(TDB) - Prince Charles’ Aston Martin DB5 is powered by bioethanol derived from wine made at an English vineyard in Wiltshire.

Surplus wine from the English wine estate is sold to a local biofuel producer, Green Fuels, for £1 per litre and turned into ethanol.

Keen to run his car in an environmentally friendly way, Prince Charles worked with Aston Martin to enable the carburettors to allow more fuel into the engine.

Charles’ royal blue DB5 now runs on a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol, with bioethanol estimated to produce 85% less carbon dioxide than petrol.

The classic car, a 21st birthday present from the Queen, clocks up just 300 miles a year and averages ten miles a gallon, the equivalent of four and a half bottles of wine for every mile.