Queen Elizabeth II’s Final Hearse Is a Jaguar She Designed

The Queen’s final ride is of course a British machine.

byVictoria Scott|
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - 2022/09/13: The state hearse of Queen Elizabeth II passes through the crowds at Marble Arch in the rain. The state hearse of Queen Elizabeth II arrived from Edinburgh to London this evening at Northolt and drove through Central London, including Marble Arch to Buckingham Palace. The coffin of Her Majesty will move from Buckingham Palace to Palace of Westminister tomorrow for lying in state until next Monday morning. (Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 2022/09/13: The state hearse of Queen Elizabeth II passes through the crowds at Marble Arch in the rain. The state hearse of Queen Elizabeth II arrived from Edinburgh to London this evening at Northolt and drove through Central London, including Marble Arch to Buckingham Palace. The coffin of Her Majesty will move from Buckingham Palace to Palace of Westminister tomorrow for lying in state until next Monday morning. (Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images). Getty Images
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Queen Elizabeth II died at 96 at her estate in Balmoral, Scotland, which meant her funeral procession had a long way to travel back to London. As a result, the first hearse carrying her body was not her own specially designed one, but a funeral home's Mercedes-Benz. For the final sections of her procession, however, her body is being transported in a custom-designed Jaguar meant especially for the royal family and partially designed by the queen herself.

The hearse is finished in Royal Claret, a specific royal-family color shared with other official vehicles, according to Baazar. Queen Elizabeth II approved the final design of the vehicle, which appears to be a heavily-stretched Jaguar sedan with a large glass rear and a massive hood ornament, which is a silver-plated bronze statue of St. George slaying a dragon, which was the Queen's mascot and also appeared as a hood ornament on her Bentley limousine. The Jaguar is also equipped with monoblock-style wheels riding on massive tires (likely to help disperse the load of all that massive glass). This marks the first time the hearse, which was specifically designed for the Queen, has been used; the Queen's Mother had a similar Jaguar XJ for her funeral, however.

The XF is accompanied by two new Range Rovers in the procession, which are finished in the same matching paint color. Elsewhere in the procession are other British royal limousines including classic Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, all carrying other members of the Royal Family. The queen is not the only royal who designed her own hearse before her passing; Prince Philip did the same, but he commissioned a Land Rover Defender 130, which had a decidedly different vibe than the stately Jaguar. He reportedly said to his wife, the queen, before his passing: "Just stick me in the back of a Land Rover and drive me to Windsor," and the royal family delivered on that. Personally, I'm more a fan of the rugged military-green look and the utilitarian funeral for myself, but either way, it'd be nice to get to design your own last ride.

Clarification: A previous version of this story indicated the hearse was based on a Jaguar XF sedan. It's unclear what the heavily modified hearse is based on.

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