Queen Elizabeth II’s Range Rover has been put up for sale after an eagle-eyed car collector guessed it may have belonged to the late monarch.

The collector’s instincts were confirmed when he unearthed footage of her driving the vehicle at the 2005 Royal Windsor Horse Show.

The buyer’s interest was piqued after seeing the addition of numerous factory-ordered Land Rover specifications, including special covert lighting similar to those on unmarked police cars, and rear grab handles to assist with entry and exit of the vehicle.

Many of the extra features on the Range Rover, in the Queen’s favoured Epsom Green colour, were in line with the modifications seen among her existing fleet. 

Charles Smalley, car specialist at Iconic Auctioneers, said it took the car collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, “forever” to find footage of the late Queen with the matching number plate.

“He bought it a few months ago with another auction house, but there was no proof at that time that it belonged to the Queen or was her vehicle, so he bought it and did his due diligence and solved the mystery,” Mr Smalley said.

“It was the sort of specifications that she would have ordered from the factory for her own vehicles.”

He continued: “The [modified] front grille and the lights would be big for security. It’s the same sort of lighting as you would have hidden away on an unmarked police car.

“Also the handles on the rear doors to help her get in and out of the vehicle, because apparently she hated anyone trying to give her a lift, so she did it with a handle or whatever she could use to pull herself in.

“And the dog guard in the back, so if the Corgis were in the back, that’s still there. It was an extra, but the Queen would have had them in hers for carrying the dogs.”

The specifications also include a load space mat in the back, to keep the vehicle tidy as the dogs were brought in and out, and side steps that could be used to make access easier.

The 2004 Range Rover, being sold by the auction house on Nov 11, has a guide price of £50,000 to £60,000.

“I think it’s the history, the provenance and all those sorts of things like that [that] can make a world of difference,” Mr Smalley said, adding: “So we will find out what the true value is on the day when it sells, as we did with Diana’s Escort.”

The same auction house – formerly called Silverstone – sold the late Princess of Wales’s black Ford Escort RS Turbo last year for £730,000 with the buyer’s premium included.

Meanwhile, the special order SUV being sold next month is thought to have originally been delivered in 2004 to the Royal estate for use by the Queen and Prince Phillip in London and Balmoral.

The car’s Heritage Certificate also shows the inclusion of mudflaps, a switch pack for the passenger in the back to control windows while being chauffeured, and tinted glass all around the car.

The vehicle has changed hands more than five times over the years, and the only original ownership information available is a letter from Jaguar Land Rover.

The letter identifies that the car was sent to Stratstone Land Rover, in Mayfair, for a warranty recall in July 2004. This was before a second recall at Peter Vardy Land Rover, Aberdeen, which is the closest franchised Land Rover dealership to the Royals’ Balmoral Estate.

“None of the Royal family’s cars are actually ever registered to them,” Mr Smalley said, adding: “So it’s very difficult to trace ownership.”

The car collector who has put the vehicle up for auction with Iconic Auctioneers reportedly spent “hours and hours, days and days” to track down the necessary proof, which he eventually found.

The video shows the late Queen, aged 79, driving the vehicle around the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2005, wearing her signature headscarf.

Of the anonymous seller, Mr Smalley said: “I think he’s ticked the box in owning it for a while, and I think his enjoyment is then finding out and then proving that it was actually the Queen’s and that she drove it.”

The car collector purchased the vehicle in an auction in July for £33,002, which is notably lower than the guide price since the Royal connection has been established.

“He’s got other vehicles, as a lot of these guys have, they have collections so he’s happy to move it on and let it go to someone else,” Mr Smalley said.