Unlike your aunt’s cutesy sweatshirt that reads “runs on wine,” or some such, Prince Charles has an actual Aston Martin DB5 that runs on wine, at least sort of. I mean, it’s helpful for the environment, and that’s great, but if a wine-and-cheese-powered Aston Martin DB5 isn’t the most blue blood thing I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is. 

Prince Charles converted his Aston Martin DB5 to run on leftover wine turned into E85

Apparently, leftover wine and cheese can be used to make E85 fuel, and Prince Charles has decided to make his Aston Martin DB5 more earth- and party-friendly with the stuff. As we know, the Prince of Wales has been a public advocate for the environment for some time. So, in true Royal fashion, he spent God knows how much to turn a six-figure classic sports car into an ethanol-powered car. 

In fairness to the Prince, the car is very sentimental to him as Queen Elizabeth gave it to him for his 21st birthday. According to Car and Driver, he wanted to keep driving his little keepsake without feeling guilt. 

Aston Martin got involved, but they weren’t happy about it 

When Prince Charles wants to have his Aston Martin DB5 modified, you better believe Aston martin will be involved. Aston engineers found that their cars could run on an E85 blend derived from surplus white wine mixed with whey. Although it can work, Aston Martin pleaded with Prince Charles not to change his DB5, but a prince is gonna do what Prince is gonna do.

Prince Charles says that the researchers at Aston told him, “Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing.” Prince Charles wasn’t about to take no for an answer. He’s a damn Prince, after all. His response to Aston Martin was, “I said, ‘Well I won’t drive it then,’ so they got on with it, and now they admit that it runs better and is more powerful on that fuel than it is on petrol…And also, it smells delicious as you’re driving along.”

The Aston Martin DB5 wasn’t Charles’ only project

The Prince of Wales also set off to get the Queen’s train running on more Earth-friendly fuels, too. “It took me a long time to battle to get them to run it on used cooking oil,” Charles said. “Which actually, in the end, worked quite well.” But the maintenance workers might quibble with that, he admitted. “They say it clogs up the engine or something.”

The Prince went on to say how important it is that we all take these steps. “We’re running out of time because the necessary action hasn’t been taken, has it?” he said of climate change. “That’s the problem.” 

While the planet absolutely needs to be cared for, it feels a little silly to have a Prince tell the unwashed rabble that we should convert our cars to burn surplus white wine. As with most out-of-touch high-society types, the lack of realism and understanding is why they are so rarely actually helpful in their campaigns to fix the world’s problems.

That isn’t to say that his wine-guzzling Aston Marin DB5 isn’t cool. It is. But, the Prince might need to calm down on offering directives on how the rest of us can help when he and his ilk hold the real power to change industry, governance, and power structures most responsible for climate change.