30 cars of the British royal family

On Their Majesties’ service

The formal investiture of King Charles III, on 6 May 2023, is the first coronation to be held in the UK in 70 years.

There could hardly be a more appropriate time, then, to look back on some of the many cars owned and driven by members of the British royal family.

As usual, we’re restricting ourselves to models built before 2000, including no more than three from any manufacturer and avoiding state limousines, which are a different sort of thing altogether.

What follows, presented in alphabetical order, are cars the royals chose for themselves (and in some cases commissioned) or received as personal gifts.

The accompanying pictures are of representative models, unless otherwise stated.

1. Alvis TD21

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and consort to Queen Elizabeth II, was a keen driver for most of his long life.

He was particularly interested in the Alvis TD21, produced from 1958 to 1963, and commissioned a drophead coupé of his own in 1961.

“It was fairly obvious to the lads on the shop floor that something special was being built, as there was suddenly a lot more activity surrounding one particular chassis,” according to former Alvis employee Roly Simmons.

Sure enough, this was no ordinary TD21. Park Ward, which built the bodies, gave this car a windscreen three inches taller than that of the standard model pictured here, and raised the folding roof accordingly, to give the prince more headroom.

Other special items included a compass in the centre of the dashboard and a mascot mounted on the bonnet.

2. Aston Martin DB6 Volante

The quality of 21st-birthday presents from mothers can vary wildly, but if you’re first in line to your country’s throne they’re probably going to be pretty special.

In the case of Charles III, or Prince Charles as he was then known, the maternal gift was a DB6 Volante, which seems to have sparked off a particular enthusiasm for convertible Aston Martins.

He received it in November 1969, just three months after the MkII DBS had been launched, and still owns it today.

In 2008, the car was converted to run on bioethanol. Charles has suggested that the fuel was created from wine and cheese, and has been reported as saying, “It smells delicious as you drive along.”

3. Aston Martin V8 Volante

A late example of the V8 (known in its early years as the DBS V8) was another gift to the then Prince Charles, this time from Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain.

The prince made his requirements clear to Aston, specifying, among other things, that the deep chin spoiler which had been added to the car’s design over the years would have to go, and insisting on a manual gearbox.

Aston also redesigned the centre console so that it could carry a jar of sugar lumps (apparently to be fed to polo ponies rather than consumed by Charles himself) and converted the ashtray into a compartment for storing the royal sunglasses.

Other V8 owners, including Aston Martin chairman Victor Gauntlett, found the car appealing, and others were later built to what became known as PoW (‘Prince of Wales’) specification, though it seems that no two of them were exactly the same. After all, not everyone needs a place to keep sugar lumps.

4. Aston Martin Virage Volante

Like the V8, the now King Charles III’s Aston Martin Virage was built to his own requirements.

As a result, it had the very unusual combination of a standard body with a 6.3-litre (rather than the usual 5.3-litre) V8 engine, along with appropriate suspension and brake updates.

The 6.3 was available to other customers, too, but only with wider bodywork.

Charles never bought the Virage, but leased it from Aston from 1994 until 2007. Like the V8, but unlike the DB6, it is now in private hands.

5. Audi 80 Cabriolet

In 1994, it was well known that Princess Diana drove an Audi 80 Cabriolet which had been loaned to her by Dovercourt Audi of St John’s Wood, London.

Most sources agree that this was a metallic-green car registered L499 TRP (pictured), but a dark-blue 80 Cabriolet, registered L541 GJD, has been advertised as being driven by Diana, and indeed contemporary press photos show that she drove both.

Yet another press shot shows that she also drove a third, registered in March 1995 as M152 MYH, but nobody seems to have claimed that it was in her possession for long.

6. Bedford CF

In the 1980s, Vauxhall’s commercial division developed an electric version of the CF van, with the help of government funding and technical input from other companies.

EV technology was nothing like as advanced as it is now, but the intention was that vehicles like this could be used for short-run deliveries without producing any tailpipe emissions.

Prince Philip drove one of the prototypes (fitted with side windows and extra seats, which essentially made it an MPV) and was so impressed that he kept it for a few years.

The project was abandoned when the allocated taxpayers’ money ran out.

7. Daimler DE27

The British Daimler company (related only distantly to the organisation which now owns Mercedes) was the favoured manufacturer of the royal family for the first half of the 20th century.

