Royal Vehicles

The Royal Stables are in charge of all ceremonial transport for the Royal House and at the Royal Wedding - the fleet of cars as well as the horses and coaches.

Store Krone
King Frederik IX acquired the vehicle called Store Krone for major official events in the Royal Family. It is also used when distinguished foreign guests are transported to official events. Store Krone has run less than 140,000 kilometres and remains in perfect condition.

Store Krone is the flagship of the Danish monarchy’s fleet of cars. It is an imposing Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith seven-seater LGLW 25 body no. 10181 model 1958. LGLW 25 stands for: L: Left hand drive, G: 1958, LW: Long wheelbase (133" instead of 127"). 25 means that it is the 25th car produced in that particular year.

A total of 52 Silver Wraiths were produced in 1958. On 11 April 1958 the guarantee certificate was issued to His Majesty The King of Denmark, The Royal Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark by the seller and supplier Hooper & Co. (Coachbuilder) Ltd. 54 St. James Street, Piccadilly, London S.W.1.

At that time, Rolls Royce manufactured only the rolling-chassis and delivered the cars to be bodied by independent coachbuilders like Hooper & Co. Ltd. or Freestone & Webb.

The engine is a 6-cylinder in-line engine of 4,887 ccm with an overhead inlet and side exhaust valves. Rover used the same valve system on its models in the 1950s. Harley Davidson already had pocket-valve engines in the 1920s. Fed by two SU carburettors, unofficially the engine generates approximately 180 HP. according to a test drive of the Silver Wraith carried out by the British automobile magazine, The Autocar. The engine is the biggest in the Silver Wraith models and from 1954 when it was bored out from 4,257 ccm. In 1959 the engine was discontinued from the Rolls-Royce engine programme after 19 years.

Rolls Royce has provided no information about the capacity of the engine and the car.  However, a test drive carried out by the British automobile magazine, The Autocar, of the model in the Bentley version in 1956,  shows that in spite of its size, the Silver Wraith is a fast car. It runs about 0-100 km/h in 12.9 seconds, and the top speed indicated is about 190 km/h. These are values which in 1958 must have been extremely impressive.

The engine utilises a four-speed RR-General Motors Hydramatic transmission.
The wheelbase is 337.8 cm, the wheel gauge is 148.6 cm front and 162.6 cm rear, and the length is 528 cm, the width: 183 cm and the height: 178 cm. Own weight is 2,358 kg. The tyres are 6.50 x 17" on 5" rims.

In the period 1946 to 1959 a total of 1,783 Silver Wraith models were produced. Of these 1,144 had a short (127") wheelbase and 639 with med long (133") wheelbase. The chassis was manufactured at the Rolls-Royce factory at Crewe.

Krone 1, Krone 2 and Krone 5
The three almost identical Daimler Limousine eight -seaters  vehicles with bodies built by Van den Plas, Kingsbury in London, are representatives of a model which was officially produced between 1968 to 1992. A few models were, however, specially manufactured from spare parts until 1996.

King Frederik IX purchased Krone 1 (K 6065) and had it registered on 3 March 1970. Krone 1 was originally Queen Ingrid’s car, and it was used for major official events. Today, it is part of the Monarcy’s fleet of cars that are primarily put to use on the occasion of  major official events.

Krone 2(PT 53 177) is the most recent Daimler of the three grand vehicles. It was acquired in 1994 on the occasion of the 60th birthday of HRH The Prince Consort. However, as the model had been phased out officially in 1992, a model 1989 demonstration car that had run only 1500 km was purchased from the Daimler importer in Sweden.

Krone 5 (ML 42 120) was registered on 21 November 1986 and was, when new, used as Krone 2 until 1994 when it was moved down in the hierarchy after the acquisition of the most recent Daimler. Krone 5 operates also in an official capacity for distinguished purposes when foreign Heads of State are to be transported and when ambassadors are to be received in audience by HM The Queen.

In 1960 Daimler was taken over by Jaguar . This meant that the first Daimler Limousine, which replaced Daimler Majestic, was equipped with Jaguar’s 6-cylinder DS 420 engine with double overhead camshafts; these are also used, in the Jaguar MK X from 1964 - 1966 and Jaguar 420G from 1966 - 1970. The engine has a stroke volume of 4,235 ccm. The compression ratio is 8:1, and it generates 265 HP at 5400 r.p.m. Max torque indicated is 275 lb/ft at 4000 r.p.m, enough to accelerate the 2,135 kg heavy car from 0-100 km/h in 9.9 seconds. The top speed indicated is 196 km/h. Two SU carburettors feed the six cylinders. This elegant limousine has a wheelbase of 3.58 metres; it is 5.74 metres long and 1.99 metres broad. The height is 1.62 metres. It has rear-wheel drive and a three-speed Borg Warner automatic gearbox.

Back