Two cars owned by the British royal family cost $12m each and they are the only of their kind in existence
- The Royal Family owns two custom-made Bentleys
- They can reach surprisingly high speeds for fully armored vehicles
- The cars were modified so that the Queen wouldn’t have to bend down to get inside
Published on Nov 16, 2023 at 7:29 PM (UTC+4)
by Andie Reeves
Last updated on Nov 17, 2023 at 2:52 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Alessandro Renesis
The car collection of the royal family is worthy of, well, a royal.
The Queen famously loved driving herself around, her favorite car being a Land Rover Defender, while King Charles is more of an Aston Martin guy.
But there are two cars in their fleet that are especially notable.
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Their Bentley limousines are worth a whopping $12 million each and are kitted out especially for royalty.
The Bentley State Limousine is the official state car of Great Britain.
Just two were made and were given to the Queen to celebrate her Golden Jubilee in 2002.
After her death, they were taken over by King Charles.
One is black and the other is claret, which is a fancy way of saying ‘dark red’.
Because they are specifically for transporting the royal family and heads of state, the cars have fully armored bodywork and glass-resistant and blast-resistant tires
To ensure it can be driven at speed in the case of an emergency, the tires are also reinforced with Kevlar, and the interior can be sealed to be completely air-tight.
The cars were designed and made by Mulliner, with input from both the Queen and Prince Philip.
The car is longer and taller than the standard Bentley, and the interior is upholstered with lambswool for all the seats.
These adjustments have a more practical purpose than just making the cars look like majestic monsters on the road.
The royal family needs to look dignified at all times, and awkwardly ducking into a car is not a good look for them.
To further assist with this, the cars also have suicide doors – or ‘coach’ doors, as the Royals call them..
These tweaks meant the Queen was able to walk right in without stooping.
Most Bentley owners proudly sport the flying B emblem on their car’s bonnet.
However, the Bentley State Limousine features a silver statue of St. George slaying a dragon sits on the front of these two cars instead.
For trips up north, it’s swapped out for a lion, a reference to the Scottish coat of arms.
The Bentleys have 6.75-liter V8 engines and even though they’re so decked out with protective plating, they are still plenty fast enough, with an impressive top speed of 130mph.
The rear seat was built especially for the Queen’s dimensions.
There is even handbag storage next to it that is the perfect size for what was HRH’s favorite bag.
We wonder what King Charles keeps in that compartment now.
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Andie is a content writer from South Africa with a background in broadcasting and journalism. Starting her career in the glossy pages of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, Andie has a broad portfolio, covering everything from sustainability solutions to celebrity car collections. When not at her laptop Andie can be found sewing, recording her podcast, taking board games too seriously or road-tripping in her bright green Kia.