The 12 Most Impressive Celebrity Car Collections Ranked

Highly successful celebrities are well known for their lavish spending habits. They seem to have an unlimited budget for buying luxurious homes, extravagant clothing, and taking vacations to exotic destinations. Many celebrities also purchase expensive cars. They choose automobiles for the pure enjoyment of driving a high-performance vehicle, traveling in style with comfort, or just to be seen in a luxury vehicle that tells everyone they have "made it."

However, a few of the most successful celebrities make car purchases an obsession, creating a collection that would be the envy of any car museum. Each celebrity tends to focus on one theme when selecting the cars. Ralph Lauren, the American clothing designer and businessman, best known for his sportswear line Polo Ralph Lauren, is one example. MotorBiscuit says Ralph Lauren "avoids the one-off curiosities, baroque period cars, and chrome-dripped Americana of many collectors, focusing instead on classics that bridge the gap between art and engineering." Laren's $40 million Bugatti 57 SC Atlantic Coupé won Best of Show at the 2013 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este.

James Hetfield, lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and primary songwriter of the heavy metal band Metallica, by contrast, concentrates on unique custom hot rods. Most are the result of a collaboration between a custom hot rod builder such as Rick Dore or Scott Mugford, and Hetfield. Each is a unique interpretation of the original, making it a stunning work of art.

These are the most impressive celebrity car collections.

Although James Hetfield is well-known to heavy metal fans as the co-founder, guitarist, singer, and songwriter for Metallica, he is less renowned for his hot rod passion. His collection includes cars he has worked on for years, each with a unique style. 

While most celebrity car collectors seek out and acquire their favorite examples of rare, high-performance, luxury, and often outrageously expensive automobiles, Hetfield opted to build his vehicles from scratch. His imagination when creating music is evident in the production of his cars, often referred to as "rolling sculptures."

The Peterson Auto Museum said Hetfield "has described seeing cars in the same way he sees music: as forms of freedom and expression that convey the passions of their creator. Hetfield's vehicles assert both a reverence for history and a disregard for convention, standing collectively as a testament to the musician's distinctive personality and artistic energy."

Hetfield's exhibit at the Peterson Auto Museum, "Reclaimed Rust: The James Hetfield Collection," ran through October 2021. His custom hot rods have won numerous awards. "Slow Burn," built from a 1936 Auburn, won the 2010 Goodguys Custom of the Year award. "Voodoo Priest," a collaboration between custom hot rod builder Rick Dore and Hetfield and based on a 1937 Lincoln Zephyr, won Mother's West Coast Custom of the Year award in 2012. And Black Jack, a 1932 Ford Roadster, was named America's Most Beautiful Roadster in 2017.

Although Mr. Bean drove a rather mundane Mini, in real life, Rowan Atkinson is often seen driving a supercar from his lavish collection. One of these exceptional high-performance sports cars was a 1992 McLaren F1, which he crashed twice. The second accident earned headlines in the U.K. as Britain's highest ever insurance payout for car repairs at £910,000 in 2011. Atkinson purchased the supercar in 1997 for an estimated £640,000, and sold it 18 years later, despite the car's misfortune, for a tidy £8 million (via GQ).

In 2021, TheRichest.com estimated Atkinson's collection at "well over $15 million." A few of his best cars, according to GQ, include a 2014 Bentley Mulsanne Birkin-Edition, 2011 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead, 1939 BMW 328, 1989 Lancia Delta HF Integrale, 1993 Mercedes 500E, 2022 Honda NSX, and a 1977 Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Buying, selling, and collecting exotic cars comes with some financial risk, even for celebrities. While ownership by a well-known public figure generally increases the resale value, it is not always the case. Although Atkinson did well with the sale of his McLaren F1, he wasn't as fortunate with other cars. His 1986 Aston Martin V8 Zagato is an example. Atkinson purchased the car for a reported price of $670,000, made around $300,000 worth of modifications upgrading it to an AMOC C2 Class category race car, and then sold it for $162,323 at a huge loss (via Carhp).

Floyd Mayweather holds multiple boxing world titles and has earned a fortune with his success. Sports Illustrated and Forbes listed him as one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for both 2012 and 2013. Some of his wealth has gone to the accumulation of high-performance and extravagant luxury cars. Rumor has it Floyd Mayweather mainly paid for his cars in cash, and mostly from one dealer. A typical transaction required a trip to the bank to fill up duffel bags with money, and then to his favorite car source, Towbin Motors in Las Vegas. The dealer needed a cash-counting device to verify Mayweather's funds (via AutoWise).

While Jerry Seinfeld prefers to keep his car collection somewhat concealed, Mayweather is not reluctant to flaunt his latest supercar acquisition on social media. His collection of high-performance and luxury cars is both exhaustive and extravagant, and he has even been known to purchase the same favorite vehicle in different colors.

