Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a tragic car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997. On August 26, Midlands-based Silverstone Auctions hosted a Classic Cars auction, whose main attraction was a Ford Escort RS Turbo S1. The car had been ordered in 1985 by the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry, who drove it for three years.
The car was the third Ford Escort Diana owned. The first was given to her in May 1981 by her fiancé, Prince Charles, and she was later gifted a red convertible, which, considered unsuitable for the princess because of security reasons, had to be driven under strict protocols.
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Diana thus opted for an Escort Turbo RS, a model originally available only with a white finish. Ford's PR department initiated the black repaint, making the Princess of Wales's car the only Series 1 RS Turbo in that color. The bespoke nature of the car, in addition to the extraordinary provenance, meant that the car ended up being sold to a bidder from Cheshire for £722,500 ($832,056), including the buyer's premium – a record for a Ford Escort.
For comparison, the Ford Escort Mk 3 Ghia, which the then Lady Diana Spencer received as a gift from Prince Charles in 1981, was previously sold at auction for £52,000 in 2021. The Audi convertible, which she bought a year and a half after her divorce in 1994, fetched £58,000 in 2017, and remained unsold at its next auction in 2020.
Related: Princess Di’s Iconic Audi Convertible for Sale
Princess Diana owned a wide variety of cars throughout her life. In addition to the Audi convertible and the three Ford Escorts, there were, for example, a Ford Sierra Cosworth, a Jaguar XJ-SC V12 and a Mercedes-Benz SL 500, which is now housed in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.
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