Tina Turner was known for many things: her unmistakable raspy voice, her unrivaled on-stage energy, and her ability to overcome whatever life threw her way. Did you know she was also an avid an auto enthusiast?
Turner’s love affair with cars began early in her career, when she was teamed up with Ike Turner. In 1970, Sammy Davis Jr. bought her a white XJ6 Jaguar as a gift. Then her husband Ike Turner bought her a silver Jaguar XKE in 1973.
According to Turner’s 2018 autobiography, My Love Story, Davis originally wanted to gift her a Mercedes-Benz, but her assistant suggested a Jaguar instead because the singer “was into English cars.” Turner admitted the Jag “awakened my passion for fast cars.”
“It may sound silly,” Turner wrote, “but one of my favorite escapes, and a secret pleasure, was driving my Jaguar. I loved it because it was something I could do by myself, one of the few times I could be alone and free.”
The 12-time Grammy Award winner experienced similar joy in the Jaguar XKE.
“I’ll never forget the moment I got behind the wheel and pulled out of the dealership,” she wrote. “It was late and a little misty when I drove the sleek silver Jaguar on Wilshire Boulevard. As far as I was concerned, there was no one else on the road—just me, driving with the windows down, looking and feeling fabulous. I can still hear the sound of the motor, the vroom that signaled it was ready to take me anywhere I wanted to go.”
In 1978, during her divorce from Ike Turner, she famously walked away with only her stage name, “Tina Turner,” but, to her relief, the judge also ruled that the two Jaguars should stay with her, indicating their personal importance.
Following the massive success of her 1984 comeback album, Private Dancer, her taste shifted. She bought a Lamborghini LM002 (an early SUV). Because she only had an automatic driving license, her partner (later husband) Erwin Bach had the car radically customized, replacing the standard V12 engine and manual transmission with a V8 engine and automatic gearbox from a Mercedes-Benz 500E. This bespoke LM002 remains one of the most unique vehicles she owned.
Her collection also included a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen from 1985. In the 1990s, she also appeared in a series of popular television advertisements for the Chrysler Plymouth family of cars, including the Acclaim and Laser.
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