Prince Philip’s 1954 Lagonda 3-litre Drophead Coupe sells for WORLD RECORD £350,000

A 1954 Aston Martin Lagonda 3.0 litre Drophead Coupe once owned by Prince Philip has been sold at auction for a world record £350,000.

The world of Classic Cars is an odd one when it comes to values, and although a 1960s Aston Martin DB will cost you an arm and a leg, offerings from Aston Martin Lagonda in the 1950s are generally valued much lower. Or at least they were until now.

A 1954 Lagonda 3.0 litre Drophead Coupe has just been sold by H&H Classics at their Duxford auction for a world-record £350,000 – more than four times the previous record price. But there is a reason.

This particular Lagonda was owned from new by Prince Philip (aka The Duke of Edinburgh) and used as his personal car until it was replaced by an Alvis TD21 Drophead Coupe in 1961.

The 1954 Lagonda is finished in Edinburgh Green with grey leather and is just one of 20 built and comes with an electric roof and floor change gearbox as well as an extra vanity mirror for the passenger, claimed to have been added so The Queen could adjust her hat.

Remarkably, although no longer fitted, the Prince also had a radio telephone in the car which allowed him to keep in touch with the Palace when he was out and about in London, on a special frequency allocated by The Admiralty and relayed by a Pye relay station in North London.

The new owner of Prince Philip’s Lagonda will be able to boast his car used to ferry Prince Charles to school, took the Duke and Queen out socially, was loaded on Britannia for the Prince’s tour of the Commonwealth in 1955 and was driven at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

Which must be worth £350,000.