Two Hooper-bodied examples of the DE27, a limousine with a 4.1-litre straight-six engine, were among the last Daimlers supplied to the royals for personal use.

According to the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain, chassis 51101 was presented to Queen Mary (then the Queen Mother but previously consort to George V) in 1947.

A few months later, the then Princess Elizabeth received chassis 51040 early in 1948. Registered HRH 1, it was used as both a private and a state car.

8. Daimler Double-Six

Double-Six was the name of a sleeve-valve V12 engine family used in several enormous, and correspondingly expensive, Daimlers in the 1920s and ’30s.

Several of these were supplied to King George V, the first being delivered in 1929.

Late in the engine’s lifetime, the sleeve valves were replaced by the more conventional poppet-type ones fitted today.

Very few motors of this type were produced, but they were used in the royal Daimlers in the mid-to-late 1930s.

9. Daimler Mail Phaeton

Cars became a familiar, if not exactly common, sight on the roads during the reign of Queen Victoria, who doesn’t seem to have been particularly interested in them.

The first British monarch to own a car was her son, King Edward VII, whose enthusiasm was already evident while he was still the Prince of Wales.

Of the many Daimlers he eventually bought, the first was a 6hp model with mail phaeton bodywork (a term brought over to cars from the carriage industry).

There are several claims about when Edward took delivery of his newfangled machine, but a usually reliable source puts it at 28 March 1900.
 

10. Ford Escort Ghia

As Prince of Wales, the present King gave a Ford Escort 1.6 Ghia (pictured) as a wedding present to the then Lady Diana Spencer, who became his first wife in 1981.

The car remained mostly standard, but Diana had a frog mascot fitted to the rear half of its bonnet, where it probably didn’t affect the aerodynamics much and was unlikely to be landed on by an unfortunate pedestrian.

In 2021, the car was sold at auction for £47,000, plus fees.

This was a remarkable sum for a Mk3 Escort with 83,000 miles on the clock, but not even close to the record price for an ex-Diana Ford.
 

11. Ford Escort RS Turbo

The second and better known of the Ford Escorts belonging to Diana, Princess of Wales, was a 1985 Series 1 RS Turbo (pictured).

Uniquely, it was painted black rather than white, and had a standard Escort front grille rather than the one used on other RS Turbos, apparently in an attempt to make it less noticeable.

In 2022, the car was sold at auction for £650,000, or £722,500 including fees.

Taking into account inflation and exchange rates, the latter figure is almost exactly the same as that achieved at a 2005 auction by a Mk2 Escort 1.1 once owned by Pope John Paul II, though it’s almost impossible to make an exact comparison.

12. Ford Pilot

The V8-engined Pilot was the first new model launched by Ford of Britain after the Second World War.

It was quite a high-class vehicle for its time, but not necessarily the sort of thing you would expect a reigning monarch to pay much attention to.

Despite that, George VI is known to have had one, though this was a rare ‘woody’ estate version.

The royal Pilot was registered in 1951, the final year of production. The car pictured here is a 1950 example, which looks almost identical.
 

13. Jaguar MkVII

Jaguar’s MkVII was a large saloon car which not only provided considerable luxury, but was fast enough to do well in competition, including winning the 1956 Rallye Monte-Carlo.

This combination strongly appealed to Queen Elizabeth, consort to George VI and referred to after his death as the Queen Mother.

She acquired an updated MkVII M (uniquely painted in metallic claret and fitted as standard with higher-lift camshafts than the original model) in 1955, a few months after its introduction, and kept it until 1973. It subsequently became part of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust collection.

Jaguar commissioned artist Graham Bosworth to paint a portrait of the car, and this fine piece of work was presented to the Queen Mother on her 100th birthday in August 2000.

14. Jaguar XJ12

The Queen Mother’s interest in Jaguars extended well beyond her ownership of the MkVII.

The car was replaced in 1973 by a very special long-wheelbase XJ12 which, like its predecessor, had claret paintwork.

Very unusually, it also had Vanden Plas leather upholstery. This was available in the contemporary Daimler Double Six, which was essentially the same car with different badging, but not normally in the XJ12.

The Queen Mother owned the car until her death in 2002. At her request, it was then returned to Jaguar.

