King Charles’ Aston Martin DB6 Runs On Wine And Cheese

May 17, 2023

The King's Aston Martin, photographed at a classic car show in the UK in 2022.

Following on from his Coronation at the weekend, I thought now would be a good time to remind readers that King Charles’ Aston Martin DB6 runs on a diet of wine and cheese.

At least, that's the catchy headline. Now you’re here we can dig a little deeper into what's going on, and how a monarch who has campaigned to improve the environment since the 1970s can make such a claim.

It's actually all rather simple, and not unique to the King's Aston. The car has been converted to run on E85 instead of the regular E10 gas we get from the pumps here in the UK. In both cases the E stands for ethanol and the number is the percentage of ethanol in the fuel. Normal pump gas is 10% ethanol, while E85 is...you guessed it, 85% ethanol. The remaining 15% is gasoline.

In King Charles’ case, his DB6 convertible — a 21st birthday present from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II — runs on bioethanol produced by a British company called Green Fuels. Instead of pouring a heady cocktail of Merlot and Brie into the fuel tank, the gas is made with surplus English white wine and whey, which is a byproduct of the cheese making process.

Green Fuels also helped with the work needed to convert the car to run on E85 instead of E10. In older vehicles like the King's Aston this would mean changes to the fuel lines and engine timing to make it run smoothly.

Just about any car can be converted to run on E85, and the process is easier with modern vehicles thanks to their electronic engine management systems, which adjust how the engine runs to compensate for the quality of gas fed into its tank. But E85 isn't as commonly available as regular fuel, with around 4,200 stations providing it across the US and Canada, according to the Alternative Fuels Data Center.

The benefits of using E85 include cleaner tailpipe emissions and the use of less oil, and because it uses up waste material from other production industries there are benefits to be gained there too. The fuel also carries a higher octane rating than regular pump gas, meaning more power.

King Charles’ Aston Martin DB6 isn't a daily driver, but does appear in public every so often. It was driven during Charles’ marriage to Princess Diana and was used by the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, aka William and Kate, to depart their wedding in 2011. More recently, the car was displayed at the Hampton Court Palace Concours of Elegance in the summer on 2022, which is where the lead image for this article was taken.

As well as his wine-drinking Aston, the King owns an electric Jaguar I-Pace, and according to an interview with the BBC in 2021, has installed biomass boiler systems at his various properties, and fitted solar panels to Clarence House.