(first posted 11/11/2013) By the late 1950s, Daimler was an storied and formerly prestigious brand looking for a new role and a niche. The days of the Royal household exclusively using Daimler were long gone; Rolls-Royce had taken that slot, with the prestige and recognition that came with it. Jaguar was in the ascendant as the glamorous owner-driven luxury-sporting brand, and brands like Rover, Sunbeam–Talbot and Triumph had challenged Daimler’s more modest Lanchester models after the war, contributing to that brand’s demise in 1950. It was time to try something new.
Daimler, based in Coventry, was part of the BSA (or Birmingham Small Arms) Group – a collection of businesses also producing military and sporting guns and motorcycles (BSA, Triumph, Norton and Villiers were all in the BSA group) and had a product range that included a full range of buses, competing with Leyland and AEC, as well as the luxury cars.
Daimler’s history was one the proudest of all British manufacturers and one of the oldest, having been founded in 1896 to exploit Daimler Motoren Gesellshaft’s German patents in Britain, using the Daimler name. To clarify, it was a separate company that had access to the Daimler name.
Daimlers were first used by the British Royal Family in 1900, after selling a car to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who awarded Daimler the coveted Royal warrant in 1902. However, the top slot of State Limousine went to Rolls Royce in 1950 and more recently to Bentley, with a specially commissioned car supplied in 2008. The cars above are on display at the museum at Sandringham House, the Queen’s country retreat.
During the 1950s, Daimler and BSA made several attempts to recover the situation, partly by trying to compete with Jaguar–which proved difficult given Jaguar’s higher volumes, lower costs, strong image and motorsport successes–and partly by trying to go upmarket, aiming at the glamour image and niche, with the series of special cars that became known as the Docker Daimlers. These were named after the Chairman of BSA, Sir Bernard Docker and his, er, characterful and strong minded wife, Lady Norah Docker.
One direction Daimler elected to pursue was a sports car, using a new 2.5 litre V8 engine designed by Edward Turner. He had led the motorcycle companies within BSA, and in 1956 became Chief Executive of the Automotive Divison of BSA, comprising by then BSA, Ariel and Triumph motorbikes, Daimler cars and buses, and Carbodies, building the London taxi.
Turner’s background was in motorcycle engine design and this was evident in the engine selected for the new car. (This photo is from another CC Daimler) The little 2.5 litre hemi-head V8 used a cylinder head and cylinder very similar to his legendary Triumph motorcycle twin cylinder engines, with hemispherical combustion chambers and an included angle of 90o. The valves were all driven off a single camshaft positioned centrally, high up in the V. It also looks rather like a baby Chrysler Hemi V8. The engine debuted in the Daimler Dart and, later in 4.5 litre form, in the traditional DR450 Limousine and Majestic Major saloon.
The Dart sports car had a fibreglass body over a traditional chassis, and was first shown in 1959 at the New York Motor Show. Daimler had to quickly change the name to SP250, as Chrysler made a fairly predictable objection. Colloquially, the Dart name stuck in the UK though.
It was essentially a very simple car – a conventional ladder frame chassis, reportedly copied from the Triumph TR3, semi elliptic rear suspension, coil front suspension, four speed gearbox, all round disc brakes and recirculating ball steering, coupled with the intriguing V8 engine and that distinctive styling. Early cars were notoriously flexible, with doors coming open regularly.
It launched onto the British market in 1959 and was tested as a 120 mph car, with strong acceleration. It was good in a straight line, but the flexible chassis and heavy steering made it an unrewarding car for a cross country blast.
On 1960, Jaguar bought Daimler from BSA, not for the product, but for the production capacity. Jaguar’s Chairman William Lyons had elected to obtain additional capacity not by building a new facility but by buying Daimler and their facilities, which was close to Jaguar in Coventry, an area in which Jaguar would have had huge difficulties in getting the necessary approvals to build capacity. This was the era of the dispersal of the British industry from the industrial West Midlands, with facilities such as Rootes in Linwood, Scotland, Ford and GM in North West England and Rover’s transmission factory on South Wales being established.
Jaguar’s purchase of Daimler short circuited that process, and allowed the phased elimination of the dated Daimler products. Jaguar quickly stiffened up the chassis of the SP250 with some additional bracing between the A posts and added bumpers, creating the B series, as seen here.
When Jaguar launched the E type in 1961, and it was clear that the Daimler SP250’ss fate was sealed. There was a final set of minor revisions in 1963 but production ended in 1964, after just 2,645 had been built.
This example is a 1962 series B, with the additional bracing and bumpers but lacking the final luxuries of the series C. It has been slowly and carefully restored to the condition shown here over the last few years and is on the final run to being usable – the biggest tasks left are adding seatbelts and the trim details that are visibly incomplete. And it shares a garage with an 1973 MG BGT.
