It is the 27th of April today, Kingsday. I'm still getting used to it being Kingsday, and not Queensday on the 30th of april anymore.
And how do I get used to Kingsday in the best thinkable way? A drive in a Volvo, a special one. A S80, but not just any S80.
Yes. This is the one and only AA-110, a car which has been used by the Dutch Royal Family for guests and such.
Guests had to moved in style, so it has been stretched by coachbuilder Nilsson, the go-to company when it comes to limo's and hearses
Even the seats are special. They're a little bit harder than the original, both sides come with DVD-players, which was top-of the range
luxury at the time. Even a telephone was on board, it should still work by the way. Also a privacy screen consisting of glass,
if you really didn't want to be seen by the driver, you can close the blindings as well. Proper royal transport.
I've borrowed this car from Hans Blokzijl, owner of a durable events centre, a tree nursery and 'collectioneur' of Volvo's, special ones. Not 1, or 2, but 110! 110 Volvo's. And this is one of 'em.
This S80 is powered by a 170 hp 2.4 litre engine. That sounds like quite a lot but it weighs 1860kg, so it needs it's power to get anywhere.
But then again, when you're transporting people of such status, you shouldn't be going very fast
When this car arrived at the Royal Family in 2001, it cost €120.000 that sounds like a lot, but for a stretched limo it isn't expensive at all.
And that is a characteristic which the Dutch Royals have. If you compare the cars with other kingdoms in the world,
the Dutch Royals are quite calvinistic really. A few years ago I reviewed the costs of the Royal Family's carpark.
and they really don't spend millions a year. Our former queen Beatrix drove an ugly, stretched Ford Scorpio and it didn't want to
break down. It kept going! It also wasn't armored or anything because the queen said it shouldn't be necessary in a country like the Netherlands.
And you might think, why did the Dutch Royal Family drive Volvo's? First, they were Fords but then Beatrix switched to Volvo.
That's quite an interesting story really. Ford once had a factory in the Netherlands where they produced almost everything.
Because of that factory the Royal Family felt sort of connected with Ford, so they became the purveyor of cars.
When the last Scorpio rolled of the line, Ford didn't have any 'real' luxury cars anymore. However, Ford owned the brand Volvo
which they used as luxury brand, the Dutch Royals switched from Ford to Volvo. It was our current king who stopped using Volvo's
and starting driving Audi's.
Beatrix didn't really have anything with cars. So that's why her cars were quite frugal and neat.
Our king however was quite a wild driver, he's seen enough damage-reports. Luckily he has a driver for his Audi A8L.
I'm going to drive some more in this Volvo here, remembering the days we had a queen who drove Volvo's. Have a good day today!
*Dutch national anthem*