Princess Diana’s unique Ford Escort sells for $850,000 at auction

A Ford Escort RS Turbo Series 1 driven by the late Princess Diana fetched 724,500 pounds ($851,070) at an auction held at Britain’s Silverstone circuit on Saturday.

The Silverstone website describes the car as the last Princess of Wales Ford Escort, with 24,961 miles on the clock. It belonged to the Princess of Wales between 1985 and 1988.

The Princess was often seen driving the car around Chelsea and Kensington and drove 6,800 miles before returning it to Ford. After the return, the car had several owners before returning to Ford, according to the Silverstone website.

The website makes no mention of the winner of the auction.

The RS Turbo Series 1 was usually made in white, but Royal Family Police requested that Diana’s be painted black « for discretion », the auctioneers said.

For the princess, driving the vehicle was « a very brave choice », Arwel Richards, classic car specialist at Silverstone Auctions, told Reuters earlier this week.

Next week will mark 25 years since the death of Diana, aged 36, when a limo in which she was a passenger crashed into a Paris tunnel as she sped away from the paparazzi who chased her on a motorbike.

(Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani in Bengaluru; Editing by Christina Fincher)