A sports car once owned by HRH, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh has sold for a world record price at auction in the UK.
The car was one of the star lots of the recent H&H Classics sale, which realized more than £5 million at the Imperial War Museum.
The 1954 Lagonda 3 Litre MKI Drophead Coupe was originally built specifically for Prince Phillip, and included unique features such as a radio telephone, which operated on its own radio frequency, and an extra vanity mirror in which the Queen could adjust her hat.
The car won manufacturer Aston Martin its first Royal Warranty, and remained Prince Phillip’s collection for seven years. During that time it became a regular sight around London, as Phillip dropped the young Prince Charles off at school and met up with fellow aristocrats at the after-hours Thursday Club in Soho.
Offered with a unique royal provenance, the car sold for £346,800 ($500,286), setting a new auction record for a Lagonda 3-litre and surpassing the previous record by a remarkable £270,000.
The sale’s leading lot was a 1961 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Competition Roadster, one of the first seven competition E-types with an extensive period racing history. Having also achieved notable results in historic events such as the Goodwood Revival and Le Mans Classic, the car sold for £858,000 ($1.23 million).
Further British classics achieving top prices included a 1965 Bentley S3 Continental Park Ward Drophead Coupe which sold for £184,800 ($266,588); a 1969 Jaguar E-Type 4.2 Roadster which fetched £70,560 ($101,758); and a 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 Saloon which realized £207,200 ($298,902).
There were also strong results for cars which had previously starred on the small screen. The 1978 Ford Capri 3.0S which starred in the British TV crime show The Professionals sold to a dedicated fan for £54,912 ($79,214); and two cars from the hit show Minder, a 1977 Ford Capri 2.0S and a 1981 Daimler Sovereign 4, sold for £52,083 ($75,133) and £32,083 ($46,282) respectively.
