One of the last true stars and legends of soul music has disappeared: Tina Turner, who has been photographed next to cars of all kinds several times throughout her life. His passion for engines was great, but perhaps not everyone knows that the cars he loved excessively were large luxury SUVs.
The passion for cars
Anna Mae Bullock, the artist’s real name, has always been fascinated by beautiful cars ever since she left the house one fine day in the seventies – out of nowhere – and went shopping a Jaguar E personally at the official dealer in Los Angeles.
She wanted her very first real car, not a gift from her husband: there was already a beautiful one in her garage XJ6. And so came her third-series V12-powered Jaguar E Spider, which Tina Turner herself described as a symbol of her “great sense of freedom.” I took it home and drove it at sunset, a feeling I’ve never forgotten.” The singer had her Jaguar customized with a hard top, twin side portholes and a gunmetal gray body. But the real gem was the personalized “1 Tina” plate.
Another Turner car was a Mercedes Benz 280 GE Short wheelbase imported from Germany for $125,000 at the time, bought in 1985 and resold in 1989. In 2015 it was auctioned off for only $25,000, perhaps due to the high mileage (approx. 160,000 km).
The crazy SUV
Turner’s most original purchase, however, was the Lamborghini LM002, one of the most extreme SUVs ever. Black livery, mammoth appearance: the car was bought by the singer to then customize it ad hoc to satisfy the star’s tastes, which practically revolutionized it.
However, it must be said that the most important change arose from a real need of Tina Turner, who was not at all comfortable driving with a manual gearbox. For this reason, his LM002 is equipped with an automatic transmission. And so the original engine was actually replaced by a Mercedes V8 with automatic transmission. 1500 watts available of the singer: Thanks to the audio system requested by the star, the interior of her car could broadcast music like at a concert.
The queen of rock ‘n’ roll had this secret passion that was little known to the general public. he loved luxury SUVs, just like the black LM002 gifted to him by his then partner (in the 1980s) Erwin Bach (who later became her husband). The car was bought for DM 70,000 and customized by Bale Motorsport.
As expected, the mechanics of the impressive Lamborghini LM002 luxury SUV were modified for a further 150,000 marks: a 5.0-liter V8 engine with 326 hp, derived from a Mercedes E 500, with a four-speed automatic transmission was added.
A recently deceased music legend drives an automotive legend. Today Tina Turner’s spectacular car – also very rare (301 copies were produced until 1992) – is owned by the German collector Christoph Zitzmann. How nice it is to find out what cars our singers, soccer players or favorite idols have – or had – especially when they disappear after making history.