Car of the Month : July 2007

The evergreen wedge gets our collars hot this month, and there are few more worthy than this excellent example owned by Princess nut, Kevin Davis.

Things can’t get much better than a Vermillion wedge – and because of that, we thought it fitting to crown it the AR Car of The Month.

Pictures and words: Kevin Davis


Crowning glory...

FORMERLY owned by fellow Princess enthusiast Alex Sebbinger, he contacted me late in April this year asking me if I’d be interested in buying this immaculate 68,000 mile example. As my gold 2200HLS was in need of a respray it made sense to buy this wedge in A1 condition and sell the gold one.

My father and myself drove up to Epping from Southampton to view it and as it turned out, my father liked it so much he bought it for himself! We collected it the following weekend but the gold 2200 still had to be sold as it simply didn’t make sense running three Wedges; we’ve done it before and realised we can’t drive three Wedges plus our main every day cars all at once, and then there’s the storage problem, not to mention the Wives complaining!

Happily, a buyer was found for the gold 2200 within a week of advertising it, though it was a real shame to see it go.

This particular Wedge is a 2200HLS automatic finished in striking vermillion red with contrasting mink velour interior and was registered in April 1978, which was two months before the Princess 2 was launched, and some of the improvements (and cost-cutting) that were going into the Princess 2 were already being fitted to these last of line Mk1 Wedges, including plastic front and rear screen trim instead of stainless steel and cheaper looking carpets.

However, they don’t distract from the ambience in any way. We also decided to replace the standard fit MW/LW radio for a period radio/cassette player with door-mounted speakers. This Princess alongside my snapdragon yellow Princess make a striking pair of Wedges and turn heads wherever they go; you just can’t miss them!

Both the Wedges are used as often as possible in all weathers but are mainly used for shows, though you may well find them in the car park at Tesco’s or cruising through the local towns on the south coast.

This Princess does also have a small claim to fame, as it was used to chauffeur presenter Julia Bradbury at the start of the BBC’s 1998 Motor Show programme from the NEC.


Gallery

A closer look at Kevin’s Princess:

Keith Adams

4 Comments

  1. Despite anyone’s opinion of the Princess (Wedge)series, this one looks superb and the (red)colour suits it to a tee. The yellow one looks great too – especially the wheel design. So good to see these two examples live on…

  2. Just read the Princess article. I had 3 of these 2x manual and 1x automatic. Out of all the cars I had over the years I miss my princess the most. I would definitely buy another one tomorrow just for the sheer room and comfortable ride and driving experience that a lot of today’s cars just don’t have.

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