‘Stretched’ 1994 Toyota Century for sale for less than the price of a brand new Ford Fiesta; the rammed full of gadgets limousine comes with a food heating compartment and privacy curtains favoured by notoriously shy Japanese people even
Whilst a 1967 Mercedes-Benz ‘Dictator Car we featured in April eventually sold for £237,000 ($298,000, €264,000 or درهم1.1 million), a lover of limousines with far shallower pockets might care to bid on a Japanese example that is headed to auction this month.
Though the word “limousine” originally derived from the “type of carriage hood that physically resembled the cloak worn by shepherds in the Limousin region of France,” this automotive category is now sadly more generally associated with that especially ghastly, much over-used adjective “luxury.”
Limousines are not only considered the preserve of the aforementioned despots, but they’re also the favoured modes of conveyance of business titans, young Arabic and Russian showoffs and rappers now even. A well-known reader of ours even once stated she’d like to have several herself. This friend of royalty added that a collection of security guards running alongside with torches also would complete her ideal spectacle.
Coming in the form of a four-seat, stretched saloon car, the 1994 Toyota Century to be offered was imported to the UK by Mohamad Issa in 2019. It is longer than a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but slightly shorter than a Maybach at 19-feet in length, is presented in black with a black leather interior and was fully serviced in Japan prior to being shipped. The odometer reads 34,500 miles.
Historics Auctioneers will sell the 1994 Toyota Century limousine at their Windsorview Lakes sale on 18th July. They have set an estimate of just £13,000 to £17,000 ($16,300 to $21,300, €14,500 to €18,900 or درهم59,900 to درهم78,300) and describe the car as being: “A stunning example of a rare car even in Japan, this is a real collector’s car that is a sign of wealth and power for the price of a new Ford Fiesta!”
Featured earlier this year in a 19-minute video by two vloggers named Ben and Alfie of a YouTube channel named The Department of Motoring Affairs, of this particular Century they surmised: “People are surprised that this is a Toyota… If you don’t get it by now you don’t belong in the club anyway… If you know, you know” and indeed they’re right: Here is a quirky limousine that you could only originally have had if the Japanese ‘powers that be’ allowed you.
The passenger “compartment” is described as “richly appointed” and includes not only “soft and supple” heated power, leather seats with variable speed massage functions, but also gadgets galore. Most importantly for the notoriously shy Japanese market, the compartment has all-round curtains as well as an electric privacy partition to separate it from the driver’s compartment (with an intercom communications system).There is a cordless 1990s mobile telephone, a television (described as “working but TV to Japanese specification”) with a VHS player, as well as a tape deck built into the rear centre armrest that even has an in-built recording device. A mini fridge also has a heating function for hot food and there is a cabinet containing crystal glasses and a decanter even.A desk can fold out for a mogul who wishes to work whilst on-the-road inside their Toyota Century limousine. It is made of mahogany and for those that wish to ‘drink-and-ride’ there are mahogany glass holders as well.The chauffeur also gets to sit in luxury (unlike in many other limousines). Whilst in original limousines, the chauffeur’s compartment was open, here they get not only a roof, but a leather seat also.Technology is the order of the day given this Toyota Century limousine was manufactured in Japan. The car has automatic transmission, cruise control and a fully functional digital dash.The soft-closing boot contains the original tyre and jacking equipment.The engine is a Lexus 4-litre 5V-EU V8. Of it, Historics Auctioneers remark: “We are informed by the vendor that [it] starts well and pulls strong with the temperature gauge reading a little below half and the automatic transmission shifts are firm and smooth.”From the front; this Toyota Century stretched saloon is described as “clean and straight, the chrome trim and bumpers are all intact and gleaming.” And from the rear; here is a car that Historics Auctioneers laud as having a look “denoting conservative success.”
Historics Auctioneers have produced a video tour of the vehicle to market it to potential purchasers during the coronavirus lockdown.
The 1994 Toyota Century limousine to be auctioned featured in an amusing 19-minute long YouTube video in March this year by vlogger Alfred Munkenbeck and his co-host Ben (surname unknown). They plainly loved the vehicle.
