Diana had the golden touch

A Ford Escort once owned by Princess Diana has sold for a staggering $1.2 million. The 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo S1, the only one finished in factory black paint, sold at Silverstone Auctions for £724,500 including fees. That's the equivalent of 1.2 million Australian dollars. Hagerty, which has been tracking the impact of celebrity on cars, described the figure as "astonishing". Earlier this year it launched its first Power List report, to investigate how much famous ownership can add to the value of a vehicle. After a search of its databases it compiled a list of more than 260 celebrity owned cars that had been offered for sale. Hagerty experts then compared the sold price (or estimated sale price) with the values for a standard car at that time. While the report was split into sections that cover every aspect of celebrity from music to film, it was Royalty that generated the most interest. Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and the Duke of Cambridge were among the most influential, but by far and away it was Princess Diana who led the field. Before the sale of the Escort, Hagerty Price Guide data revealed that cars once owned by the Princess commanded an average increase in price of 813 per cent. Two of the sales were Rolls-Royces which Diana merely travelled in, but she also had the same impact on more humdrum cars. In 2021 her 1981 Ford Escort Ghia sold for £47,000 (a 527 per cent increase), while her beloved 1994 Audi Cabriolet blew the roof off at Silverstone’s NEC sale in 2016, fetching £54,000 – or 2473 per cent more than an equivalent Audi. Editor of the Hagerty Price Guide, John Mayhead said as a result of this latest sale, her rank will rise even further in Hagerty's 2023 List. "Prior to the sale, I was asked what I thought the Escort would sell for, and I forecast anywhere between £100,000 and £120,000," he said. "Not much shocks me these days in the classic and collector car market, but this sale price astounded me.” The full Hagerty Power List can be found here