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A humble Ford that was driven by Princess Diana in the late 1980s has sold at auction for £650,000 ($1.1 million).
The Princess of Wales drove the black Ford Escort RS Turbo, a model dubbed the ‘people’s sports car’, for nearly three years from August 1985.
The economy car was a one-of-a-kind that had been customized for the People’s Princess to drive around London.
She was known to prefer to drive her own vehicles, with a member of the Royalty Protection Command sitting in the passenger seat.
The car had been photographed outside boutique shops in Chelsea and Kensington.
The vintage vehicle fetched a sum much higher than another of Diana’s cars, also a Ford Escort, which sold at auction last year for £52,000 ($88,000).
Silverstone Auctions’ classic car specialist Arwel Richards said the car’s rarity because of its black color and the public’s “emotional link” made it special.
It’s believed to be the only Escort RS Turbo Series 1 model made in black. The rest of the fleet is white.
He said the new owner would have “one of the finest preserved examples of this model anywhere, and also the slice of social history that comes with the car”.
“This car was known as the ‘people’s sports car’ and the fact it was driven by the People’s Princess just nails it.”
The everyday driver was a departure from the usual high-end vehicles preferred by royalty such as Rolls Royce’s, Bentleys and limousines.
The auction was held one week before the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris.
The bidding began at 100,000 pounds and was won by a UK buyer.
Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said the car had attracted the highest level of interest of any of the auction house’s items over the past 12 years.
He said the car represented a “piece of history”.