The heir to the throne so loves
Astons that he had a model named after him. Alastair C. drives a rare Volante
In recent years, Charles Philip Arthur
George Windsor – Prince Charles to you and me has made no secret of his passion
for Aston Martin. It became very public after newlyweds Wills and Kate trundled
down the Mall in daddy’s DB6 Mk2, and it emerged that the Queen and Duke had
gifted the Vantage-spec Volante to the longest-serving heir apparent in British
history for his 21st birthday. But it is rather less well known that the Prince
was also responsible for a limited-production model, a car that became known
internally and to collectors as the ‘Prince of Wales’. The car you see here.
Neat
raked tail and badged vents betray Vantage spec, but full bodykit is gone.
Wheelarches subtly flared like Charles’ DB6 Mk2
Kingsley Riding-Felce, today MD of Aston
Martin Works, was UK sales manager in 1978 when he first became responsible for
looking after Charles’ beloved DB6. “He isn’t a concurs man – he used the car a
lot and by 1980 he had done plenty of miles so we restored it,” recalls
Riding-Felce. “He’s a brilliant owner – he loves his cars, he is sympathetic to
them and is a very good driver, having been taught by Jackie Stewart.
“Then in 1986 he went to the Middle East
and visited the Emir of Bahrain, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa. It was the
Prince’s birthday, so the Emir requested that he be allowed to purchase an
Aston Martin as a gift for his friend.” On the Prince’s return, Riding-Felce
was dispatched to Clarence House to discuss options, with the heir asking the
Newport Pagnell works to match the British Racing Green of his Bentley – a
yellower hue than the firm’s own BRG with Mushroom hide, green carpets and a
manual gearbox – “he won’t buy anything else”.
Nardi
wheel replaces the standard car’s two-spoke
So far, so good. Except that the Prince
would, of course, want another Volante, because he prefers to drive to the polo
field with the roof down. And he would want the mighty 400bhp Vantage version
of the V8 – who wouldn’t? The only problem was that the new Vantage Volante
looked as if it had ram-raided a car-accessories store and made off with every
spoiler on the shelves. For a man with such strong views on aesthetics, the
body kit must have appeared as a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a
much-loved friend...
Says Riding-Felce: “The Vantage we made was
fantastic, but too flash. I knew he wouldn’t want it. So, with the engineering team,
we set out to build a car that would meet his requirements.” The wheel arches
were flared to accommodate the Vantage’s wider rubber, the grille reverted to
mesh, a tail spoiler was integrated into the bodywork, the side skirts made way
for polished finishers, plus a unique and functional – front spoiler was styled
to look as close as possible to that of the standard car.
Mighty
quad-Weber V8
Yet far more than mere cosmetics, this car
was about the details, those special thoughtful touches that would make the
Prince know that it had been built just for him. “While we’d had his DB6 in for
servicing, I’d noticed that he kept a jar in the glove box full of sugar lumps
for his polo horses,” says Riding-Felce. “We wanted to make his V8 a bit more
personal, so we put in a large central box with racks for his cassettes, then
made a special mounting for a jar that we trimmed in leather with ‘HRH’ on the
top, and filled with sugar lumps. He also liked to have somewhere to put his
sunglasses and he didn’t smoke so we took out the ashtray and raised the center
console to make a storage cubby for them, with the switches recessed in front.
We knew that he liked the wheel in his DB6, so fitted a Nardi wood-rim item
with black spokes, and matched the timber of the dashboard and the gearknob to
it.”
Once MI5 had stashed its obligatory
communications gear in the boot, chassis 15581 could be delivered – personally,
by Riding-Felce – to Sandringham on 17 July 1987: “He took delivery and was
delighted with the car, coming to visit the factory soon after [February 1988]
when we presented him with a miniature version for William and Harry.” This
‘Volante Junior’ was a twin for Charles’ car – except that the jar in the
center console was filled with Smarties rather than sugar lumps.
That could have been the end of the story,
an indulgent sideline for a very special customer, but such a desirable machine
was unlikely to go unnoticed – even in-house. “When Victor Gauntlett saw it, he
loved the spec and ordered one for himself in Balmoral Green with Tan hide,”
recalls Riding-Felce. “Kent Monk wrote on the production sheet ‘Build to PoW
spec’ and that’s how it became known. Another gentleman who knew the Prince
then saw the V8 and asked us to build him one, and it went from there. It was a
great car, a real wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Pram-style
hood marrs V8’s thrusting profile, but discreet sill finishers and bumpers add
a delicacy absent on most Vantages
Eight years and 46,000 miles later, the
Prince decided to replace the Vantage with a Virage Volante, in the same color
combination and with a 6.3-litre engine upgrade, auctioning the older car to
raise $172,500 for The Prince’s Charities Foundation. Opinions vary on the
total number of ‘official’ PoWs that were (unofficially) produced, and there
have been plenty of imitators, but factory records confirm the total at 26.
Chassis 15737 is one of the more original survivors, in the definitive color
combination of Balmoral with Tan, and looks perfectly at home parked outside
the Royal Automobile Club’s Woodcote Park, which also celebrates its centenary
in 2013. Australia-based Brit Mike Smith has owned A1 AVV for a decade: “my
brother-in-law had one in the mid-’90s; I remember going for a drive and
thinking ‘this is the car’. I was on the lookout after that but it took a few
years to find one and to find the money. Then, in 2003, I was on leave in the
UK and my brother-in-law called to tell me that it was for sale with Nicholas
Mee. I went over, and the rest is history.”
