Monarchy is an old-fashioned type of state arrangement. But Queen Elizabeth II of England, whom the world is saying goodbye to these days, did not shy away from technological progress. And there were always very decent cars in her fleet.
The first car in the royal stables (yes, yes, the stables – the Buckingham Palace garage is still called that) appeared in 1900. The then Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) purchased a 6-horsepower Daimler and a Hooper & Co. phaeton body.
During the Second World War, the then Princess Elizabeth served as the driver of the Austin K2/Y sanitary truck.
Since then, the British company Daimler (not to be confused with the German one) has become the court supplier of cars for the royal court for many years. At the same time, in the official royal garage (the monarchs also have private cars), cars of the British brands Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Land Rover, Range Rovers, Jaguar were registered.
The future Queen of England repaired a 3-ton truck herself. The car was carrying 10 wounded people, the drivers noted the heavy nature of its gearbox.
It is interesting that the decommissioned cars were partly transferred to the museum, partly sold, but after the previous removal of royal paraphernalia and repainting with the removal of the royal livery (burgundy royal claret).
Photo 1957, Windsor. The Queen drives her children Prince Charles and Princess Anne in a luxury Daimler sedan.
Such events as the retirement of royal cars do not happen often because the cars have served conservative monarchs for a long time. For example, one of the current official royal cars is the 1978 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI. And in general, today there are three Rolls-Royces and two Bentley in the royal fleet.
1992. The Queen of England drives a purely British car – the Land Rover Defender SUV.
The British, who are in love with their queen, are proud of the fact that she often got behind the wheel of a car herself. Elizabeth received her driving license at a military driving school.
