George Harrison was always known as the “quiet” Beatle during his tenure with the Fab Four. He was a bit more mysterious compared to his fellow bandmates, and rarely spoke out of turn during interviews. A talented songwriter and guitarist, both during The Beatles’ run in the 60s and his solo career that followed, Harrison seemed to prefer to express himself through song.
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Though, despite being reserved, Harrison had an interest in a particularly loud sport. George He wasn’t a fan of a more relaxed sport like tennis or maybe golf. Rather, Harrison was quite a big fan of sports cars and motor racing, particularly F1 racing. And he allegedly said that the vroom-vroom of an F1 car was the only thing that gave him the same rush as performing with The Beatles. And in the mid-to-late 1970s, Harrison leaned heavily into his favorite hobby outside of music.
George Harrison’s Love of F1 Racing
George Harrison had been a lover of racing drivers and motor sports since he was a young boy. He attended his first race when he was just 12 at the 1955 British Grand Prix, located at Aintree Racecourse in Merseyside, England.
George Harrison’s affinity for motor sport naturally resulted in the purchase of a McLaren F1 road car. He was one of only 100 people to buy the vehicle. One of Harrison’s first particularly extravagant cars was a 1964 Aston Martin DB5, purchasing new in 1965. When you’ve got Beatles money and a hobby, you can bet that money will be spent. That particular flashy car was sold at an auction in 2011 in London, bought for £350,000 by a Beatles collector.
It’s no surprise that Harrison’s love of racing bled over into his love of music. In 1979, Harrison wrote and recorded the song “Faster” off his self-titled album. That song was an ode to his friendship with some of the greats of the sport. Those include Niki Lauda, Jackie Stewart, and Emerson Fittipaldi. The pop rock tune was quite a success, and it raised funds for a cancer research fund set up by famed Swedish driver Gunnar Nilsson. “Faster” was also a commemorative song dedicated to Ronnie Peterson, who died after a serious accident during the 1978 Italian Grand Prix.
Photo by Leonard Detrick/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
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