A 1954 open-top car once used by Prince Philip will be one of the star attractions at an upcoming sale of classic cars in Duxdord, UK.

The 1954 Aston Martin Lagonda 3-litre Drophead Coupe will be one of 26 cars offered at H&H Classics’s April 20 sale and could fetch well in excess of half a million dollars.

The auction will be held at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

Built to the special order of HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, the convertible was the British carmaker’s first Royal Warrant.

Finished in a bespoke shade of Edinburgh green matched to grey leather upholstery, the luxurious four-seater convertible was one of just 20 MK1 cars made, and used by The Duke of Edinburgh for personal transport up until 1961. 

A regular at The Thursday Club where fellow members comprised the likes of Baron Nahum, David Niven, Peter Ustinov and Francis Bacon, Prince Philip drove the Lagonda to Cowdray Park for polo matches and Cheam prep school to drop off Prince Charles.

The estimate of £350,000 to £450,000 ($496,000-639,000) is arguably three to four times what an ordinary Lagonda 3-Litre DHC would be worth. 

The Lagonda has covered some 50,000 miles from new.

Prince Philip took the car on a tour of the Commonwealth in 1956-1957 and so there are numerous photos of it at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and elsewhere. The 3-litre is also featured in several Pathe News films and countless newspapers and magazines from the period.

H&H Sales Manager Damian Jones, comments: “This car is part of our history. The accompanying paperwork beggars belief. There is an amusing story about Prince Phillip driving Her Majesty through London in this car and being held up by a policeman on point duty directing traffic. When the policeman saw who was in the Lagonda he did a double take and swiftly waved them on.”

As well as such non-standard extras as a power hood and floor-change gearbox (both subsequently adopted for later production examples), the Drophead Coupe featured an extra vanity mirror - reputedly for HM, The Queen to adjust her hat - and a radio telephone. The latter necessitated The Duke of Edinburgh being allocated his own radio frequency by The Admiralty. Able to speak to Buckingham Palace via a Pye relay station in North London, Prince Philip apparently took delight in making surprise calls to his wife and disguising his voice when in conversation with Prince Charles or Princess Anne.

Doubtless keen that the convertible should never ‘fail to proceed’ in public, Aston Martin Lagonda despatched staff to The Royal Mews and Windsor Castle on a sometimes weekly basis during The Duke of Edinburgh’s seven-year ownership. 

Loaded aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia for Prince Philip’s Tour of the Commonwealth during 1956-1957, the Drophead Coupe was greeted in Australia by one of the firm’s most senior engineers, Tony Tocock, to ensure that it did not disgrace itself at the Melbourne Olympics. Dunlop similarly went to great pains to ensure that all its Australasian branches were stocked with suitable tyres.

A spirited driver who held the unofficial record for the 98-mile run between Bath and London whilst still a Naval Officer, The Duke of Edinburgh was not averse to ‘making up time’ aboard the Lagonda if late for an official engagement. The car with which he and The Queen opened the M1 motorway, the Lagonda made quite an impression on those who encountered it including a traffic policeman who once inadvertently held the Royal Couple up and was suitably grateful when his faux pas was greeted with good-natured laughter.

The Alvis TD21 Drophead Coupe with which Prince Philip replaced the Lagonda in 1961 has yet to be released and is currently on display at Sandringham. Indeed, the 3 Litre Drophead Coupe is thought to be the only one of his personal cars (as opposed to pool cars to which he had access) to be in public hands. 

The Lagonda’s second private keeper, a Mr Rogers of Newmarket, wrote to Buckingham Palace on several occasions in an attempt to acquire it but a direct sale was declined.

The vendor was recommended to Rogers as a suitable custodian by Aston Martin Lagonda because of the number of significant Lagonda motorcars he had owned (such as one of the ex-Works 1939 Le Mans Team Cars) and became the convertible’s third private owner in 1977.

A switch on the dashboard and aerial are all that remains of the radio telephone system but the Queen’s additional vanity mirror remains in situ as does almost all the original leather upholstery. In addition to a bodywork restoration and repaint in its correct shade of Edinburgh green undertaken during 1990, the Lagonda was treated to a thorough engine overhaul, back axle refurbishment and the fitment of overdrive some ten years ago.

Part of a significant private collection for nigh-on four decades and reunited with HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh at a REME event in 1999, this historic car has recently been serviced and is thus said to be ‘on the button’. 

It is offered for sale with copy factory build sheet and service records citing HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh as its purchaser plus a wealth of fascinating documentation.

The top lot of the 26-car sale is a 1961 Jaguar E-Type 3.8 Competition Roadster. One of seven right-hand drive roadsters built to Project ZP 537/24 specification and among the very first E-Types to go racing, the historic car carries an estimate of £700,000-900,000 ($993,000-1.28 million).

H&H was founded by Simon Hope in 1993 as a specialist auction house dedicated solely to the sale of collectors’ motorcars and motorcycles. Some twenty-two years later, the company can boast a continuous trading history which exceeds that of most UK rivals. 

H&H handles everything from 1890s London to Brighton runners through to 1990s Formula 1 cars, not to mention a variety of iconic motorcycles and holds a considerable number of world record auction prices. It is one of only five auction houses to have sold a car for more than $10 million.

H&H holds regular sales at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire, Donington Park in Derbyshire and Chateau Impney in the West Midlands.