We’ve all seen them. Those cars for sale that claim former ‘celebrity ownership’, and are a letdown on one (or many) fronts. Cars in the classifieds need to have their provenance shouted about, of course, but you know the sort of tenuous associations we’re talking about. The famous person in question will have owned the car for no time at all perhaps, or never driven it anywhere; maybe the car that’s being sold doesn’t really qualify as interesting, no matter what name was once on the V5. Or, heaven forbid, the person that once owned it (and is supposed to bring added value) just isn’t that notable at all…
No such concerns here. It’s a V12 Ferrari, first off, which is always interesting (and we’ll get to it properly in a second). More intriguing still is the fact that this 456 GT was delivered new in 1995 to Pete Townshend. The ad describes him as a ‘multi-instrumentalist and the driving force behind the legendary rock band, The Who.’ Which, if brief, sums up an incredible musician and his outstanding career to a tee. It would be all too easy to dedicate reams of reams of a car advert to Townshend’s achievements, given his Wikipedia page is about as long as Ulysses; safe to say he very much qualifies as a proper famous person.
It’s now more than 60 years since The Who’s original lineup - Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon - formed. From 1964 to 1978, they established a reputation as one of the most influential, popular and loud rock bands of the period; people know The Who, and they know names like Pete Townshend’s, because it was a group that transcended age and musical taste. Doesn’t matter how old you are and what you’re into, because everybody knows The Who. They’re just one of those bands.
All of which means you’d let off a dealer being quite excited about having, say, Pete Townshend’s old Ford Cortina in stock. But they don’t - they have his old Ferrari 456 GT for sale. And they’re fantastic regardless of ownership history. It was delivered new in 1995, said to be one of just 141 right-hand drive manuals; it’s not clear whether that’s just pre-Modificata 456s or the entire decade and a bit of production, but you only need browse the classifieds to see the autos were overwhelmingly the more popular transmission. A manual 456 of any kind is a very rare car. A very cool one, too - the six-speed would have been a bold spec choice.
There’s plenty more to appreciate as well: the 456, like a few front-engined Ferrari V12s, never really suited Rosso Corsa - this Gunmetal finish, on the other hand, still looks really suave and sophisticated. After Townshend’s four years of ownership, it stayed with the next owner for more than a decade and a half; the current keeper has had it since 2017, so very few owners for 30 years of driving. It comes with the fitted luggage set (fabulous it looks, too), and is said to have been looked after ‘regardless of cost’. Probably a good attitude to take into future ownership as well. Point being that even without the Townshend association, it looks a lovely Ferrari 456.
The asking price is £60k, making this GT one of half a dozen 456s on PH priced between £54,950 and £60,000. You’re spoilt for choice! More specifically, it doesn’t seem that a huge premium is being attached for the celebrity link, which is nice to see. And, as the ad also points out, the 456 remains one of ‘very few Ferraris nowadays that can be bought for less than their list price when new.’ In case any further justification was required for the ultimate piece of The Who memorabilia…
1 / 4
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4 3"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1 1"%3E%3C/svg%3E)