My cartalk with the Swedish King

The following happened in the beginning of the summer of 1998. As you probably know I live in Sweden, Europe. Sweden has been a monarchy for over the past 1000 years and the king of Sweden is Carl XVI Gustav who is the 74th king of Sweden. Also, the Royal Family is one of the most respected people in Sweden and Europe.  So what is this article doing on a BMW M5 page?
Because the Swedish King has one 1993 BMW M5 and had two BMW M5 before his current car! He also have had a BMW M635 CSi.

King Carl XVI Gustav, an avid car freak.

I visited a friend of mine who own a company which sells exclusive automobiles. This summer he had an ORIGINAL Shelby Cobra for sale. Asking price was about £ 200 000 (UK Pounds). I had been around and looking on nice cars such as Ferrari Testarossa with 800 km on the clock, Aston Martin and some Rolls Royce for about an hour. When I was about to leave the garage I met about five persons, two of them quite big (Bodyguards, which I didn´t understood at the moment). I also noticed a dark blue Volvo 850 Turbo sedan with tinted windows parked with the front in the direction of the exit of the garage. I didn´t notice what kind of persons they were after we´ve passed them and my friend said "Did you see who that was? The king!" Then I understood who these big guys were and why the Volvo was parked nearby this garage. When I heard that I immedeatly went back in.

At that time the king was already at the white Shelby Cobra and lookad at it. One of his bodyguard stood at the entrance and I took the chance to speak with the bodyguard. I asked him "Do you know if the king still got his BMW M5?" and the bodyguard replied "Why don´t you ask him yourself?".

Somewhere here at the Drottningholm Castle is his BMW M5, Shelby Cobra and some other nice cars. Have a look at the Alpina BiTurbo for sale Page to see more pics of this castle.

So I went ahead. After the king had finished looking at the Shelby Cobra he went towards the entrance and me. So I asked him "Excuse me your Royal Highness, do you still own a M5?".
He replied "What? M5?"
I had to explain the question a little more; "Do you have a BMW M5?"
"Yes, I do and I´ve had three of them earlier. I was at the local dealership last Friday and asked about details on the new M5."

A little bit nervous I asked "What do you think about the new M5? Are you going to purchase one?". He replied "I think it has too much technology, I liked them better when they were just raw engine, as the first M5". I nodded and said "Yes, I agree with you".

He asked me when the new M5 should arrive and we talked on a little about cars in general and I told him about my homepage as an explanation why I asked these questions. Then we talked about cars in general for about 5 minutes then I left before him.

I heard later on from my friend who had the Cobra for sale that the king drove away in a Ford Mustang Convertible of the 60's followed by the SÄPO (security police) body guards in the Volvo 850 Turbo.