Someone Please Buy Me Princess Diana's Awesome Ford Escort RS Turbo
Diana from who made me a princess princess diana with people i am diana princess of play am i related to princess diana diana in private the princess nobody knows the princess and me buy for me please someone buy me a car someone please buy my house someone please love me someone please help me financially someone please pass me my shades
Someone Please Buy Me Princess Diana's Awesome Ford Escort RS Turbo
There are a lot of reasons to throw around the word "iconic" when talking about the late Princess Diana, from her fashion and activism to the scandals and drama that surrounded her life and death. But she was also a legit car enthusiast, preferring to drive herself around rather than be chauffeured, much to the chagrin of the royal family's security detail. Diana owned a slew of awesome cars, and one of the coolest is going up for auction later this month: her 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo Series 1.
This was the third Escort that Diana owned, following a modest, silver Escort Ghia that was an engagement gift and a red Escort 1.6i Cabriolet that was deemed unsafe to drive by the Royal Protection Command -- the convertible roof didn't offer enough privacy or protection. After being pushed to get a stealthier car, Diana apparently insisted on the then-new Escort RS Turbo model. Built for homologation in Group A racing, this performance trim featured a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with 130 horsepower, chassis upgrades, Recaro seats and some rad styling mods.
Diana frequently used this hot hatch.
Tim Graham/Getty ImagesDiana's Escort was specially modified at the suggestion of Ford's PR team. While nearly every single one of the RS Turbo's 8,604-unit production run was painted in white, Diana's was finished in a stealthier black paint job, though it retained the RS Turbo's blue racing stripes. It was also fitted with a five-slat grille instead of the RS Turbo's sportier single-slat grille, and it got a second rear-view mirror for use by the security officer that would typically ride along with the Princess as a passenger.
The princess drove this Escort from August 1985 through May 1988, using it to scoot around London's Chelsea neighborhood and transport her young kids around. In later years she gained a fondness for luxury cars, owning cars like a Jaguar XJS, an Audi 80 Cabriolet and multiple BMWs including an E36 3 Series and an E39 5 Series. (She never owned a Porsche 911, though, despite its appearance in the movie Spencer.) My personal favorite of Diana's cars is her maroon Mercedes-Benz 500SL -- I'm a fellow R129 owner -- which is now on display in the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. She was basically forced to give up the SL in 1992 after the lease was over, as the royal family didn't like that she was driving an expensive German-made car, especially during a recession.
It's in perfect condition.
Silverstone AuctionsAfter Diana was through with the Escort, it was returned to Ford and given a new registration and license plate. It was then sold for around $3,200 to a manager at Ford for his wife's use, and in 1993 the car was used in a promotional giveaway by Kiss FM. A man named Mr. Windsor then acquired the Escort in 1994, and he owned it until 2008 when it was bought by a prominent Ford RS collector.
Now in excellent concours-ready condition and with just 24,961 miles on the odometer, Diana's Escort is going up for sale through Silverstone Auctions on Aug. 27, and it will be offered with no reserve. Silverstone Auctions expects the Escort to go for over $100,000 -- Ford RS models are already extremely collectible and highly valued, and this is maybe the best known of them all. Diana's first Escort sold at auction for $63,000 last summer, and her 1994 Audi 80 Cabriolet went for nearly $66,000 in 2016. If you're rich and reading this, you should buy it for me.
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