A 1996 Imperial Landaulette that looks like it rolled off a 1930s movie set is currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer, and what’s hiding beneath its coachbuilt bodywork tells a far more interesting story than the white tufted leather and rhinestone buttons.
It’s a London taxi.
Specifically, the bones belong to an Austin FX4 Fairway Driver, the black cab that has been hauling tourists and commuters through London’s streets for decades. The engine is a naturally aspirated 2.7-liter Nissan diesel making roughly 85 horsepower, mated to a four-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels.
That powertrain combination won’t win any drag races, but it wasn’t built to. It was built to survive. London cabs rank among the most abused vehicles on the planet, running all day, every day, through stop-and-go traffic that would reduce lesser machines to scrap.
The mechanicals in this car were engineered to outlast the marriages it was designed to celebrate.
The exterior is pure theater. Oval opera windows line the rear quarters. A folding landau top lets the newlyweds wave to onlookers like minor royalty departing the ceremony.
Inside, white leather upholstery is studded with rhinestone buttons, and there’s a built-in holder for a champagne bucket. It is a car that exists for exactly one purpose: making someone’s wedding day feel like a scene from a period drama.
Imperial, the company behind these vehicles, carved out a niche building coachbuilt wedding cars on proven British taxi platforms. The logic was ruthlessly practical. Vintage wedding cars look spectacular in photographs, but a genuine 1930s Rolls-Royce breaking down on the way to the church creates the kind of memories nobody wants.
Start with a taxi chassis that’s been engineered for relentless daily service, dress it up in period costume, and the odds of a roadside catastrophe drop to nearly zero.
The market for this sort of thing is narrow but real. Livery companies that shuttle wedding parties around in the usual parade of stretched Lincolns and rented Cadillacs could use something like this as a differentiator. It photographs well, it tells a story, and the running costs of a Nissan diesel are about as forgiving as automotive ownership gets.
Bidding on the auction ends September 8. At the time of writing, the car was listed with no reserve, which means someone is going to end up owning a vehicle that is simultaneously one of the most ornate and most utilitarian things on four wheels.
There is something quietly honest about the entire concept. Strip away the rhinestones and the champagne holder and the folding roof, and you have a cab. A working vehicle designed to absorb punishment and keep running.
The fancy exterior is just a costume, and the car makes no apologies for that. It is exactly what it claims to be: reliable transport dressed for an occasion.
Whether it finds a home with a wedding service operator or someone who simply wants the strangest conversation piece in their garage, this Landaulette sits at a peculiar intersection of British pragmatism and pure spectacle. The diesel will probably still be running long after the champagne goes flat.
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