The Royal Family’s affinity for Land Rovers is very well known, and every now and then one of their former trucks comes up for auction. The idea that The Queen may have once sat in the back seat, or even behind the wheel, always makes the truck sell for a bit more than it’s worth otherwise. But when a Range Rover Classic once owned kept at Windsor Castle for royal use went for over $130,000 (£101,250) at the Silverstone Auction, people took notice.
The 1975 tuck is a lovely shade of Lincoln Green, one of the iconic earlier Range Rover Classic colors. During its life at Windsor Castle, it was driven by several members of the Royal Family, but it seems like it’s most associated with Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, who drove it often when they were dating. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is seen using it in press photos, and it was even an airport runabout to get Prince and Princess Michael of Kent from London Heathrow.
The truck had a rough life after leaving the royal stable, though. It ended up in a barn in England, deteriorating as barn finds do, but in 2013 it was found and restored to its former glory. Last year, there was even a video produced about the truck on the car website Petrolicious that shows how meticulously it was rebuilt.
$130,000 is not small money, and is in the upper tier of recorded early Range Rover Classic sales. Of course, Classics are gaining value overall, and a clean, well-restored early vehicle is already worth quite a bit more than a decade or so ago. The royal connection just compounds that strong value. But...it just might be worth it to have gripped the same steering wheel The Queen did.
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