Movie star Sir Michael Caine's motor sells for £135,000 at Duxford auction

The first car that movie legend Sir Michael Caine bought has just gone under the hammer at auction.

The 1968 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was bought brand new by the Italian Job star before he had even learned to drive.

Now the prestige car has been sold at an auction at Duxford in Cambridgeshire for £135,000, which includes the buyer's premium.

Caine, who has just turned 90, says he decided to buy the car after realising "he had reached the age of 35 without ever owning a car or even obtaining a driving licence."

The actor reportedly wandered into the renowned Jack Barclay showroom on Berkeley Square with a handwritten shopping list which read as follows: ‘milk, bread, newspaper, cigarettes, Rolls-Royce’.

He said he had been given short shrift by the salesman and was 'ushered off the premises'.

Undaunted he popped into Mayfair’s other Rolls-Royce dealership and bought the car. It was only in stock because playwright and screenwriter Terence Rattigan cancelled his order for it.

The Alfie actor then took great pleasure in being driven past the offending Jack Barclay salesman and flicking him a V-sign!

Having bought the car, Caine found it cheaper to employ a chauffeur than pay the premium his insurers quoted should he go down the ‘L-plate’ route.

He later sold the car to London restaurateur Jack Leach who owneed it until he died in 2013.