Stars and Their Cars - Wheels of the Rich and Famous

Many celebrities confess to having a love of cars and driving; some even spend a considerable amount of time and money building up collections of cars for their own personal garage. So, what are some of the vehicles driven by the rich and famous?

Footballers, it seems, are in the top bracket when it comes to exotic cars, with many of the top earners in the game having what appears to be an obsession with owning the world's most exclusive and expensive cars. Manchester United star Wayne Rooney, for example, can count such vehicles as the Lamborghini Gallardo, Bentley Continental GT, Aston Martin Vanquish and BMW M6 among his collection.

Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele is another footballer whose garage is full of hot wheels; a Mercedes McLaren SLR, Ferrari F360 and a Mercedes SL65 AMG convertible are among the cars owned by the Dutchman. Meanwhile Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard can boast a Porsche 911 Turbo, Mercedes SLK, Aston Martin Vanquish and BMW X5 as part of his fleet of motoring muscle. Cristiano Ronaldo has owned an Audi R8, BMW X5 and Ferrari 360 among his cars, and his name features on a waiting list for perhaps the world's ultimate car - the Bugatti Veyron.

However, perhaps the ultimate car fanatic from the footballing world is David Beckham. Having spent in 

excess of £2million on a host of vehicles, Beckham's garage counts the likes of the Ferrari 575 and F430, Lamborghini Gallardo, two Bentley Arnages and a Rolls Royce Phantom among others. Beckham also has an armour-plated BMW X5 and once owned an Aston Martin DB7, with the registration plate 'DB7'. Cars such as these are all a far cry from Beckham's first entry into the motoring world - the humble Ford Escort.

Fame doesn't necessarily give rise to the need to spend lavishly on top-of-the-range cars, however. At the peak of the Spice Girls' fame, band member Melanie Chisholm - also known as 'Sporty Spice' - shelled out on a 1998 Audi A3 which she used to drive herself around as she and the band rose to international stardom, clocking up 79,000 miles in the process. With the Spice Girls going on to become one of the biggest girl groups of all time, it was unlikely that Sporty Spice needed Audi car finance to make her purchase and later the car was sold on the motoring website, Autotrader, having amassed 110,000 miles and a full service history, for a bargain price of £2,995.

Film and TV stars aren't immune to owning top-of-the-range vehicles either. American actor Ben Affleck has owned an Aston Martin DB7 and Dodge RAM, while Brad Pitt can claim to have driven the Mercedes G55 AMG. More modest cars owned by film and TV stars include the David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff's BMW Mini and Harry Potter star, Daniel Radcliffe's Fiat Punto.

However, no celebrity car is complete without a personalised registration plate. Recently, Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton reportedly paid £200,000 on the personalised registration LEW 1S; but the driver won't be putting the registration onto his Mercedes SLR or McLaren F1, however, with the plate destined to be attached to his Mercedes GL420 4x4 off-roader. Other famous registration plates include magician Paul Daniels' MAG 1C, singer Englebert Humperdinck's EH 1 and business tycoon Sir Alan Sugar's AMS 1 which is regularly seen in the opening sequence of the show 'The Apprentice'.