On the bookshelf: The King and his love of cars

Not only is he the undethroned King of Rock’n’Roll, but he was also a car enthusiast and motorcycle fan. Nevertheless, when he died, he owned “only” eight cars, along with three tractors, three motorcycles, three trikes and a few snowmobiles. The legendary singer is said to have owned around 200 pieces in his life. Siegfried Tesche is now tracing the majority of them in his book “Motorlegenden – Elvis Presley”.

Elvis Presley’s passion for vehicles began early. Father Vernon is said to have let him behind the wheel of a Ford Model A back in 1944 while he himself sat in the passenger seat and gave instructions – Elvis was nine years old at the time. At the age of two he got his first vehicle: a Shapleigh bicycle. It was used for a good ten years and never thrown away. A fan drew the heirs’ attention to the rusting remains in Elvis’ Graceland home in 2020.

A 1942 Lincoln Zephyr Club coupe with a 5.0-liter V12 engine was the Memphis music rebel’s first car. His parents gave him the car for his 18th birthday. Siegfried Tesche doesn’t just have some technical problems to report here. Almost minutely, he reports which car was used for which tour or how many miles it had clocked up and what condition it was in. At the turn of the year 1954/1955, Elvis also bought a Lincoln as the first car with his own money. Just a few months later, the first Cadillac followed “on March 6 or 9, 1955,” following the Lincoln was involved in an accident “regarding March 5, 1955,” the author has researched. This used Fleetwood Series 60 Special already showed Elvis Presley’s preference for giving his cars a personal touch with special paintwork.

The author names colors, repaints, interior fittings or the number plates of individual vehicles in great detail and traces their whereregardings. The singer’s preference was above all for the Cadillac brand, but also – not least because of his military service in Bad Nauheim – German cars were not alien to him. The King of Rock’n’Roll even owned a Messerschmitt bubble car. However, his record company gave it to him. Conversely, Elvis himself was generous when it came to cars (and motorcycles). He simply gave away many of his vehicles or bought almost dozens of new ones for friends and acquaintances. A special car in the musician’s life was a van. He used an old 1948 Chevrolet Panel Truck to just go for a walk incognito in a work jacket and hat. His last passion was Stutz cars in the 1970s. His hearse was once more a Cadillac, accompanied by a dozen or two other white limousines of the make.

Elvis Presley is said to have owned around 200 vehicles over the course of his life. The volume of “motor legends” is dedicated not only to them, but also to his life, which in the end was no longer quite so glamorous. The chapters and sub-chapters are titled with the song titles of the singer, who never composed his own song. The 150 illustrations not only show cars, but also motifs from his films and some private pictures. Unfortunately, not all of them are accompanied by a brief note.

The book comes to match the current film by Baz Luhmann with Austin Butler and the 45th anniversary of the singer’s death on August 18 of this year. “Motorlegenden – Elvis Presley” by Siegfried Tesche is published by Motorbuch-Verlag Stuttgart, has 240 pages with 150 illustrations and costs 29.90 euros. (Jens Riedel/cen)