Queen Elizabeth II, who held the title of British monarch for seven decades, will die in 2022. It is not new that many things used by famous people are auctioned after their death. Similarly, the vehicle used by Queen Elizabeth was auctioned after her death. However, the curiosity of this is that it is owned by an Indian. This royal vehicle was owned by industrialist Yohan Poonawala.
Yohan Poonawala owns a Land Rover Range Rover which was the official vehicle of the British Royal Family during 2016-17. The vehicle was auctioned by Bramley Auctioneers. The face value of this vehicle was 2,24,850 pounds (roughly two crore rupees) in this auction. However, Yohan Poonawala, who now owns the vehicle, is not ready for how much rupees it was auctioned for.
Queen Elizabeth| Photo: AFP
Poonawala responded that he was happy to own this vehicle, which was even a part of the history of vehicles, which was used by Queen Elizabeth. Normally, when a royal vehicle is sold, its number is changed. However, The Economic Times quoted him as saying that the most important feature of owning this vehicle is that it has the same number as when it was used by Queen Elizabeth.
Queen Elizabeth’s vehicle was the Range Rover SDV8 Autobiography Long Wheel base model released by Land Rover in 2016. This Range Rover is finished in Lower Blue color. The interior of this vehicle is made with ivory colored leather. Apart from police emergency lighting and foot steps, changes were also made in this vehicle as per the Queen’s instructions.
This Range Rover had only 2586 miles on it when it was chosen as the Queen’s official vehicle. However, the seller has stated that the vehicle had driven 18,000 miles when it came to auction. This vehicle was used as OU16 XVH. When US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama visited Britain in 2016, they traveled in this vehicle.
Yohan Poonawala is a member of the industrialist Poonawala family. Yohan is the Chairman of Interval Poonawala Limited, L-O-Matic India Pvt Ltd and Financial Pvt Ltd, a part of Poonawala Engineering Group. Apart from this, he is also the Director of Poonawala Racing and Breeding and Poonawala Stud Farm. He also reportedly owns shares in Serum Institute.
However, he is noted among car enthusiasts as the owner of a huge collection of vehicles worth around Rs 100 crores. His collection includes most of the luxury vehicles available in India and abroad today, starting with the 1949 model Rolls Royce owned by the King of Mysore. He had garaged a brand new Bentley Flying Spur months before Queen Elizabeth acquired the Range Rover.