Which prominent royal family is the best at stripping and tuning an engine? And was criticized for driving at breakneck speed through the bumpy country roads? It’s not who you might think…

Although the late Queen Elizabeth II drove in style with a chauffeur for most of her life, she enjoyed taking the wheel herself – when she had the chance.

She certainly had a fair choice of vehicles, including the trusty Land Rovers with which she was most closely associated.

Elizabeth was often seen making her way through the vast royal estates, sometimes with foreign royalty in the back, sometimes with her corgis.

The Queen’s love affair with cars began in 1944, during the Second World War.

Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret play in a miniature car while their governess, Marion Crawford, watches them in 1930

The car-loving monarch drives a Daimler sedan in 1957 with Prince Charles and Princess Anne in the passenger seats

Then an 18-year-old Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, which allowed women to enlist as soldiers to perform the kind of work that would free up men for frontline duties.

At the ATS she learned to drive and maintain heavy army vehicles. She also studied mechanical theory and map reading.

The royal, who was nicknamed the ‘Princess Auto Mechanic’ by the media, worked seven hours a day to learn her trade and was defiantly practical when it came to work more often associated with men.

While it was even new at the time to see women serving in the armed forces, it was even more shocking to see the princess in overalls taking apart a truck engine and changing tires in a parking garage.

To pass her final test, she had to single-handedly drive a heavy army truck from Camberley to central London.

Princess Elizabeth graduated as a fully qualified driver and held the rank of second subordinate.

After the end of the war and her succession to the throne, the Queen continued to love driving – and over the course of her reign she acquired an impressive collection of cars, including some of the best vehicles on the market.

This included models such as the Rover P5 B, the Vauxhall Cresta estate and even a Jaguar X-Type wagon, along with Bentleys, Jaguars and Rolls-Royces.

However, her true love lay with Landrover Defenders and Range Rovers. The Queen was often photographed behind the wheel.

But it seems not everyone was always a fan of Her Majesty’s driving.

Queen Elizabeth at the wheel of a 1961 Vauxhall PA Cresta Friary Estate as she takes Prince Andrew to the Windsor Horse Trials in April 1968

Queen Elizabeth driving the Range Rove accompanied by her lady-in-waiting Dame Annabel Whitehead for the second day of the 2021 Royal Windsor Horse Show

The late Queen at the wheel during a visit to the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May 2010

Sherard Cowper-Coles, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, wrote in his memoirs: ‘After lunch the Queen had asked her royal guest if he would like a tour of the estate.

‘To his surprise, the Queen climbed behind the wheel, turned on the ignition and drove away…

‘Abdullah was not used to being ruled by a woman, let alone a queen.’

It seems that when the prince agreed to the tour, he didn’t expect the Queen herself to get behind the wheel – or to drive at full speed along the bumpy country roads.

Abdullah is said to have begged the queen to concentrate on driving instead of chatting. In Saudi Arabia at the time it was forbidden for women to drive cars.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron also gave an insight into the Queen’s driving when he described in 2019 how she once took him around the Balmoral estate at “breakneck speeds”.

He told The Times’ Red Box podcast: ‘You get into a car at about seven o’clock at night, often driven by the Queen herself, and drive out onto the moor at breakneck speed.

Queen Elizabeth, behind the wheel of her station wagon, stops on the Long Walk, Windsor, to speak to a man taking part in a charity parade in 1973

The late Monarch watches the Land Rover International Driving Grand Prix from her new Jaguar X Type estate on the first day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2006

Queen Elizabeth on her way to a grouse shooting at the Corgarff Estate, Aberdeenshire, in September 2014

The monarch’s Queen Elizabeth was the only person in Britain who could legally drive without a driver’s license and without even taking a driving test.

Driving licenses were of course issued in her name.