An auction of retro vehicles is to feature several Land Rovers, including two that have the most outstanding royal credentials imaginable.
The Race Retro Classic and Competition Car Sale by Silverstone Auctions on February 25th will now include a 2010 Land Rover Defender 110 designed to the specifications of its owner, the late Duke of Edinburgh.
Described as having an “interesting provenance”, the vehicle has just 15,623 miles on the clock and is expected to command a price of between £50,000 and £70,000.
The other Royal Land Rover in the sale, announced in December, is the 1953 Series I that was owned by the late Queen Elizabeth II. It was owned by the Royals and used on their Balmoral estate until 1966, when it was sold to a new owner in nearby Ballater. It led the Land Rover pageant at last year’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
With both vehicles in such good condition, it is unlikely many off road vehicle parts will be needed by the new owner. But that will certainly not be the vase with some other models, which will either have been bought with work needing to be done on them, or which have been in the same ownership for years and simply need replacement parts as a result of wear and tear or accidents.
The Royal couple’s love of Land Rovers was well known. They rode in them frequently during their first overseas tour as Queen and Consort in 1953-54, as well as on subsequent trips such as tours of Australia in the 1970s, for which custom-built models were built Down Under.
Prince Philip even arranged for his final journey to be made in a Land Rover, setting out in 2003 to design a modified one as his funeral hearse. Sadly, because his death in 2021 happened in the midst of the pandemic, the journey was a short one inside the grounds of Windsor Castle, rather than a public parade from Buckingham Palace through the streets of London.
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