One of Mayweather's most expensive cars is the Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita. Only two were made, the other resides in Geneva. Made of carbon fiber diamond weave, a 4.8-liter, twin-supercharged flex engine producing an incredible 1,018 horsepower powers the hypercar. Along with exceptional aerodynamics, the engine pushes the Trevita to 60 mph in less than 2.9 seconds. AutoWise estimates the value at $4.8 million.

Other notable cars in Mayweather's collection reads like a list of the world's best hypercars: Bugatti Chiron, Veyron, Grand Sport Vitesse, Pagani Huayra, Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta, 458 Italia, 599 GTB Fiorano, and Enzo.

A famous stand-up comedian and the star of the long-running sitcom by the same name, Jerry Seinfeld is also known for his expansive collection of classic vehicles, muscle cars, high-performance sports cars, and a few quirky modes of transportation. Seinfeld keeps his personal life more private than many celebrities, making it difficult to know how many cars are in his collection. However, in 2020, 21Motoring estimated the number to be over 150 rare vehicles.

Although details about Seinfeld's collection are often unclear, it is common knowledge that his preferred sports car is a Porsche. He is so passionate about the German car that in 1999, he purchased a New York City brownstone just to house his Porsche collection. The project took five years to complete, provided three floors for his cars, and had 850 square feet of living space.

Jerry used several of his favorite Porsches in his comedy show launched in 2012, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." The show featured famous comedians such as Eddie Murphy, Martin Short, Seth Rogan, and Matthew Broderick, as well as President Barack Obama. Perhaps most notable, it also featured fellow comedian and car collector, Jay Leno.

Seinfeld's list of Porsches is endless, but one of his favorites is the 1949 Porsche 356/2 Gmünd. Produced in the region of Gmünd before Porsche relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany, the rear-engined and rear-wheel drive 356 was hand-built with a body hammered into shape out of aluminum. Porsche made the sports car using mostly VW parts. Seinfeld's 356 is entirely original.

Hollywood power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z love to collect expensive exotic cars. Each has acquired their own impressive collection, but together they have amassed a fleet of luxury vehicles. The combined collection includes a 2005 Ferrari F430 Spider, 2006 Pagani Zonda F, 2010 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, 1957 Corvette C1, 2017 Rolls Royce Phantom VIII, and 2018 Bentley Continental GT (via The U.S. Sun).

The couple owns several Maybach series, a few of which are seen in Jay-Z's music videos. The 2007 Maybach 62S, with a base price of $492,602, has a turbocharged V12 that accelerates the high-end luxury saloon to 62 mph in 5.2 seconds, and reaches a top speed of 155 mph.

One highlight of Beyoncé and Jay-Z's fleet is the 2004 Maybach Exelero, a one-of-a-kind high-performance sports car made by Stola in collaboration with DaimlerChrysler. The Maybach Exelero is currently worth close to $8 million (via HotCars).

While the car collection of Jay-Z and Beyoncé is already ranked as one of the most exotic private collections in the world, a new acquisition from Rolls-Royce would make it even more exclusive. Still unconfirmed by Rolls-Royce, rumors indicate Jay-Z and Beyoncé commissioned the $28 million Boat Tail luxury vehicle, believed to be the most expensive new car of all time.

Although it is uncertain how many cars the Sultan of Brunei has in his collection of exotic vehicles, estimates exceed 7,000, valued at over $5 billion. The number makes him the most prominent private car collector in the world. One of the wealthiest people on earth, Hassanal Bolkiah, the current Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan of Brunei, has an estimated net worth of $20 billion — plenty of funds to build a multi-billion-dollar collection (via Garage Weekly).

While most celebrity car collections have a theme that reflects their owner's tastes, such as Jerry Seinfeld's Porsches and James Hetfield's custom hot rods, the Sultan of Brunei's theme seems to be "the more, the merrier." The collection features some remarkable machines, of which many are one-offs, specially commissioned by the Sultan or his equally car-enthusiastic younger brother, Prince Jefri. Unfortunately, his collection of automobiles is private and not available for view by anyone except the Sultan's relatives and close friends.

Per Garage Weekly, the Sultan of Brunei's collection includes 600+ Rolls Royces, 570+ Mercedes-Benz, 450+ Ferraris, 380+ Bentleys, 200+ BMWs, 170+ Jaguars, 160+ Porsches, 150+ Koenigsegg sports cars, and plenty of Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, and McLarens. The collection's most unique and rarest cars are too numerous to list, but ranked near the top is the Rolls Royce Phantom II Continental. The car set the record as the most expensive car ever sold at auction when the Sultan of Brunei purchased the one-of-a-kind luxury vehicle for $14 million.