the brand new King Charles III of the United Kingdom it’s a car fanatic and fervent ecology activist. In his collection there is therefore a vehicle that combines the two passions and is therefore one of the jewels of his garage: it is the Aston Martin DB6 MK2 steering wheel that his mother, Elizabeth II, he gave him in 1969 for his 21st birthday. He is his spoiled son of him, with whom he has been seen the most over time, and both for sentimental reasons and for the integral quality of him, is the one that gives him more pleasure in driving, except a few kilometers from time to time .
It is no exception: it is the model that replaced the legendary DB5 (the one made world famous by Sean Connery in the role of James Bond) and the first of the brand designed 100% on British soil – the tracks of the DB4 and DB5 were born in the Italian studio Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera -, and the one with an engine 4-liter 6-cylinder in-line perfectly combined elegance and sporty power, delivering 285 horsepower.
so important in your life this Seychellois blue convertible who, worried about the future of mobility, decided that it would be his spearhead to reduce his carbon footprint: it was thus that one day in 2008 the then Prince Charles took the general European awareness of emissions and changes to the extreme climatic and wondered why not adapt it so that it can run on biofuels. For example, why not, with cheese and wine.
Already based on this operating principle, it was the car chosen by Prince William to drive at his wedding with Kate Middleton, on April 29, 2011. It was also the vehicle in which the new King went to his frequent polo matches, sports of which he is a fan and this has even taken him to Argentina on a few occasions. In England he is said to be one of the top representatives of the brand Aston MartinWith James Bond. Her mother, meanwhile, loved the Land Rover 4×4 models, which she also drove until she was 90.
This is how the Aston Martin del Rey Carlos III works
The idea, so specific, may initially sound like a whim worthy of a person accustomed to luxury and eccentricity, but it had a basis: according to research, in combination with petroleum-based fuel it could be used to generate an alternative with a lower environmental impact.
“Carlos only traveled about 300 or 500 kilometers a year aboard the Aston Martin, but I wanted it to be eco-friendly. What happened is that our bioethanol supplier produces fuel from surplus English white wine, “said Sir Michael Peat, private secretary of the then Prince of Wales.
In this sense, Peat also explained it the wine in question comes from proprietary vineyards in the county of Wiltshire: instead of discarding what is left over and not suitable for human consumption, they take advantage of it by selling it to the Green Fuels company, also British, which subjects it to the chemical process to convert it into fuel.
With all this in mind, Carlos entrusted the work to the engineers of Aston Martin itselfwhich with the brand specialist RS Williams Ltd managed to adapt the engine to be fueled with mixed bioethanol type E85that is composed of 85% organic waste, in this case English white wine and the whey used to make cheese, and the remaining 15% of a fossil fuel, such as unleaded petrol.
Decidedly, bioethanol is obtained through a fermentation process of organic materials, as is the case of biodiesel, which in Argentina has been in vogue in recent months when the percentage of cutting diesel with this fuel of vegetable origin has been raised to 12.5% due to the shortage of diesel derived from the invasion of the Russia for Ukraine. That is to say, a practically inverse relationship to the E85 used by the King of Great Britain’s Aston Martin, which favors organic fuels.
“At first the engineers weren’t convinced that the conversion would work, but I insisted it would be a success,” he said. Charles III in the October 2018 issue of Wallpaper magazine. “So when the conversion was completed, they had to admit that the car is now running better than ever,” she celebrated.
With these changes, while it may sound funny, your consumption could be measured in bottles of wine: of the 24 liters per 100 kilometers your Aston Martin DB6 MK2 Volante consumed, you now need something like 2.8 bottles of wine to kilometer.
But the most incredible thing is not that, but what those who were near the moving car say: when the engine is running you can perceive an unmistakable scent of cheese and wine.
Source: Clarin