15. Lagonda 3 Litre

After owning an MG for several years (we’ll come to that later), Prince Philip moved upmarket in 1954 by purchasing a Lagonda 3 Litre drophead coupé.

The car’s name was a slight exaggeration. Its engine, which performed well in competition, had had its capacity increased since it first appeared, but at 2922cc it would more properly be described as a 2.9-litre.

The prince’s example had at least two unique features: Edinburgh Green paintwork, and a radio telephone, which was removed when the car was put up for sale in 1961.

Before then, it led a varied life. Its duties included taking part in a tour of the Commonwealth and transporting the young Prince Charles to his prep school.

16. Lanchester Eighteen

Following its acquisition in 1930 by the BSA Group, which brought it into the same family as Daimler, Lanchester began to produce smaller and less luxurious (though still high-quality) cars than it had in the past.

This was apparently of no concern to Albert, Duke of York, who had been an enthusiast of the marque for several years.

In 1936, he acquired a relatively humble Lanchester Eighteen, which he used as private transport.

Later that year, Albert ascended to the throne as George VI. He still owned the car when he died in 1952.

17. Land Rover Defender

The classic Land Rover became known as the Defender in 1991, and retained that name until production ended 25 years later.

This might seem an odd choice of vehicle for a queen. Sure enough, Elizabeth II was often seen at the wheel of a Range Rover, which had similar off-road ability and vastly more luxury.

However, Elizabeth was a keen driver, frequently went off-roading on her various estates and, perhaps most crucially of all, was a trained mechanic who would no doubt have appreciated the fact that the Defender was expertly designed for a specific purpose.

Prince Philip also liked Defenders, and was involved in the design of a converted model which was used as the hearse at his funeral in 2021.

18. Land-Rover Series One

Queen Elizabeth II’s fondness for Land-Rovers began many years before the Defender name was introduced.

Very early in her long reign, she acquired one of the first of the Series One models built on an 86in chassis.

Registered NXN 1, it was taken to Balmoral, where it remained until 1966, at which point it was bought by a resident of nearby Ballater and re-registered LXC 894D.

It remained in the same hands for nearly six decades before going to auction in February 2023.

19. Mercedes-Benz 500SL

From 1987 to 1991, Princess Diana drove a slightly converted Jaguar XJS V12 Cabriolet.

This was acquired by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (in return for a donation to charity) and replaced by a Mercedes-Benz 500SL – part of the R129 range, fitted with a 5-litre V8 engine.

The idea of a Princess of Wales driving a non-British car went down very badly in some quarters, leading Diana to return the SL (which ended up in the Mercedes museum) in September 1992.

Attitudes changed quickly. Fewer than two years later, there was far less fuss about the fact that Diana now drove an Audi.

20. Metrocab

Once he had got Bedford CF vans out of his system, Prince Philip switched in 1993 to an only slightly less unlikely Metrocab.

Driving a vehicle normally used as a taxi is not the sort of thing you might expect of a prince consort, but Philip wasn’t alone. Actors Stephen Fry and Laurence Olivier did the same thing.

In 1999, the then Duke of Edinburgh swapped his first Metrocab for another one fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

This remained in service until 2017, when it was transferred to the royal car collection at Sandringham.

21. MGC

The MGC was an MGB sports car modified to take BMC’s 2.9-litre straight-six C-series engine.

Right from the start, it was criticised for poor handling and disappointing performance at low to medium revs. Production lasted for only two years, compared with 18 for the MGB.

Whatever anyone else thought, the then Prince Charles liked it – perhaps because it was his first car, given to him as a present shortly after he turned 18.

Charles in turn passed it on to his elder son when William reached the age of 17 in 1999.

22. MG TC

Although the TC went into production after the Second World War, it was the third car in the T-type series, which had made its debut back in 1936.

Prince Philip bought a TC (to which the Lagonda he acquired several years later was a dramatic contrast) and took the then Princess Elizabeth out in it while they were courting.

Elizabeth described the car in a letter written to the author Betty Shew in 1947.

“He has his own tiny MG which he is very proud of. He has taken me about in it, once up to London, which was great fun, only it was like sitting on the road, and the wheels are almost as high as one’s head.”
 

