A CLASSIC car which has taken the Queen to official engagements across Britain and Europe is to be hoisted on board the Royal Yacht Britannia.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom V, in the classic royal colours of claret and black, has been loaned to the visitor attraction by owners Bentley Motors Ltd.
And staff at the yacht expect it to provide a major boost to visitor numbers during the summer.
The car, worth more than £1 million, was today set to be hoisted by crane 140 feet over the top of Britannia’s masts and into the garage on board.
It will be housed in the garage, on Britannia’s Shelter Deck, and viewed through a glass screen.
Julia Stephenson, Britannia’s head of visitor experience said: "It will certainly be a nail-biting day for us, making sure the car is safely craned over Britannia, but Her Majesty’s Rolls-Royce will be a wonderful addition to the five-deck visitor route.
"We would like to thank Bentley Motors for the kind loan of this historic vehicle and are sure our visitors will be delighted to see it back on board Britannia."
The car is one of several Rolls-Royce Phantoms owned by the Royal family and used for official visits. It was first delivered to Her Majesty in May 1960 and was a State car until 1978.
One of its first engagements would have been taking the Queen to the wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, the Earl of Snowdon, at Westminster Abbey. And the car remained in service for as long as the marriage lasted.
The seven-seater Phantom V was revolutionary in its day for the Perspex dome covering the rear compartment, allowing the public a full view of the Royal occupants.
It was also one of the cars used to take Her Majesty to events such as the 1961 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, the formal investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales at Caernarvon Castle in 1969 and the funeral of the Duke of Windsor, son of King George V and Queen Mary, in 1972.
The car has even been on a State visit to Italy in 1961 when the Queen was the guest of President Giovanni Gronchi, and when she also met Pope John XXIII.
Like many royal vehicles, the car has no number plates, although it does have a number of unique features.
There is a glass partition in the centre of the car, which was common with state cars and it still has the original blue royal roof light. A microphone was installed so that its special passengers could talk to the driver and there was even a trap-door in the roof for the Royal Standard.
At more than two tons in weight and a width of nearly seven feet it was not an easy car to store.
And getting it on board the Royal Yacht was an even more arduous task which involved putting the car in a transporter and on to a barge.
The transporter was then hoisted on to the special trackway that fitted into the deck of the vessel.
It could only then be squeezed into the garage by removing its bumpers as there is less than eight inches to spare.
The garage was also used to house the Royal Land Rover.
However, in more recent years it has been used by Britannia’s yachtsmen for a number of different things - as a beer store, a dark room and an entertainment room in the evenings. Famously, it was never locked.
The FactsTHE Rolls-Royce is an integral part of the Queen’s travel arrangements, used in almost every official journey at home and abroad.
Often one or more of the state fleet of cars will be sent ahead to a foreign country to be available at the destination and the Royal Yacht Britannia housed in the specially constructed garage on board.
The first Rolls-Royce State car, the Queen’s original Phantom IV, was designed to carry a unique mascot of St George slaying the dragon, which could be transferred to any of the mixed fleet of cars.
The original Royal car was the Daimler, first favoured by Edward VII, below, who was the first Royal to ride in a motor car.
However, following the current Queen’s accession in 1952, there came a gradual move towards Rolls-Royce.
And by 1960, when the Queen took delivery of her first Phantom V, the Rolls-Royce company was granted the right to display the Royal Coat of Arms together with "By appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II motor car manufacturers".
