Rock ‘n’ roll: this is how this €600,000 Rolls-Royce recently ended up in a swimming pool

September 4, 2025

Keith Moon

Of course, the idea of a Rolls in a swimming pool does not come out of the blue. In the 1970s, Keith Moon, the legendary drummer of The Who, is said to have driven a Rolls-Royce into the pool of a Holiday Inn in Michigan during his 21st birthday. Whether it was really a Rolls is debatable. Moon himself later said it was a Lincoln Continental belonging to a hotel guest and that he had only pulled the handbrake, after which the car slid toward the pool. Others present even swore there was no car in the water at all. But a good story, is a good story.

The story grew into folklore. Jeremy Clarkson repeated the stunt in 2005 for Top Gear, and Oasis even used the idea for an album cover. In short: whether true or not, the story is too good not to retell.

Rolls-Royce Phantom

And that’s exactly what Rolls-Royce did. Using a boat and a crane, a Phantom Extended – one that was headed for recycling anyway – was placed on a platform in the pool water of the Tinside Lido hotel.

That pool, by the way, is not just a bathtub. The posh Tinside Lido in Plymouth is a 1935 Art Deco hotel right on the English coast. A place with a touch of Beatles history, moreover, as this is where photos were taken in 1967 during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour.

No splash

The photos of the Phantom in the pool are mostly symbolic and not hugely “rock-n-roll. The car does not float, but stands halfway through its doors in water. But we admit: a nice stunt. It also took place on what would have been Keith Moon’s 79th birthday.