The custom-made Land Rover, once owned by Sir Winston Churchill, especially built by the car maker Rover as a present for his 80th birthday is ready to go under the hammer on October 20th at The Cheffins auction house in Sutton, Cambridgeshire, England, where is expected to fetch up to £60,000 ($78,000).
This car was modified to enable Churchill to be driven around his sprawling 300 acre Chartwell estate in Kent after he retired from political life. With only 12,000 miles on the clock, this rare Series 1 vehicle has an extra-wide passenger seat and heated footwell, a padded fold-down arm rest, a lather clad grab handle fitted to the bulk head as well as a special wooden box believed to be for the cigar-smoking statesman’s bricklaying tools. It comes with a log book and tax disk emblazoned with Churchill’s name proving its previous VIP ownership.
After Churchill’s death in 1965, the vehicle became the property of his son-in-law, Rt Hon Christopher Soames. In 1973, he sold it at the farm contents sale for £320, and the buyer was Kent farmer Frank Quay. The Quay family used the Series One Land Rover to tow their horse box until its license disc expired in 1977, and then stored it in a shed. Quay attempted to sell the car in 1999, but a lack of internet-savvy bidders meant that the car fell short of its then reserve price of £30,000.
Auctioneer Jeremy Curzon said: “We expect a lot of interest in view of Churchill’s position as the foremost statesman of the 20th century.”
