLaren's insurance company forbids the company from ever having more than three models under the same roof at one time. Jay's F1 was the very first one to be imported to the US. Here's a tour of his collection that Jay gave CNN in 2016.
Jay Leno's former late-night rival David Letterman hasn't turned his car collection into as much of a pillar of his public persona as Leno has, but he has a pretty impressive collection of his own. Highlights of his fleet of automobiles include a 1956 Porsche 356 1500 GS Carrera, a 1955 Jaguar XK 140, and a $2.7 million 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO that’s reportedly the most valuable car Letterman owns.
There must be something about the comedy gene that also leads one to obsessively collect cars, because Jerry Seinfeld is another comic who’s made that one of his life’s works. He’s known as having one of the biggest collections of Porsches in the world. He owns so many that a few years back he auctioned off a whole slate of 15 of them for a total of $22 million, and he has a $1.4 million garage in the Upper West Side of Manhattan specifically for storing a portion of his collection on the East Coast. He owns a rainbow of 10 Porsche Boxsters, a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder with the same grey color as the one driven by actor James Dean when he died, and one of only 339 Porsche 959s ever built, purported by one source to be "the centerpiece" of his collection.
Floyd "Money" Mayweather proves that you don’t have to be a stand-up comedian to have a world-class car collection. Mayweather's fleet of automobiles is reportedly at least 100 strong, and includes a Bentley Mulsanne, a Rolls Royce Drophead and Rolls Royce Phantom, several Ferraris, a Lamborghini Aventador, and many, many more – and he reportedly likes to pay cash. Here’s a video from a few years ago of Mayweather showing some of them off.
Soccer legend David Beckham is another professional athlete who has put a lot of money and effort into assembling an impressive collection of cars. Highlights include a Bentley Bentayga, a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe (estimated to be worth about $400,000), a McLaren MP4-12C Spider, and even a few collectible motorcycles.