Rolls-Royce owned by “maverick” Demon Internet dot-com millionaire Cliff Stanford to be auctioned; an au pair he employed was tragically murdered by a British serial sex offender in Spain; he was convicted of “email spying” in a scandal featuring gerrymanderer Dame Shirley Porter
Cliff Stanford is best-known for having established the early dot-com success story Demon Internet in 1992. He had a (boom, boom) “demon touch” and sold the company for £66 million in 1998.
After pocketing £30 million personally, one of Stanford’s first moves was to buy a private plane and “one of the most lavish Rolls-Royces then available.”
He paid the equivalent (with a discount) of £265,000 today for the opulent Rolls-Royce and declared it: “My favourite present to myself.”
The 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is now to be auctioned for less than a tenth of that price with a lower estimate of just £18,000.
Stanford’s Spanish au pair was tragically murdered in 1999 and subsequently in a totally unconnected series of events, he was convicted of “email spying” on notorious Conservative politician and gerrymanderer Dame Shirley Porter and her son.
According to his personal Twitter account, Stanford is now based in Tallinn, Estonia; he recently tweeted in support of Dominic Cummings, but neglected to mention if he would have loaned his motor for the spinner’s infamous Barnard Castle drive.
In 1998, “flamboyant” Internet pioneer Cliff Stanford paid the equivalent of £265,000 in today’s money for a brand-new motor. He did not opt for the eco-friendly kind-of-car that today’s tech titans drift around in, but instead slam dunked and went for the ultimate symbol of flash – a Rolls-Royce Silver Spur with every conceivable extra.
Stanford’s long wheel base ride – a vehicle that would have been the envy even of Charles Frere, the business tycoon bounder of Howards’ Way, in terms of its lavishness – personified excess and reflected the persona of a man whom “laughingly” considered getting the numbers ‘666’ incorporated into the dial-up for his Demon Internet company’s software.
The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and the longer wheelbase Silver Spur (and their Bentley equivalents) were the favoured mode of conveyance of business moguls in the 1980s and 1990s. Charles Frere (played by the late Tony Anholt, died 2002), a stereotypical example of such a character, was regularly seen in such motors in the BBC classic ‘Howards’ Way’ also.
Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Clifford Stanford started his career as an accountant, but “found his way to the Internet via a love of computers.” He hit the jackpot with Demon Internet in 1992 and after selling that company to Scottish Telecom for £66 million, claimed his empire would be “bigger than Branson’s” according to the Guardian.
Speaking to the paper in December 2001, he continued: “I always wanted to be wealthy. Money doesn’t buy happiness but lack of it can lead to misery. Now I really enjoy my life, I do whatever I like and no-one tells me otherwise” and next he set up another venture, Redbus Investments, with Dame Shirley Porter’s son, John, as chairman. It listed on the stock exchange in March 2000 and the company’s activities included not only Internet hosting, but also a landmine disposal system and forays into football and popular music.
Redbus, according to ZDNet in Sept2005, was where “Stanford’s trouble seemed to start.” Kiss-and-tell scandals involving a “champagne fueled romp” at Claridge’s and his being banned from the hotel ensued, whilst in 1999 his Spanish au pair was murdered by a serial British sex offender named Tony King – who was only jailed in 2006 after a previous wrongly convicted suspect was cleared in 2002.
In 2001, the Guardian reported on the tycoon’s associations with Max Clifford – with a plainly hoodwinked Stanford remarking: “Max always has loads of really interesting people at his events” of the long since disgraced and now thankfully dead paedophile – and mentioned an unsuccessful investment of £1 million in a “badly managed” girl band called Girls@play. It had The Apprentice’s Alan Sugar’s niece as its lead singer, but ultimately was “a complete disaster really,” the businessman lamented.
By 2005, Redbus had unraveled spectacularly and in September that year, Sandford was convicted of intercepting emails belonging to his former friend John Porter. He tried to claim his actions were legal, but after being given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 and £7,000 in prosecution costs, a later appeal was denied.
Divorced, a father of two and reinvented as an “innovation strategist” according to his LinkedIn.com page, Stanford is now is based in Tallinn, Estonia with his American-German science fiction writer partner Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. Aside from a website named May.be that lists their many projects, the tech expert is an enthusiastic chess player and user of Twitter.
