Comment A revamped version of a popular 1980s family car once owned by Princess Diana has sold for almost $764,000 at auction, a record for the model, after a bidding war broke out between British and foreign collectors. Diana drove the black 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo for nearly three years and was regularly photographed using it on trips around London’s posh shopping lanes in Chelsea and Kensington. “This is a little moment in history, ladies and gentlemen,” the auctioneer said as he opened the bidding at 100,000 pounds ($117,000) – an opening figure that had already eclipsed the previous record for a similar car, in white, sold last year. The final price, including the 12.5% buyer’s premium, was over $850,000. Princess Diana died 25 years ago, but she remains a role model for women The sale comes just days before the 25th anniversary of the Paris car crash that killed Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. He was not behind the wheel of that car—a Mercedes-Benz S-280—when it crashed at high speed early on August 31, 1997. The princess, and the mementos that mark her life, have lasting public appeal long after her death. Last year, a slice of cake from her royal wedding to Prince Charles – 40 years old, and probably unfit for consumption – went under the hammer at another auction, fetching around $2,000. Those attending Saturday’s auction certainly seemed keen to keep a piece of UK history and a memento of the ‘People’s Princess’, cheering as bids came in from Coventry and Cheshire, and booing when the main bids were moved overseas. “This will be like the Elgin marbles. It will be embargoed to be sent abroad,” quipped the auctioneer, referring to a series of 2,500-year-old sculptures that are the subject of one of Europe’s biggest cultural controversies. (Over the years, many tried to persuade the British Museum to return them to Greece.) A Solution for the Elgin Marbles: Robot-Carved Replicas? Classic car values have skyrocketed in recent years as people who teamed up during the coronavirus pandemic channeled their wanderlust into other ventures, including cars, real estate and art. Diana’s car was eventually sold to a buyer in a bucolic Cheshire village just south of Manchester, favored by English Premier League footballers. The auctioneer described the vehicle as a ‘flawless example’ of the Ford Escort, which was one of Britain’s best-selling cars of the 1980s. Known as the “people’s sports car”, it ranged from basic to fully developed sports versions. It was a rare black version of the car, apparently ordered at the request of palace security officials who wanted Diana to drive a more discreet vehicle. She preferred to drive herself, with a bodyguard riding in the passenger seat. Also on Saturday it was on sale a black 1973 Rover P5 that drove Margaret Thatcher to Buckingham Palace before she was appointed as Britain’s first female Prime Minister and a 2015 Land Rover Defender that appeared in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre. The Escort was one of several world car sales records broken on Saturday, the auction house said. Even the auctioneer appeared surprised as the bidding escalated: “£550,000 on the Ford Escort. I’ve never said that before.”
