Lexus LS 600h Landaulet – a definite one-off

Lexus LS 600h Landaulet - fit for a Prince

If this had been Audi you’d have expected that a Landaulet would be their next niche model.

But thankfully this is Lexus, so they’ve just made a one-off Lexus LS 600h Landaulet to ferry Prince Albert of Monaco around at his upcoming nuptials, rather than using it to herald many more Landaulet models to come.

Now if you’re going to be ferried around in anything – as opposed to driving it yourself – cars for the purpose actually don’t come a lot better than a Lexus LS 600h. Especially if it’s been re-trimmed in something expensive and supple.

The claim is – as you might expect – that the LS 600h Landaulet is a hugely environmentally friendly option for His Serene Highness Prince Albert – long-single only son of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace (Kelly) – and his new bride - Carlene Wittstock – to do a post-wedding tour of the Principality to show the latest addition to the Grimaldis to the Monégasque.

Lexus tell us that for most of the tour of Monaco the LS 600h will be travelling in EV mode, so we guess they’ve had more than a small fiddle with the HSD to make that happen. Much as we admired the LS 600h when we had it here for review earlier this year, we couldn’t manage more than walking pace without the ICE kicking in.

But the LS 600h for the Monégasque street tour has more than a fiddled-with HSD. It’s had the top chopped off and a lightweight polycarbonate shell – 8mm thick and weighing just 26kg – fixed in place by a French company which specialises in canopies for fighter jets.

There has also been more than 2,000 hours of work by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet, working closely with Lexus engineers based in Brussels, to make the LS 600h fit for a Prince and his bride. And they certainly seemed to have succeeded in making something very original.

Mind you, with the Lexus LS 600h Landaulet being used just the once and then shoved in the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, it all seems a bit of a waste. All that effort – and all that carbon emitted, no doubt, to produce all those changes – doesn’t exactly shout Eco.

They should have taken a leaf out of Wills and Kate’s book and used a horse-drawn Landaulet for the post-wedding display of waving to the plebeian masses. And then driven something vintage like a beautiful Aston Martin DB6 Vantage to go off through the hills above Monaco ‘To Catch a Thief’ style. Now that would be eco-friendly.

And classy.

(click thumbnail for full size image)

By Cars UK