Rooney’s rides revisited
Wayne and Coleen have a fortune estimated at £35 million
15 May 2009
He’s 23-years-old. He earns more than £100,000 a week. He’s loves cars.
He’s Wayne Rooney.
Now Rooney and his wife Coleen are expecting their first child, the Man United and England forward has had to buy a more suitable car for their young family.
So he went and got his hands on an estate.
Except this is no ordinary estate, it’s an Audi RS6 Avant powered by a 5-litre V10 engine developing 572bhp.
The result is a car which will accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds before hitting an electronically limited top speed of 155mph. And there’s room in the boot for a year’s supply of nappies.
One family car is never enough. So Wayne also bought himself a BMW X6 SUV. The four-seat Beemer has 282bhp on tap and is capable of 147mph. It’s also a diesel – he’s clearly thinking about reducing his fuel bills – no big expense claims allowed here.
Humble beginnings
Despite having driving licenses for just six years, Wayne and Coleen have had a spectacular car collection and as it is with most people the England star had to start somewhere.
In 2003, as a fresh-faced 17-year-old Rooney – then at Everton – was presented with a Ford Sportka. With a 1.6-litre engine, the diminutive Ford could get Wayne from 0-62mph in 9.7 seconds.
While a modest motor, it wasn’t the most embarrassing on show in the Everton car park. That honour went to hardman Duncan Ferguson who owned a Ford Escort Van to transport his beloved racing pigeons.
After the Ford there’s been no stopping the United star as he quickly climbed the pecking order for footballers’ cars.
Motors which sat on his front drive included a BMW M3, VW Golf R32, Cadillac Escalade, Chrysler 300C, BMW M6 and BMW X5. All pretty standard cars for professional footballers wanting to look the part in the training ground car park.
Joining the supercar club
But Wayne was now at Man United, mixing it with the likes of Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo so he needed to up the stakes.
Cue supercars, off-roaders and modified motors.
One of the cars which joined his fleet was an Aston Martin Vanquish S – a £170,000 gift from his other half in 2006. With 510bhp, it was his most powerful car at the time and was capable of a top speed of 200mph.
Since Wayne got rid of the Aston it’s appeared on Auto Trader twice – and it can be yours, with just 6,000 miles on the clock, for £92,975.
In the same year Rooney got his hands on a Mercedes CLK DTM AMG. The DTM is one of the maddest Mercedes ever and is inspired by Bernd Schneider’s 2003 German Touring Car championship-winning CLK.
With 582bhp and no rear seats, the CLK is targeted at those who love one thing – performance. The snarling V8 rockets the German supercar from 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and onto a top speed of 199mph. As with the Aston, Roo’s Merc is for sale on Auto Trader at the moment for £149,990.
The flashiest car he’s owned is a black Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder.
With the same 5-litre V10 as his Audi RS6 Avant, the Italian convertible can accelerate from 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds before reaching a top speed of 197mph. It also came with a £136,000 price-tag. Rumour has it he test-drove the car bare foot.
4xPhroah
The Aston Martin and Lamborghini are brilliant but premiership footballers need a more day-to-day motor to sit by their supercars. They need to be big and powerful and boast off-road ability that will never be needed. Step forward the 4x4.
Alongside the previously mentioned BMW X5 and Cadillac Escalade, Rooney’s 4x4 collection includes a supercharged Range Rover and an Overfinch-tuned Range Rover Sport. But the maddest and most original of Wayne’s off-road fleet was his Mercedes G55 AMG.
Costing around £100,000 new, the G55 was powered by a supercharged 5.4-litre engine which develops 476bhp and 516lb/ft of pulling power. This meant the German 4x4 could accelerate from 0-62mph in 5.6 seconds – staggeringly quick for a 2.5-ton car with the aerodynamics of a brick.
The G55 was for sale on Auto Trader last year for £59,995.
What do his team-mates drive?
Having owned a G55 and a CLK DTM AMG, Mercedes became fond of Wayne and made him an ambassador for the company last year. This gave the Rooneys access to a chauffeur-driven Merc for public events and a £120,000 CL63 AMG for the pair to drive.
Then there is the Bentley Continental. It’s an absolute must for every footballer who lives near Alderley Edge in Cheshire. Ronaldo, Ferdinand, Van der Sar, Giggs and even Sir Alex Ferguson own one.
So Rooney bought a convertible GTC model for Coleen in January. It’s the same model and colour as Ronaldo’s and bought around the same time as the Portuguese superstar’s. Coleen has also had a Mercedes SLK and Porsche 911.
Fleet services
As the world’s most famous football club, United generally get the pick of the sponsorship deals. And it’s no different in the car stakes with the Champions’ players given cars by Audi.
In the past Rooney has been spotted in an Audi RS4 Avant while Ronaldo and Anderson have both had Audi R8s.
But Wayne and Coleen are going to be parents in September so they’ve gone for the more sensible RS6 Avant. We say sensible, it still has more power than a Ferrari F430.
We can’t think of anyone, barring the oil princes, who have had such a car collection. At 23, he’s potentially got a further ten years of earning £100,000-a-week which, after tax, is £30 million.
Tie in endorsements galore and we’d expect a fair few motors appearing on the drive of his Cheshire mansion in the future.
What should Wayne buy next? Have your say on the Auto Trader Blog
Pictures: Eamonn and James Clarke and PA Photos
Video: Check out Rooney's new car, the Audi RS6, in action
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