Princess Diana’s style archive gets picked apart every few months; the revenge dress, the biker shorts and blazers era. But there’s a quieter obsession that keeps resurfacing at auction houses around the world, and it has nothing to do with fashion. Diana loved cars, drove them herself, and decades after her death, collectors are still paying absurd amounts of money just to own the ones she sat in.
The clearest example is her Ford Escort RS Turbo. In 1981, weeks before her wedding, Prince Charles gave her a Ford Escort Ghia as an engagement gift practical that was modest, nothing flashy. It was meant to send a message about a royal family staying grounded during a tough economic period in Britain. She wanted the RS Turbo, the sportier hot hatch version, and she got it. Ford even built her a black one specifically, since every other RS Turbo on the production line came in white. She drove it herself around Chelsea and Kensington between usually with a plainclothes protection officer in the passenger seat and often, two young princes in the back.
What makes the car story different from the fashion story is the ordinariness of it. A gown or a pair of shoes was always meant to be looked at. A car she drove to run errands wasn’t performance, it was just her actual life. That might be exactly why it holds so much value for collectors: it’s less about the icon and more about the woman who wanted to drive herself somewhere without being on display.
What's your hot take on this story?
Diana’s wardrobe will always dominate the headlines. Her garage tells its own story one about a woman who, even inside one of the most rigid institutions in the world, still found small ways to choose things for herself.
