The much loved father in law has swung by Driveanotherday HQ to spend some time us with us and so his week long visit couldn't be complete without a poke around the Carrara Secondhand Car Lot of Wonderment, aka Llyods.
In no time flat he found a HJ GTS Monaro that he really wanted to drive home. Me? I found the perfect vehicle to deliver you to your final resting place.
If you knew Al Capone on a first name basis that is..
Wait, what have you found Almigo?
Behold the Austin Princess...hearse! (And this is the biggest princess I've ever seen!)
(Fun fact: Capone died in 1947 and the first Austin Princess was made in the same year. Uncanny! He never rode in one of these things alive or dead though..)
Tucked in the back of the yard where that brown Citroen once parked, what do I know of this gangster looking hearse? Preciously little although after a brief flick through Wikipedia, at best guess this particular one is a Princess I, II or III and that's because it looks like the II version pictured from the side (later models had a different sloping wheel arch). It may have been a limousine originally converted into a hearse or custom built to drive around the dead from the get go but for the sake of argument now, it's definitely the latter:
Yes it comes with a coffin it seems so there's no confusion what it does..
Sadly until the auction house puts up a listing, the full details of this one will remain a mystery. Unless of course you know your princesses (hello Mario) in which case please let us know what we're looking at (and what it would be worth ultimately) below. This princess seems to have taken on a military coup or two in her time though because varnish coffin inside, things are pretty rusted and rough on the outside.
Oh and flat too. This Austin Princess isn't going anywhere or taking anyone for a ride still kicking or not anytime soon.
Still if you're looking for your next project (a very strange project at that..) then this could tick all your (morbid) boxes.
But who would buy this Austin Princess?
I asked myself the same question when the Japanese Hearse aka the 1982 Hilux showed up in the middle of the yard last year and it disappeared off the lot within a week. So either someone really needed an ornate hearse in a hurry or they really felt the need to be driving around in the strangest looking Hilux on the Gold Coast.
'He says he's not dead..'
So I'm sure it won't be too long before our Princess finds herself a new kingdom..
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