The King's vintage DB6 Volante has resurfaced at Sandringham before heading for its annual service. The car, which famously runs on surplus English wine and whey, has clocked up fewer than 1,000 miles in four years.

His Majesty's 1969 Seychelles blue Aston Martin DB6 Volante has been seen in public for the first time in three years as it was loaded onto a truck for servicing, according to The Sun. The sighting took place at Sandringham in Norfolk, where the car is usually kept under wraps, as per the paper's report.

Gifted to the then Prince of Wales by the late Queen for his 21st birthday in 1969, the car has become something of a mobile national treasure. It has appeared only sporadically over the decades, including a jaunt to Cirencester Park Polo Club with Camilla in 2003 and its turn as the newlyweds' getaway vehicle when Prince William and Catherine left Buckingham Palace in 2011.

Charles, now 76, has driven the DB6 for fewer than 1,000 miles over the past four years, according to DVLA figures cited by The Sun. But what the car lacks in mileage, it more than makes up for in eccentricity. In 2021, ahead of the COP26 climate summit, the then Prince told the BBC that his cherished car runs on "surplus English white wine and whey from the cheese process."

The royal's fuel of choice, E85, is 85% bioethanol and 15% petrol, as reported by the drinks business in October 2021.

Greg Archer, UK director of the clean transport campaign group T&E, described the approach to The Guardian as a "quaint solution" but warned that biofuels at scale "do more harm than good, driving deforestation and land use change that worsens the climate crisis."

Only 38 examples of the DB6 Mark 2 Volante were ever built, with each originally costing around £5,000. Today, they fetch more than £1 million. The royal model is arguably the most famous of the lot, a piece of rolling heritage now sharing garage space with two Bentleys and three Rolls-Royces from the state fleet.

While Charles now tends to travel in something altogether more chauffeured, the Aston remains his personal mechanical indulgence. It's a car that manages to be both gloriously old-fashioned and oddly progressive.

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