12:08 pm, May 4, 2023
This weekend will see millions of people all over the world tune in to watch the coronation of Charles III.
The monarch, previously the Prince of Wales, is known to have a love of cars and has owned several Aston Martins and Land Rovers down the years.
He is also a long-time supporter of the automotive industry and has paid countless visits to showrooms and factories.
Now, to mark the upcoming coronation, we have delved into the archives and found a treasure trove of images showing some of those visits.
Among them were shots taken in October 1980 when Charles headed to Longbridge to open British Leyland’s Mini-Metro plant.
Then aged 32, the heir to the thrown was given a tour of the facility and was seen meeting members of staff on the production line.
Nearly 20 years later and Charles met another future king while on a visit to McLaren’s formula 1 factory in Woking – a 14-year-old up and coming racer by the name of Lewis Hamilton.
Now a seven-time World Champion, back then Hamilton was a part of McLaren’s driver support programme and he seemed thrilled to be meeting such a famous face.
More than two decades on from the photo being taken, the F1 legend would officially receive a knighthood from Charles in December 2021.
A few years on from meeting the sporting superstar, Charles honoured his German heritage and visited BMW’s Cowley plant in Oxfordshire to see how production was going on the new Mini.
In February 2003, he was given a tour of the plant and introduced to some of the 4,500 members of staff.
He was back on more familiar ground in March 2004 when he was treated to a spin in a brand new Aston Martin DB9 while on a visit to the firm’s factory in Gaydon.
The King famously has an Aston Martin DB6 which has been converted to ‘run on cheese and wine’.
What’s less well-known is that Charles’s daily runaround is actually a 2001 Vauxhall Vectra Diesel…
Okay we’ve made that up, but the Queen’s eldest son was just as at home at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant when he visited in March 2009.
He was later able to show off some of the practical skills picked up on his many tours, when the bosses at Morgan put him to work on some sheet metal in 2013.
As a reward for his efforts, he was allowed behind the wheel of a Morgan Plus 4 before heading home from the Worcestershire plant.
Aside from fast cars, one of Charles’s other great passions in life is telling other people how they can reduce their carbon footprint and look after the environment.
To that end, he took a particular interest in how the Nissan Leaf was progressing when he went to Nissan’s Sunderland plant in 2015.
The then-prince spoke in depth to experts about the model and even tried one out for himself – although he decided against replacing his fleet of Land Rovers and Astons.
Despite not fancying the Leaf, he has continued to be vocal on environmental issues and as such was thrilled to visit to hydrogen powered car manufacturer Riversimple as part of a week long tour of Wales.
While there he was shown the work carried out at the factory and talked through the cutting edge technology being worked on.
This Saturday’s coronation service will begin at 11am.
(All images provided by PA Media)
