Prince Charles has found a way to have his cake and eat it too.

The Prince of Wales is known for his devotion to environmental causes, so it was naturally an issue that his vintage Aston Martin was such a gas-guzzler. Queen Elizabeth gave him the car for his 21st birthday, and he was determined to continue to drive it, guilt free.

Engineers at Aston Martin had discovered that their cars could run on surplus English white wine (albeit mixed with a whey). Still, they urged the Prince not to switch out his fuel. "The engineers at Aston said, 'Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing,'" he said, according to The Telegraph.

Prince Charles drives Princess Diana in his Aston Martin in 1985. Anwar Hussein Getty Images

Charles wasn't about to take no for an answer. "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."

A vintage sports car that runs on wine—Prince Charles may have created the ultimate status symbol.

Prince Charles says goodbye to the Queen Mother after a lunch for her 86th birthday. Tim Graham Getty Images

He also insisted on retrofitting the Queen's Royal Train with a less sexy alternative fuel. "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."



For the Prince of Wales, it's imperative that we all start to make these changes. "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."

If it's Prince Charles's actions we're all taking—namely, using wine to power automobiles—the public might find it easier to make some eco-friendly changes.

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