A car previously owned by Diana, Princess of Wales, is hitting the auction block later this month.
The former Princess of Wales’s 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo Series 1 will be auctioned by Silverstone Auctions over the weekend of 26-27 August and is expected to go for around £100,000.
According to the Silverstone Auctions listing, “It’s said that the Ford Escort 1.6i Cabriolet in Red, that was to be Princess Diana’s second Escort, was deemed to be unsuitable by SO14, as the manual canvas roof offered little privacy in a hurry and zero protection. Encouraging the purchase of a stealthier car, Her Royal Highness was insistent on the new Escort Turbo RS, and the Ford PR department suggested making a black RS Turbo the first example of the then current range of all-white cars on sale.”
This was Diana’s third car after becoming a member of the Royal Family, and it was registered on 25 August 1985. Diana was photographed driving it around London through the middle and late ‘80s before getting rid of it in May 1988.
It was returned to the Ford Motor Company with only 6,800 miles on the odometer and thereafter was sold privately or used in contesting due to its links to Diana, Princess of Wales.
Silverstone Auctions’ listing continues: “The RS Turbo was never intended to be driven by the future Queen and was inconceivable as transport for the future King William, it remains the most daring choice of class-dividing motor car by any member of the Royal Family since.”
Now, nearly 40 years after Diana first drove it, the car only has 24,961 miles racked up on it.
Old cars once driven by members of the Royal Family heading to the auction block are nothing new. In 2021 alone, cars once owned by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (a Range Rover) and Princess Margaret (a Rolls Royce) both hit auction, while this year, a car once owned by The Queen Mother was up for sale.