The 2.5 Litre engine was used by Jaguar in a version of the Jaguar Mk2, known as the Daimler DS250 until 1968. Apart from the engine and an non optional gearbox, it was effectively identical to the Jaguar Mk 2, though more expensive and less numerous. And it was a bit of an embarrassment to Jaguar’s 2.4 liter Mk.2, as the Daimler V8 was decidedly more powerful and faster.
The Daimler SP250 is an odd looking sports car, and had distinct weaknesses, but its lusty little V8 engine most certainly wasn’t one of them.
image: classicandperformancecar.com
A fascinating bit of history. I have spent my life confused about the relationship between the German Daimler and the British Daimler – now I know!
The idea of a small, lightweight V8 sports car should have had the world beating a path to Daimler’s door. Unfortunately, the styling on this car is somewhat unfortunate – an odd combination of 1930s and 1950s, and I can’t say that it comes together that well. Not to be too hard on the poor thing, but I am not seeing a single angle that manages to pull off this styling. Quite interesting, though.
The question unanswered is why Jaguar never used the V8 in a version of the E-type? Wouldn’t fit? Though the later V-12 Jag makes me wonder if there was another reason.
Not Invented Here syndrome. Jaguar’s image was deeply wrapped up in their XK engine.
Jaguar tested the 4.5L engine in a Jag but it was so much better and faster than the XK6 that they canned the idea and only went with the 2.5L in the daimler Jag
When did Jaguar worry about something not fitting?
For the XJ40 they deliberately designed the car not to fit a vee engine so that they wouldn’t be forced to use the Rover V8. That came to bite them a few years later when they decided to build a V12 version!
Paul Skilleter’s excellent “Jaguar Saloon Cars” notes how Jaguar popped the 4.5 V8 into a test Mk X and were suitably embarrassed that it was, like Bryce notes, so much faster than the XK 4.2 6-cylinder. Of course they then went on to pop the 5.3 V12 into a test 420G, but that’s another (much, much faster!) story…
I wish I could remember the source, but I have read that the British Daimler company was originally affiliated with the German one, but was seized as war reparations after World War I. (Wikipedia’s history noted)
It was an independent licensee from the start but may well have gotten free rights to the name at that point. Particularly since German Daimler had let the brand collapse by calling its’ cars Mercedes for almost 20 years at that point.
Didn’t the UK police use these as pursuit cars, much like US and CANADA uses Mustangs and Camaros?
The unfortunate fish face reminds of the dreaded “Packardbaker” Hawk, doesn’t it?
Yes they did, but I suspect poor handling and Doris flying open curbed their enthusiasm.
Yes, pictures floating around of the fixed roof ones.
A strange looking beastie,sadly a lot were gutted for their engines for the hot rod/drag racing crowd.Didn’t the Queen have one at one time?
As for the 2.4 Jaguar there were rumoured to be some sorry crooks who chose the 2.4 as a get away car!
Back in the day a 4.5L Daimler Majestic Major could top 130mph, just which sports car could out run it?
Sounds like Jaguar’s sin of not carrying forward the Daimler V8 is a case of “not invented here.” Interesting counter factual history if Jaguar had carried the development of that engine forward.
Dang, Paul beat me!
I remember the first time I saw one of these in person a few years back at Euro Fest in South Carolina. I was in my early 20s and most my age were over by the modern stuff. I made a beeline to the SP250 and proceeded to drool. They were amazed I knew what it was. Of course they were amazed I knew what nearly every car, no matter how strange and/or rare, was at that show.
I see one around town in the summer occasionally. Also I saw one vintage racing at Mosport years ago.
They are in fact gloriously ugly cars, can you imagine being in the styling review; “Yes, yes that will do, maybe carry this line further over the front wheel and add parking lights atop the headlamps. Well done…”
They look distantly related to the TR3, but the Triumph has a purposeful ugliness that comes off handsome, whereas the Dart is just lost in swoops and lines. They look better (less worse) without the front bumper, and in dark colors.
The parking lamp position was a Daimler hallmark, like Pierce’s faired headlamps.
One nitpick: Norton and Villiers weren’t part of the BSA Group. Norton was part of Associated Motor Cycles (AMC – also producers of Matchless, AJS, James and Francis-Barnett) which went belly up in 1965. This was the beginning of the British motorcycle industry collapse. Norton was then combined with Villiers, AJS went on to a short career of making two-stroke dirt bikes.
In 1972 BSA/Triumph went bankrupt due to incredible self-mismanagement. BSA was dropped, Triumph survived to be combined into Norton-Villiers-Triumph at government prodding. Not unlike British Leyland, the British government was trying to cover the failure of their transportation industries by constant reconfiguring and downsizing.
N-V-T failed by 1976 and Triumph soldiered on alone until 1984, at which point it finally failed at which point it was bought out and reorganized into the current Triumph organization.
And, oh baby, the stories that could be told about Lady Docker!!!!! She came close to sinking BSA on her own back in the fifties when they were at their strength.
Got any book reccomendations on that Syke? I’ve considered ordering a copy of Bert Hopwood’s book but have never seen any other good ones on the subject.
