Offered as ‘Car of the Day’, Princess Diana’s ex-black Ford Escord has given auction house Silverstone a day to remember. Bidders all over the world cause a hustle and bustle. The competition for the motorized souvenir caused the price to skyrocket.
Leamington Spa – A quarter of a century after the tragic death of the Princess of Wales ((36, † 1997), her Ford Escort RS Turbo comes under the hammer. The auction house Silverstone, based in the county of Warwickshire, had offered the car as “a piece of history”, before bidding continued to drive the price up, eventually Princess Diana’s former vehicle sold for a whopping £650,000.
Bidders from around the world are showing interest in the late Princess of Wales’ car
Even auctioneer Jonathan Humbert was surprised when the bids soared: “£500,000 for a Ford Escort? I’ve never said that before.” Interest in the vehicle was very high and the highest number of telephone bids had been received in twelve years. Prices would have started at £100,000 and then escalated in a contest between hopeful buyers from Dubai and Coventry.
The car, which Princess Diana had driven for nearly three years from August 1985, according to the BBC, with registration number C462FHK, eventually went to a buyer in Cheshire. Rare photos show the princess with the escort in front of boutiques in Chelsea and Kensington. The first wife of the heir to the throne Prince Charles (73) preferred to drive her own car, with a member of the Royalty Protection Command (also known as SO14) usually in the passenger seat.
Diana’s Travolta dress fetches £240,000 at auction
In 2013, the auction house Kerry Taylor was able to celebrate a record sum of almost 300,000 euros with the auction of a dress worn by Princess Diana, a midnight blue velvet robe by designer Victor Gemstone. A “British Gentleman”. The gown gained notoriety when Diana wore the lavishly-cut gown to a 1985 visit to the White House. The pictures of the event went around the world when the princess danced with Hollywood star John Travolta (68).
The car was known as the “Volkssportwagen”, the auction house stated
The car, sold on August 26th, is considered unique as it is the first and only black Series 1 RS Turbo. Diana’s security guards had agreed on the special color with Ford for reasons of discretion, in order to be able to move more inconspicuously on London’s streets than in the usual white model.
After Diana sold the car in 1988, it was privately owned for a number of years in the 1990s before becoming part of a Ford RS collection. According to the dealership, the car with the blue stripe was in “top condition”. In June 2021, another Ford Escort used by Princess Diana went under the hammer for £52,000. Diana’s so-called Schandrad also achieved a record price in the same league in an auction. Sources used: Instagram@pistonheads, bbc.com