As well as tweeting enthusiastically about a “clean break Brexit” and complaining about Amazon, Turkish Airlines and the Estonian take on fish and chips on the social media site, he recently came out in support of Dominic Cummings. Of Boris Johnson’s puppet master’s recent problems, Stanford surmised: “Witch hunt.”
Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers will sell Cliff Stanford’s Rolls-Royce Silver Spur on the 18th July and have set an estimate of just £18,000 to £22,000. They describe the vehicle as “one of the highest specified cars we have seen and presents well in black with black leather seats, carpets and headlining,” but neglect to detail any of the high jinxes that this larger-than-life character no doubt conducted from its rear seating area.
Cliff Martin Stanford (born 1954) – The Names & Numbers
18th July 2020 – Cliff Stanford’s one-owner-from new 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur – registration S110 NGN – to be auctioned by Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers with an estimate of £18,000 to £22,000 ($22,200 to $27,100, €19,800 to €24,200 or درهم81,600 to درهم99,700) at their Windsorview Lakes sale.
June 2009 – Co-founded Power Ethernet. He describes this firm as bringing “disruptive technology to fruition.”
September 2005 – Convicted and given a suspended sentence of 6 months and a fine of £20,000 ($24,700, €22,000 or درهم90,600). A later hearing denied leave to appeal in February 2006.
2003 – Charged under the Computer Misuse Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 with the interception of emails between Jonathan Porter, one-time chairman of Redbus Interhouse, and his disgraced mother, Dame Shirley Porter – a woman best known for the “homes for votes” scandal in Westminster.
March 2000 – Floated Redbus Interhouse on the stock market.
October 1999 – Stanford’s Dutch-Spanish au pair, Rocío Wanninkhof (1979 – 1999), is abducted and stabbed to death. He offered a £50,000 ($61,000, €54,000 or درهم224,000) reward immediately and then doubled the sum in September 2003 “to anyone who could provide information” according to The Independent. After the estranged female lover of Wanninkhof’s mother was wrongly convicted for the murder in 2001 and subsequently cleared, a British sex offender, Tony King, was jailed for the killing in 2006 for 19 years.
1998 – Cliff Stanford paid £150,000 ($185,000, €165,000 or درهم680,000) for a 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur, the “last production chassis number for UK sale.” He supposedly secured a discount of £20,000 ($24,700, €22,000 or درهم90,600) on the list price from dealers Jack Barclay and added extras including “a wine cooler to rear armrest, centenary door panels, picnic tables with separate stowage compartment, TV monitor/video to rear compartment and electrically adjustable lumbar support.”
1998 – Founded Redbus Investments four days after the sale of Demon Internet.
1998 – Sold Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom for £66 million ($81 million, €73 million or درهم299 million) with 172,000 subscribers. Stanford became an early dot-com multi-millionaire, personally netted £30 million ($37 million, €33 million or درهم136 million) and moved to Brussels “to avoid capital gains tax” according to the Guardian.
June 1992 – Cliff Stanford founded Demon Internet with 200 subscribers. He had been brought up in Southend-on-Sea, Essex by his single-parent mother and began his career in accountancy.
The turbo-charged long wheelbase Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is described as a “classic machine.”The interior is in as new condition.The black leather seats have been well-cared for.The model was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a retractable Spirit of Ecstasy mascot on its bonnet.Rolls-Royce gave the car a 6.75-litre V8 engine.
1967 Rolls-Royce state landaulet originally built for the Communist dictatorNicolae Ceaușescu – but considered too extravagant even by him – and later used by Her Majesty The Queen to be auctioned
Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu was a dictator whose extravagance was a bit like that of Barbara Amiel: It knew no bounds. In 1966, ignoring the wishes of his Russian handlers, Ceaușescu decided to order what became the most costly Rolls-Royce Phantom V state landaulet by Mulliner Park Ward ever produced and spent £20,000 in 1966 (the equivalent of £652,000, $824,000, €726,000 or درهم3 million today) creating a truly luxurious vehicle.