23. Reliant Scimitar

To classic car enthusiasts, the Reliant Scimitar was a glassfibre-bodied British sports car powered by a six-cylinder Ford engine of one type or another, and most popular in GTE form with a shooting-brake body style.

To almost everyone else, it’s famous for being the favoured car of Princess Anne, who was given one as a birthday present in 1970 and is believed to have had eight more since then.

The last of these was built in 1989, two years after its new owner became only the seventh person in 345 years to be given the title of Princess Royal.

Like other members of her family, Anne is a keen driver, and has diverted some of her fortune to the public purse by way of several speeding fines.
 

24. Renault 5

Innumerable press shots were taken of Lady Diana Spencer driving, or standing next to, a red Austin Metro after it became public knowledge that she was in a relationship with her future husband, Prince Charles.

However, pictures of her in a blue first-generation Renault 5, which she owned before buying the Metro, also featured in newspapers as early as 1980, months before the couple’s engagement was announced.

The Renault is believed to have been secondhand, but it must also have been fairly new, since it was first registered in April 1979.

What happened to the car is unclear, but it appears to have had a short life. Its Vehicle Excise Duty ran out on 1 November 1982, and there is no record of it ever having had an MoT certificate, which would have been required for the first time seven months before that.
 

25. Renault Dauphine

As with the earlier 4CV (known in the UK as the 750), Renault used a factory in Acton to assemble right-hand-drive versions of the Dauphine for the British market.

In 1957, Renault presented Queen Elizabeth with one of the earliest Acton-built Dauphines (pictured), which remained part of the royal household for several years.

It is believed to have been transferred to a Renault dealer in 1963, after which its condition deteriorated substantially – not an uncommon problem with Dauphines.

The last sighting we’re aware of was in 1971, when the car apparently overturned after skidding out of control on a wet road and was subsequently scrapped.

26. Rolls-Royce Phantom IV

The first of only 18 Phantom IVs ever built is still in use today as an official royal car, but it didn’t start out that way.

It was originally owned jointly by Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth. The former had driven an experimental Bentley known as the Scalded Cat, and decided he would like something of the sort for himself and his new wife.

Rolls-Royce completed the order in 1950, and the car was used privately until Elizabeth became queen two years later.

It has since become a familiar sight at royal weddings and other state occasions.

27. Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow

Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, provided a very specific list of requirements (including a padded cushion designed to fit between the front seats) when she ordered a long-wheelbase Silver Shadow (pictured).

The car was delivered in 1975 and remained in Margaret’s ownership for four years.

It later spent a similar amount of time in the US, under the ownership of actor Burt Reynolds, but returned to Europe in the late 1980s.

The car changed hands most recently in June 2021, at an auction held in Liechtenstein.

28. Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II

As she had done with the Silver Shadow, Princess Margaret compiled a detailed specification for its replacement, a Silver Wraith II.

This was effectively another Shadow. Rolls-Royce used the Wraith II name for the long-wheelbase derivative of that model from 1976.

Margaret received the car (pictured) in 1980, and it stayed with her for a very long time compared with others privately owned by members of the British royal family.

In fact, she kept it for the rest of her life, which came to an end in February 2002.

29. Rover P5

For most of the 1960s, and on into the following decade, Queen Elizabeth II could often be seen at the wheel of a Rover P5.

This was the first Rover with unibody construction, rather than a body bolted to a chassis, and started out in 1958 with a 3-litre straight-six engine.

The motor was replaced in 1967 by the Buick-derived 3.5-litre V8, which wasn’t available even in Buicks when the P5 first went on sale.

The V8-powered cars were known as P5B, and performed far better than their six-cylinder predecessors. The monarch, who owned P5 of both types, no doubt found this satisfactory.
 

30. Vauxhall Cresta (or Velox)

Vauxhall’s PA range consisted of two models called Cresta and Velox, which differed only in detail.

All of them left the Luton factory as saloons, but some were converted into estate cars by Friary Motors of Basingstoke.

One of these was created specifically for Queen Elizabeth II, and is usually referred to as a Cresta, but its exact identity is difficult to determine. It had a Vauxhall badge above the front grille, suggesting that it was indeed a Cresta, but it also had the less expensive interior upholstery of the Velox – perhaps a wise choice, given that corgis would be present.

The royal Vauxhall was also fitted with a dog rack (again because of the corgis) and a gun rack (presumably for a different reason).