Colombo:
An nearly 90-year-old auto that as soon as belonged to Britain’s late Prince Philip is now the centrepiece of a seaside museum in Sri Lanka.
The Duke of Edinburgh, whose funeral will be on Saturday, was a auto aficionado who purchased the 1935 Standard Nine for 12 pounds when he was based in Colombo with the British Navy in 1940.
“When he came back in the early 1950s, he came and saw the car,” stated Sanjeev Gardiner, who has kept the car at his Galle Face Hotel in Colombo.
“When he saw the car he said, ‘I hope the brakes work. They didn’t work then.'”
According to Gardiner, the prince acknowledged that the Standard was the very first auto he purchased. He also became a patron of the Standard Motor Car club.
Gardiner’s hotel, one of the oldest in the former British colony, has constructed a museum about the silver and black sedan, preserving it for the enjoyment of guests and vacationers.
Royal vehicles
At the time he purchased it, the prince reportedly failed to beat down the asking price tag for the second-hand auto, even though he did handle to get a payment program of two equal instalments inside a month.
According to museum records, he very first drove the auto from Colombo to a naval base in Trincomalee, 260 kilometres (160 miles) away.
The auto, which has 93,040 kilometres (58,150 miles) on it, has been restored many instances and can nevertheless be driven, Gardiner told AFP, but the prohibitive insurance coverage price suggests it is not taken out any longer.
The car was purchased by Gardiner’s father Cyril in the early 1950s.
Gardiner stated his father also loaned the royals the Cadillac made use of by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip for the duration of their very first official Sri Lanka stop by in 1954.
“That along with another used by the royal family are being restored at the moment,” he stated.
Prince Philip, who died at the age of 99 final week, was recognized to like vehicles and typically select to drive himself.
But in 2019, he surrendered his driving licence at the age of 97 immediately after a collision that flipped his auto and injured two other persons.
During the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral procession Saturday, a bespoke Land Rover Defender that he helped style will bear his coffin to the Windsor Castle.
()