Queen Elizabeth II: a life in cars

But it certainly does appear that she was a huge fan of cars. In 1950, as Princess Elizabeth, she attended the first ever British Grand Prix Formula One race at Silverstone. As Queen from 1952, she never had to drive again in her lifetime if she didn't want to, but that certainly wasn’t for her, and she owned – and drove – a large number of different cars over the years.

And she continued to drive them until she was about 93 years of age. In this feature we’ll be looking at the Queen’s life in cars – both what she was driven in, but also some of the interesting choice of vehicles she chose to drive herself:

At the age of 18, in February 1945, the then Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army. In that role she learned how to service and maintain jeeps, trucks and ambulances, generating headlines; America's Associated Press dubbed her “Princess Auto Mechanic.”

The first royal Rolls owner was the uncrowned Edward VIII, the Queen’s uncle, but in the main the preferred pre-war royal car-maker was Daimler. The Duke of Edinburgh moved the relationship with Rolls up a gear when he and his wife Princess Elizabeth took delivery of a Rolls-Royce Phantom IV (in the foreground here) in 1950. It became their primary ceremonial vehicle for some years after Princess Elizabeth became Queen in 1952 and it remains in occasional use today.

On Friday 9 September 2022 King Charles III was collected from the RAF Northolt airbase in London in a 1992 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (pictured rear, centre) to take him to Buckingham Palace, on his first full day on the throne.

As we'll see, the Queen loved her Land Rovers for her leisure activities, but they came in very useful for ceremonial duty as well, as on this Commonwealth Tour visit to Malta in 1954, the year after her coronation. The Queen's beloved father King George VI had been presented with the 100th Land Rover off the production line in 1948.

The Queen’s life in cars – and that of earlier royals - did not just revolve around Rolls-Royces and other luxury cars. One of the first cars that the Queen’s great-grandfather, King Edward VII, purchased was a Renault  – a 14/20hp Landaulette, which he gave to his wife, Queen Alexandra in 1904.

The French company went on to build a factory in Acton, west London, on the site of a former airfield, in 1926. In 1957, as shown in this photo, Renault presented the Queen with a gift of this Acton-built Dauphine; Prince Charles learned to drive in the car – kicking off a lifelong love of cars for Britain’s new King who has himself owned a series of interesting vehicles.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Nigeria for the first time in February 1956, and they were frequently transported in this splendid 1952 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith LWB. The car was owned by the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi I.

In this photo the Queen attends the 1957 Royal Ascot horse races accompanied by her children Prince Charles and Princess Anne in her Daimler. The Queen may have liked her cars but this was far surpassed by her love of horses and horse racing. Her own horses won at Royal Ascot on a number of occasions - as recently as 2020 - and she attended the event every year for 70 years, on the trot... In failing health in 2022, she missed the occasion, to her great regret.

The Queen has had a very long association with Land Rover and owned many of its models over multiple decades. This particular Landie, however, belongs to the Royal Navy, where we see the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh touring the flight deck of the Centaur-class aircraft carrier HMS Albion in 1957. 

We expect that the Queen and the Duke didn’t just appreciate the go-anywhere nature of Land Rovers; their height came in useful too when it came to watching horse trials.

By all accounts one of the Queen’s favourite cars was her 1961 Vauxhall Cresta ‘MYT1’. She drove it regularly, doubtless appreciating the space it allowed for her beloved Corgi dogs.

It is believed that the Duke of Edinburgh ordered the number plate specially, some say in humour, the precise meaning officially unknown. On 13 September 2022 the Queen's coffin was flown from Edinburgh to RAF Northolt in a RAF C-17 transport aircraft, and met by a new Jaguar hearse, apparently specially developed by Jaguar Land Rover in conjunction with the Royal Household with input from the Queen. Following the hearse was a new model Range Rover L460 (Mk5), now wearing the MYT1 licence plate, and carrying the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Incidentally, the registration number of the RAF C-17A aircraft was ZZ177, LL1ZZ when looked at upside down. 

