Published on: 9/16/2017IST
Custom made Jaguar was Princess Diana's Favourite Car
After they have kids, most people opt for a family-friendly car: an SUV, station wagon, perhaps a minivan. But Princess Diana didn’t change cars. Instead, she changed a car. PRINCESS Diana had a Jaguar XJ-S Cabriolet, which was custom built for Princes William and Harry
Diana’s 1983 Jaguar was originally intended to be a two-seater vehicle. But with two small children, the princess needed some additional room—so Jaguar just rebuilt it for her. “While the other 5,012 cabriolets produced in Coventry between 1983 and 1988 were all two-seaters, this stately XJ-SC (registered E763 KYX) was uniquely fitted with two small rear seats so the young Princes William and Harrycould ride along with their mother and her bodyguard,” The Telegraph reports.
The vehicle also had two small rear seats fitted in the back so that her young sons Prince William and Prince Harry could ride with her as their personal protection officer sat in front.
Bas Bungish, the event director for the London Classic Car Show at ExCel London, said Princess Diana’s Jaguar would "conjure up many fond recollections among our visitors who really appreciate nostalgia”.
The event director added: "Seeing the two Princes today, it's hard to remember that they were once a pair of little boys strapped into those special passenger seats behind their mother. How time flies."
Diana loved riding the car so much that she often relegated her bodyguard to the passenger seat.
The car was also fitted with personalised leather and Harris Tweed seat trims.
It also had a permanently fixed, rear hard top to ensure William and Harry would not be able to bump their heads on the targa roof bar if an accident were to occur.
Diana owned the car from 1987 to 1991.
When William and Harry outgrew the rear seats, she sold it to the Jaguar Heritage Trust.
The news has come after it was revealed earlier this year that the car Princess Diana personally drove in the final years of her life had emerged for sale.
“14 October 1991: Princess Diana unveiling the new Jaguar XJ220 at the Jaguar Sports Car Factory Banbury, Oxfordshire”
12/16/2018 | | Permalink