Featuring nearly every available option possible, including a rear seat that could be raised or lowered to suit the height of passengers, this luxurious limousine also came with a combination cocktail bar and entertainment cabinet with a television. It had dual air conditioners for both the front and rear compartments, fluorescent lighting for parades at night and a refrigerated wine cooler. So over-the-top was it that, though Ceaușescu allegedly “probably could not have cared less” himself, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party, complained about the lavishness of the vehicle, had it stored for one year and then shipped back to England.
Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena
Replaced with a “more suitable Silver Shadow,” Ceaușescu’s Phantom V state landaulet was sold on to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based Dr. Erle M. Heath and his wife Bonnie. They used it on a daily basis for three decades and racked up 117,000 miles in it but also loaned it to dignitaries and personalities on occasions. Used to chauffeur Her Majesty The Queen on her state visit to Bermuda in 1975, the car was also her transportation during her visit to the Grand Cayman Islands in 1983.
Subsequently, in 1978, the vehicle also was used by Princess Grace of Monaco in Pittsburgh in 1978 and then after the death of Dr. Heath in 1992, it eventually became part of the Calumet Collection. Exhibited at various concours d’elegance, the Phantom V state landaulet also transported the American astronaut Buzz Aldrin and now has 161,795 miles on its clock.
RM Sotheby’s will sell this “rich in history” car at their Arizona 2019 auction on Friday 18th January 2019. They offer it with no reserve and an estimate of £791,000 to £1.2 million ($1 million to $1.5 million, €880,000 to €1.3 million or درهم3.7 million to درهم5.5 million).
Belgravia mews house with garaging for five cars for sale for equivalent of £1,442 per week
A two-storey mews house behind The Lanesborough Hotel in Belgravia has gone on sale for what initially seems like a bargain price of just £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.2 million).
The catch? The 1,391 square foot property in Wilton Row – which comes with a 40-foot long garage with space for up to five cars – is offered on a new 20-year lease that comes without the ability to extend or acquire the freehold.
Effectively priced at the equivalent of rent of £75,000 per year ($99,000, €83,000 or درهم362,000 per year), the unlisted building also includes a reception room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Belgravia mews house with garaging for five cars for sale for equivalent of £1,442 per week
A two-storey mews house behind The Lanesborough Hotel in Belgravia has gone on sale for what initially seems like a bargain price of just £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.2 million).
The catch? The 1,391 square foot property in Wilton Row – which comes with a 40-foot long garage with space for up to five cars – is offered on a new 20-year lease that comes without the ability to extend or acquire the freehold.
Effectively priced at the equivalent of rent of £75,000 per year ($99,000, €83,000 or درهم362,000 per year), the unlisted building also includes a reception room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Offered to benefit the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and given by Daimler AG, the 17.5-foot long, four-seater vehicle is intended as a “unique combination of luxurious chauffeur-driven limousine and off-roader” and features a glass partition to separate the driver and their passengers. It has an electric fabric top, electric side-steps, electrically adjustable rear seats with a massage function, leather tables large enough for laptops and two 10-inch high resolution media display units.
Of the 6-litre car, Gunnar Güthenke, manager of Mercedes-Benz G GmbH, commented:
“Today fascination with the G-Class is more prevalent than ever. It is a sought-after vehicle as it is forever reinventing itself – and yet remains true to its origins. It was and always will be unmistakably a G-Class, while at the same time offering plenty of opportunities for individual wishes. Our exclusive Landaulet model is the best example of this.”
Bonhams will sell the car with no reserve at their Zoute Sale in Knokke-Heist, Belgium on 6th October.
Update: Sold for £1.1 million ($1.4 million, €1.2 million or درهم5.3 million)
One-off 1971 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI cabriolet to be auctioned; originally commissioned by a British playboy turned jailbird with connections to Princess Margaret but only actually completed in 1993
Offered with an estimate of £308,000 to £462,000 ($400,000 to $600,000, €340,000 to €511,000 or درهم1.5 million to درهم2.2 million), this truly unique, one-of-one design was amazingly the final Rolls-Royce Phantom VI completed in spite of the model remaining in production until 1991. This mammoth beast of a car, surprisingly, however, has just 72 miles on its clock and is thus described as “as brand new.”
