Ford Escort RS2 Turbo, Ex–Diana, Princess of Wales, Fetches $850,000 at Auction

UPDATE 8/27/2022: The Ford Escort sold at auction for the equivalent of $857,712 at auction today, which Bloomberg News pointed out today is more than 10 times the price of a 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo sold at auction in 2021 that was "collector quality" but did not have the Diana provenance.

One month before the royal couple married in the summer of 1981, Prince Charles gave Lady Diana Spencer a silver engagement present. No, not jewelry; it was a Ford Escort Ghia sedan, with the 1.6-liter engine. The car had four doors and 79 horsepower and was in all respects quite ordinary and even deeply boring. In an era of austerity for many British commoners, Charles's gift broadcast a message of respectability: the newest addition to the royal household would upset no teacups. But as we now know, a coming tempest was brewing, and just four years later, Princess Di was coming on boost.

Specifically, Her Royal Highness was spooling up the boost on this little rocket, her 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo, which coming up for sale at auction on August 27. It was never sold on this side of the pond, but any fan of performance-oriented Fords will have clocked the RS designation and correctly deduced that the princess's tastes extended to a pretty serious hot hatch. Perhaps even to some royal hoonery?

Diana's Escorts were third-generation cars, and she had three of them. After the rear-wheel-drive Mark I and Mark II Escorts—both still popular with collectors and vintage rally racers—Ford's European small family car now came with front-wheel drive. It was a modern choice for a modern British family. It took the Escort just two years to be crowned the bestselling car in Britain.

Seeking to stir up a little excitement to fend off the likes of the Volkswagen GTI, Ford developed a tuned version of the two-door Escort hatchback called the XR3 (later XR3i, as fuel injection arrived). The XR3 was scrappy enough for its day, but the relatively new technology of turbocharging promised performance dividends.