Auction house that sold Prince Philip’s 1954 Lagonda for a world record price of £350,000 to sell ‘Princess Diana’s’ car at Donington in May.
Audi 80 2. 6 Cabriolet
A 1996 Audi Cabriolet 2.6 just like the one owned by Princess Diana, and used in the film ‘Diana’ featuring Naomi Watts as the Princess, will be sold by H&H Classics at its next auction sale on 18 May at Donington Park, UK.
This elegant Santorin Blue convertible with charcoal leather seats has 144,000 miles on the clock, but “can still turn heads” according to Damian Jones, Sales Manager for H&H Classics.
The company was founded by Simon Hope in 1993 as a specialist auction house dedicated solely to the sale of collectors’ motorcars and motorcycles and after some 22 years, it can still boast a continuous trading history which exceeds that of most UK rivals.
The car, registration number, ‘N215 NGC’, has come to H&H specifically because the owner was impressed by the marketing and end result of the Prince Philip Lagonda which made automotive history on 20 April at Duxford. The royal car sold for more than four times the previous record for a Lagonda 3 Litre at auction (£80,000) making a whopping £350,000 to stunned disbelief from the classic car world.
In 2013, when the film ‘Diana’ was first shown, Pakistani heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan, Princess Diana’s former lover, criticised the film over its portrayal of their love affair. The heart surgeon said that the film, starring Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews, was based entirely "on hypotheses and gossip" and vowed never to watch it. The affair is believed to have lasted two years from 1995 until 1997.
The film ‘Diana’ is based on Kate Snell's 2001 book, ‘Diana: Her Last Love’. Dr Hasnat, who was given the nickname, 'Mister Wonderful' by the late Princess, is on record as saying there wasn't any hierarchy in our relationship. She wasn't a princess and I wasn't a doctor."
Diana's close friend Jemima Khan revealed in an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair that the Princess was so "madly in love" with Hasnat Khan that she "wanted to marry him, even if that meant living in Pakistan."
It was during her time with the heart surgeon that Princess Diana used her Audi Cabriolet to drive herself around London.
Damian Jones of H&H said:
“It’s difficult to predict a price. The car was not owned by the Princess but was rather a star in a film. That said, we recently achieved a world record of £54,000 for a Ford Capri 3.0S, Bodie’s car from The Professionals.”
For further information, please contact H&H Classics Ltd on 0044 (0) 1925 210035
http://www.classic-auctions.com/
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