Lewis Hamilton maintains a collection of about 15 valuable vehicles that do double duty of both being fun for him to drive and act as investments. “Banks are doing nothing these days," he told the United Kingdom's Sunday Times Drive section. "So many sportsmen — sportswomen are generally a smarter species — have squandered their money. I’m very conscious of that."

“I don’t know anything about wine. I don’t know a huge amount about art. But what I do know is cars, and I’m very particular about them.”

Hamilton's fleet includes some mighty special vehicles, and a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 is among the most extraordinary. Hamilton discovered it for sale and contacted Carroll Shelby to check it out. "He said it was one of the best he’d seen in a long time, all original. Carroll died a month after I bought it," Hamilton told Sunday Times. He later bought a 1967 Cobra as a driver to keep the '66 in pristine condition.

Hamilton doesn't enjoy driving every car he owns, though. He calls his 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 a "beautiful car, but a heap of junk." The Pagani Zonda isn't great, either. "The Zonda is terrible to drive! It’s the best-sounding car I own, but handling-wise it’s the worst. I got it in manual because I didn’t like the Tiptronic version," he said.

The F1 star's fleet will be growing soon with the addition of a Mercedes Project One hypercar. He also eventually wants to own a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and a Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder SWB like the one in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Maybe, the new two-year contract with Mercedes can fund those purchases.

While Hamilton loves to drive, it only excites him for a couple hours at a time. "In LA, I’ve got a tow truck and a handyman. If I think I’ve had my excitement quota for the day I’ll ring him up and he’ll collect it from wherever I am," he told Sunday Times.

Source: Sunday Times