A 10 ft. portrait of Her Majesty the Queen created entirely out of car and truck parts has been unveiled to celebrate the monarch’s 90th birthday.
The portrait pays homage to Her Majesty’s work as a trained mechanic and driver in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War. It has been put together by technicians, including some form national chain Kwik-Fit.
The team behind the sculpture was led by artist David Parfitt. The Queen herself has previously admired David’s work, signing a sculpture of his in 2011 built to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Crawley New Town. For this portrait of Her Majesty, David was supported by technicians from South-Eastern branches of the company.
The construction of the monarch’s mechanical mirror image took the crew over 280 man-hours to complete.
The giant crown itself includes brake and indicator lights from an original Austin K2 – one of the types of military vehicles that Her Majesty completed her mechanical training on in 1945.
There are over 50m of cables and hoses, 125 spark plugs, 60 gaskets, 150 washers, 24 pumps, 20m of leads, 10 headlights, 6 bumpers and 100’s of springs, nuts and bolts. This enabled the team to create a highly accurate likeness, even down to the smallest detail.
The final portrait weighs in at 115kg.
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