Princess Elizabeth’s royal Edmonton wheels being refurbished at NAIT

Article content

NAIT autobody students will be working on a former Royal ride as they restore a Lincoln Cosmopolitan that carried the future Queen of England, Elizabeth II, on the Edmonton portion of her tour through Canada in 1951.

“When we introduced the class to the project, and we’re like, ‘oh, so Is anybody itching to work on this?’ Basically everybody in the class put their hands up,” said program chair of the autobody department at NAIT, Cecile Bukmeier.

Article content

The vehicle was generously donated to the program by Edmontonian, Ron Lyons, who bought it from a friend in Calgary. Bukmeier said the restoration responsibilities are being spread around different classes and years in the program, meaning roughly 90 students will get the chance to work on the Royal ride by the time it’s complete.

Although NAIT’s mandate is to have students work on modern vehicles to best prepare them for what they’ll see in their careers, Bukmeier said the school likes to be able to offer a special project like this one to create more buzz for students. In the past, students restored another car from Lyons, an old Corvette later featured on the school’s advertisements around the city, and last year, they refinished a 1985 Jeep CJ.

Work has already begun on the 1951 royal ride.

“They have to strip paint, and then they have to apply modern coatings on this vehicle. So it fit quite well within a lot of the objectives from NAIT. As well… you don’t see one of these cars really every day,” said Bukmeier.

The history

A beautiful and unique car in its own right, the Lincoln at NAIT is even more special when you factor in its broader history.

Article content

Article content

Before she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II at age 25 in February of 1952 after the death of her father, King George VI, the just married Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip were on a tour of Canada when the Cosmopolitan was used to transport them here and there. The Lincoln was one of 60 cars purchased across the country by the federal government for the Royal tour.

It was Queen Elizabeth II’s first trip to Canada, filling in for her father, King George VI, who was too ill at that point to travel. More than 100,000 people packed Edmonton streets to see the couple, who used the Lincoln to take a 32-km tour of the city. The tour lasted a total of 10-hours before the couple continued on their Canadian excursion. Less than four months later, King George VI died, passing the throne to Queen Elizabeth II.

In an email, Lyons acknowledged the rich history of the car, but said that isn’t what drew him to it.

“I just thought it was cool and over the top with its size and classic good looks,” said Lyons.

Bukmeier explained that Lyons “has a long-standing relationship” with NAIT. As a co-owner of Legends Golf & Country Club, Lyons has also supplied golf cars from his golf car museum for students to work on.

Article content

“I have an attachment to both the staff and students at the NAIT Autobody Program,” said Lyons.

“I feel there is a huge upside in restoring vintage cars and that young people entering the NAIT program can learn an interesting and unique trade and stand to make a very good salary and bring the cool old classics back to their original showroom condition.”

When the restoration is finished, both NAIT and Lyons are looking forward to showing off the completed piece of history. The school hopes to have it in its car show, while Lyons plans to bring it around to some local shows before bringing it back to join his museum at the golf club.

Article content