Yours for £45,000, the car that drove Margaret Thatcher into history

‘A new girl drops in at the palace,’ announced the London Evening News on the front page of its ‘election special’ of 4 May 1979. The accompanying image showed a beaming Margaret Thatcher (pre-implant teeth in evidence) waving from the rear seat of a ministerial car, on her way to meet the Queen and receive her official invitation to form a new administration.

Another ‘new girl’ (or boy?) might be dropping in at the palace soon – but if he or she wants to do it in the same car, it will cost them. The P5B Rover saloon that drove the Iron Lady into the history books as the first female prime minister is about go under the hammer at Silverstone Auctions, where it is expected to fetch as much as £45,000 – twice the value of a regular model without such political pedigree.

Potential buyers shouldn’t expect too many mod cons for their money. When Thatcher’s Rover left the Solihull production line on 24 March 1973, it went straight to Hooper’s coachworks in Westminster for conversion to ‘government specification’ – which included such hi-tech additions as, er, inertia reel seat belts, head rests in the back and hazard lights.

It all looks rather modest in comparison with the armour-plated Range Rover currently used to whisk Boris Johnson from A to B at taxpayers' expense. Reported to have cost £400,000, its bodywork can stop a 7.63mm high-velocity round and can cope with up to 15 kilos of TNT being detonated beside it.

It also has a ‘self-healing’ fuel tank (essential at today’s petrol prices), an anti-tamper exhaust pipe to deter potato-wielding pranksters and a Boris-sized escape hatch hidden beneath the back seats (don’t titter…). There’s even a PA system for communicating with the world beyond the bulletproof glass.

Thatcher’s Rover (registration plate GYE 329N) was one of three such Rovers still in service at the time of the 1979 election, and was the 35th-from-last P5B built. Harold Wilson introduced the marque for ministerial duties when he came to power in 1964, but barely had Maggie got her feet under the cabinet room table than she sent the Rovers away – never to return – in favour of a fleet of more prestigious Jaguars.

This one was retired from service in late 1979 and moved on to a private owner known as ‘Mr Riddle’. Now being sold by a Wales-based enthusiast, the car is said to have been ‘beautifully repainted’ in its correct ebony black, has a rebuilt engine and gearbox and retains its original, squeaky-clean interior upholstered in saddle tan leather – the seats being the very ones to have yielded to the prime ministerial rumps not only of Thatcher, but of Edward Heath and Jim Callaghan too.

But if that doesn’t put you off, the sale takes place at Silverstone race circuit on Friday 26 August.

Also included in the sale will be the Ford Escort RS Turbo driven by the late Diana, Princess of Wales, between 1985 and 1988. Often to be seen parked near the boutiques and restaurants of Chelsea and Knightsbridge, the high-performance version of the lowly Escort was specifically commissioned for Diana with black paintwork instead of the standard white.

It also featured minor security modifications including a secondary rear-view mirror and police radio for use by her protection officer. With fewer than 25,000 miles on the clock, the car is expected to fetch a ‘six-figure sum'.

The same sale will also feature a 1966 Mercedes-Benz 230SL that was presented new to the late Sir Stirling Moss. Built especially for him with a more powerful 2.5-litre engine and a unique opening vent in the so-called ‘pagoda’ roof, the car was collected by Moss straight from the Mercedes-Benz factory in Stuttgart and subsequently registered ‘S7’.

Moss is believed to have kept the car until 1974 and it has been in its current ownership for around 45 years. It could fetch more than £100,000.