The Queen's wartime training led her to take a close interest in not just cars but also how they worked and were built, and she visited many car factories over the decades. Here she can be seen touring the Aston Martin Lagonda plant at Newport Pagnell in April 1966.

The company on this occasion presented her with a miniaturised DB5 sports car as a gift for her six-year-old son Prince Andrew; it was powered by two 12-volt batteries to give a top speed of 10mph. One other example was given to Reza, son of the Shah of Iran. In 1969 the Queen would select a (full-sized) DB6 Volante to give to Prince Charles for his 21st birthday. On 29 April 2011 the car put in a surprise appearance for a drive up the Mall outside Buckingham Palace, driven by Prince William and new wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, on their wedding day.

The Queen and princes Edward and Andrew observing field sports circa 1972.

Land Rover’s saloon-car parent Rover also enjoyed considerable royal patronage. The Queen owned several V8-powered P5s, including this 1971 P5B, which now resides at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon. This model was also used by British prime ministers of the period, including for many years after it left production in 1973.

The Land Rover’s upmarket sibling was launched in 1970, and it was quickly pressed into royal ceremonial service.

The Queen quickly embraced the Range Rover for off-duty purposes as well.

Jaguars were used ceremonially too, as with this specially converted XJ saloon, which saw service here on a royal tour to Mauritius in 1972.

The late Queen - like her mother before her - was very fond of France and the French people, and visited the country frequently, often in a private capacity pursuing her love of horses. Here we see her in the company of President Pompidou. The president had ordered from coachbuilder Chapron two specially converted four-door drophead SMs for ceremonial duty, and one was used for the first time for the Queen’s state visit to the country in May 1972.

The Queen once again travelled in the car on a state visit in April 2004, when she reviewed troops on the Champs-Élysées with President Chirac in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale alliance between the two nations.

Jaguar and Land Rover were sister-companies from 1968 until 1984, and again from 2000 to the present day, and the Queen enjoyed the former’s cars as well, owning a Daimler V8 LWB saloon (built by Jaguar) in the early 2000s, as well as a Jaguar X-Type estate at roughly the same time. 

The Queen took delivery of the British racing green Daimler V8 LWB in the summer of 2001 . It was mainly used as a relatively low-key way for the Queen to travel in and around Windsor and for journeys between the castle and Buckingham Palace. The car clocked up around 11,000 miles in 12 years. It had some discrete modifications, including a holder for her handbag and the ability to lower both rear windows from either side of the car. It was sold to a member of the public for £45,000 in 2013.

The British motor industry was very proud of the support that the Queen gave it and her careful choice to mostly own, drive and be driven-in in British-built vehicles. So in 2002 the industry repaid the favour, clubbing together in a consortium to build two armoured V8-powered Bentley limousines as a gift to the monarch on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee. Rather uniquely for a Bentley they are equipped with cloth-seats, not leather ones, a nod to the Queen’s love of animals.

As a life-long driver of its vehicles, it was perhaps only natural that the Queen opened the new engine factory established by JLR in Wolverhampton in 2014; here then-company CEO Dr Ralf Speth can be seen explaining to her the company’s new range of Ingenium engines.

The Queen again with Dr Speth examining the L405 Range Rover (Mk4) in 2014. The smile on her face shows that she was far from going through the motions when it came to exploring a new car. JLR was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade that year on account of its exporting success.

British company BAC hosted the Queen on a visit to the Exhibition Centre Liverpool in 2016; Liverpool-based BAC produces the remarkable single-seat Mono road-going sports car, which weighs just 580kg (1276 lb). She apparently told BAC’s chief executive of her delight at seeing a car that was so different, and also designed and built in the UK. The company presented her with a scale model of the car which is now in the Royal Collection.

The modern-day Range Rover was widely used as a ceremonial vehicle by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in recent years, as here in 2016. The Royal Standard was prominent in place, as ever.

Queen Elizabeth II's love of cars was one of the many reasons she will be greatly missed, and as we celebrate her life our thoughts are with her family.