The car’s first owner, Robert ‘Bobby’ Buchanan-Michaelson, was a bit of a playboy but sadly he never got to actually drive or be driven in it. A “member of Princess Margaret’s inner circle of friends,” this Cambridge graduate was a member of the “Mayfair mammas’ lists of the season’s most eligible bachelors” until “exchanging his Edwardian hacking jacket for prison grey” in 1954 after being jailed for 12 months for an import/export fraud according to a report in Sydney’s World’s News in August that year.
Some years after being freed, ex-con Buchanan-Michaelson took part in the 10,000 mile 1968 London to Sydney Marathon in a Mercedes-Benz 280SE. In a book about the adventure he was described as both a “successful and wealthy businessman, employing a cook, a butler, a maid and a chauffeur” and as an “accomplished sportsman.” Also listed as a lavish spender, Buchannan-Michaelson was later bankrupted in November 1977 – though at the time he lived in grandeur at both at Churchbury Manor at Fairford, Gloucestershire and 26 The Vale, in Chelsea, London, SW3.
In 1970, in the period between the international car race and his bankruptcy, Buchanan-Michaelson commissioned Rolls-Royce to build him a Phantom VI. After delivery to Jack Barclay Ltd. In June 1971, the vehicle’s chassis was sent to Frua of Torino, Italy to have bodywork fitted but for some reason work stopped and it was not until 1977 – and by now with a new American owner, James Leake, and new drawings of its eventual form – that the project continued.
With Pietro Frua (1913 – 1983) retiring soon thereafter and Mr Leake’s death in 1983, the chassis passed to new ownership and it was only eventually completed as a finished motor vehicle in 1993.
That year, the four-door ‘state cabriolet’ was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show and its boxy look must have surely either have wowed or horrified visitors. It is described as having “an elaborate multi-position convertible top allows the car to be configured as a sedanca de ville, landaulet or fully open convertible.” The interior is trimmed in burled walnut with sterling silver inlays and amongst other luxuries are front and rear heating, air-conditioning, fresh-air ventilation systems, a television, a video player, a radio and a cocktail cabinet. Underneath the seats is a portable Davidoff cigar humidor and even a matching silk-lined ladies’ vanity case. What more could anyone ever need?
RM Sotheby’s will sell the Frua Phantom VI at their Monterey sale in California on 19th August and term it: “The last word in modern opulence.”
Will socialite Caroline Stanbury’s attempt to become Britain’s answer to the Kardashians hit the buffers in the same way that her Gift Library Business did?(more…)
John Bercow shames himself again in claiming £1,200 to attend a funeral
John Bercow and his blabbermouth wife are known for their grasping ways but in charging £1,215.60 to attend the funeral of the late Paul Goggins MP, the House of Commons Speaker has gone too far. (more…)
It has just been confirmed that 67-year old oligarch Boris Berezovsky was found dead in a bath at his Surrey home at around 11am this morning. His son-in-law, Yegor Shuppe, revealed the news earlier today on Facebook and later a statement came from Alexander Dobrovinsky of Moscow based The Alexander Dobrovinsky & Partners law firm stating:
“Just got a call from London. Boris Berezovsky committed suicide. He was a difficult man. A move of disparity? Impossible to live poor? A strike of blows? I am afraid no one will get to know now”.
Boris Berezovsky (1946 – 2013)
Berezovsky, who I encountered several times at The Lanesborough Hotel, lost a £3 billion damages claim against Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich in 2012. It was the largest private court action ever to have been heard in Britain and during the case he was described as “an inherently unreliable witness”.
In a separate case in January 2013, Mr Berezovsky former lover and mother of two of his six children, Elena Gorbunova, won a £200 million freezing order on his assets.
Aside from this, the political exile and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was subjected to a number of assassination attempts. A 1994 car bomb decapitated Berezovsky’s chauffeur and after a hitman had been sent to kill him in 2007, he alleged that security sources had told him:
“Someone you know will come to Britain, he will try to connect to you and when you meet him, he will just kill you and will not try to hide”.
Whether Mr Berezovsky died of natural causes, committed suicide or was killed unlawfully remains to be revealed. Whatever transpires, this turn of events marks a most tragic end for this most colourful of oligarchs.
