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Royal limo goes under the hammer

LONDON, England - Seeing the words "one lady owner" usually means a great deal when purchasing a used car. That phrase takes on a whole new meaning when that lady is the Queen of England.

Auction specialist Historics at Brooklands will have a royal entry on sale in England on August 31, 2013 - a royal 2001 Daimler Super V8 LWB limousine.

The Queen used the limousine as her personal transport for three years traveling from Windsor Castle estate to Buckingham Palace.

CAR OF CHOICE

Ffrom King Edward VII to Queen Elizabeth II, daimler limousines have been the vehicle of choice for British monarchs.

A distance of 17700km was clocked on the odometer while the car was in the Queen’s possession from 2001 to 2004. It was returned to The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.  

The vehicle retains its original tyres and has an odometer reading of 24 500km – including the 4100km of pre-testing before it was officially handed over to the Queen.

PIMPED FOR THE QUEEN

At The Queen's request, the model features a number of bespoke modifications, one of which was a centre armrest that features a sliding holder specifically designed for Her Majesty’s handbag, allegedly a consequence of having nowhere to put it when driving in the company of security personnel.

The vehicle’s ashtray was modified to house security lighting controls. This includes a set of blue flashing strobes occupying the fog lights, alternate flashing headlights and rear lights. There’s also a pair of neon blue lights on the rear-view mirror so the Queen’s vehicle could be identified when approaching her destination.

Under the bonnet there’s a 4.0 supercharged V8 producing 280kW.

The car comes with a full service history by RA Creamer of Kensington and Guy Salmon of Ascot, original documentation, two sets of keys, the original registration number, along with photographs of Her Majesty driving and being driven in it.

Experts estimate the car to fetch the equivalent of R375 000 - R450 000.

Visit the website for more information.
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