It's no wonder Sammy Hagar can't drive 55 with the cars in his garage

Quick stats: Sammy Hagar rock star/entrepreneur
Daily driver: 2003 BMW Alpina (Sammy's rating on all his cars: 10 on a scale of 1 to 10)
Other cars: 15 cars includes Jaguar, Ferrari, Fords (see below)
Favorite road trip: Highway 1
Car he learned to drive in: 1962 Chevrolet Impala
First car bought: 1951 Chevy Deluxe

Mention the name Sammy Hagar [www.redrocker.com] and people might think former frontman of Van Halen, or they'd like to do shots with him at his Cantina, with his Cabo Wabo tequila, of course. But many people hear his name and say four words: "I Can't Drive 55."

While his signature song may be true, these days Hagar can't drive his 15 cars enough. "I rotate them, I have a warehouse that all of them are in, and I can keep four at my house," Hagar said, of his Marin County home. "I really do, I rotate cars constantly."

Music is where he made it big, but Hagar's most famous song tells where his other passion lies. When he gets on the phone to discuss his cars, he asks if the phone connection is alright, then laughs, "I can't afford expensive equipment; I spend all my money on cars."

He's not kidding. As the Red Rocker begins to list them off the top of his head, it takes a while to get through the list of 15 cars which he rates "all 10s" on a scale of 1 to 10. "I don't have any cars I wouldn't rate as being a great special car."

The ride he drives the most is his 2003 BMW Alpina. "Yesterday I drove an Alpina Z8. It's a black-on-red convertible. Awesome car. I drove it over to the warehouse to do an interview and ended up driving my '74 XKE convertible back."

Hagar's No. 444 Alpina was the last year BMW made the sleek roadster. "They made them for only three years and why they stopped I don't know, it's one of the greatest cars I own and I've had all kinds of cars," Hagar says.

"It handles so well, it's so beautiful, it's kind of retro, it's kind of a cross between an XKE and a 427 Cobra. It's kind of bubbly like that and it's powerful and goes around corners. It's comfortable, sounds great, gorgeous, and it's fast, geez, need I go on?," Hagar pauses as he catches his breath. "It's an automatic, but it has the paddle shift. It's really fun to drive because it's easy, you can put it in automatic mode, you can do whatever you want with it, and it's smooth. It's not like my Aston Martin Vanquish S, which is clunky as hell - it's difficult to drive in traffic or in hills or in cities."

Zipping up the hills around the Bay Area, Hagar uses the Steptronic often, "makes it easier," he explains. "Nobody wants a difficult drive, it takes the fun out of it."