Hopwood’s book is excellent. A trade paperback called “Triumph in America” (can’t remember the author and the library is downstairs) is equally good in the chapters covering the whole disaster and how it affected the American market.
Do you mean the book by Michael Cook, who I think was in charge of Triumph’s U.S. advertising?
The Unions deserve equal billing in that disaster
Unions,management,designers there were many guilty parties.The inability to come up with a new design was a major one.Churning out vertical twins year after year the only changes being to the colour or a bigger engine and hoping no one would notice.Apart from the Trident/Rocket 3 it was a dose of the same old medicine,unfortunately the Trident was never a big seller and eventually dropped.When the Japanese started to sell big bikes the British bike makers were on borrowed time
The “Bollocks!” story is quite something. You could look it up.
Separated at birth? Both doomed.
If anyone’s wondering, I did once confirm that the British Daimler is pronounced “dame-ler”, while the German Daimler is pronounced “dime-ler”.
What’s the top car?! A Studebaker?
You’ve done it, Mike – you’ve made a Packard Hawk look downright attractive! 🙂
Yes, that was my thought too! Astonishing, isn’t it. The similarities aren’t just in the nose, compare the kickup and top line of the fins, and the reverse curve in the Daimler’s top even matches the trademark Studebaker, I mean Packard, top.
Here’s a link to the Packard Hawk story at Wikipedia.
I always thought it would be impossible to uglify such a nice looking car as the Hawk. Via that Packard Hawk image (a version I hadn’t seen before) you have shown me the error of my ways Mike, I salute you. And having just read the wiki page you linked, I see the Packardfaker was described as resembling a catfish, which was clearly the inspiration for the SP250 too…perhaps the designers of both were unsuccessful fishermen?
In the case of the Packard Hawk, it was inspired by a Maserati 3500GT that Roy Hurley had liked (the Hawk was originally a one-off for Hurley himself and only became a production car as an afterthought). Looking at the 3500GT, which was designed by Allemano, it also has the jutting, drooping grille opening — although Allemano pulled it off a little better — and comparing that to the Daimler, there’s also a resemblance. I wonder if the Maserati was the common link.
Is this the 3500GT you’re thinking of Aaron? This car is perfectly proportioned, it’s a classic beauty. I don’t see the drooping grille at all here. If it was the inspiration they both missed by a mile.
It’s fascinating that someone at Daimler seems to have seen the 1958 Packard Hawk and, apparently, thought the ‘catfish’ grille would be a good idea for the SP250 Dart.
Of course, the SP250 was much narrower so it wasn’t quite as bad. Still…
@Mike: That photo is a Maserati 3500GT Touring; the inspiration for Hurley’s car was the Allemano version, which has a wider, lower grille whose outer edges pass under the headlamps. The Allemano-bodied car appears to be rarer and there aren’t a lot of pictures online that I can find, but if you see pictures of it, the resemblance to the Packard is pretty apparent. That’s not to say the Packard is handsome car, because it’s not, but the Studebaker stylists were in the awkward position of trying to recreate something like that look on the existing Hawk body with a near-zero tooling budget.
The Daimler strikes me as what you’d get if you tried to amalgamate the nose treatments of the Allemano and Touring Maseratis, squeeze it down to a slightly smaller scale, and add the Daimler crinkle grille. It doesn’t work either, but the Maserati seems a more likely inspiration than the Packard, which was very rare even here and wasn’t exported in any meaningful numbers that I know of.
Yes indeed, I see what you mean. It doesn’t work at all, and it clearly could have influenced both this Daimler and the P-Hawk. Too bad.
The result of a one-night stand between a Packard Hawk and a Sunbeam Alpine.
Ha!
When I saw this article I thought “where have I seen this before….” and then it came to me: the 1958 Packard Hawk!
The top car is a Packardbaker, a futile attempt to continue the Packard name by grafting a few gewgaws onto a Studebaker Hawk. I like them in a way, but I’ve only seen them in photos.
at 2.5 liters, did these engines have cross- or flat-plane crankshafts?
I’m pretty sure they are cross-plane. They sound just like any other V8 when driving around, you would not know they are half the size.
Ed Turner was the guy who invented the Vtwin Vincent by laying two blueprints of the Comet 500 single over each other at 47degrees V the gear train lined up and so a legend Vtwin was hatched
That was actually Phil Irving who supposedly dropped two Comet tracings on top of each other. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Rapide
Edward Turner never did a V-twin engine, although he did design the first genration Ariel Square Four, an engine that deserves its own CC feature.
Yeah your right, i had a square 4 stored in my shed years ago not mine and not for sale it was an early cast iron model 1936 or some such age.
That V-8 was Edward Turner’s last good design. Once it was done, he should have just retired. Unfortunately he stuck around to come up with the Beagle, then the 350 OHC twin, and was a major impediment in getting the Trident in production. A prime case of a near-genius staying around too long and become a dead weight on the industry.
I have always strongly suspected that the Royal Family’s switch of allegiance from Daimler to Rolls-Royce had more than a little to do with the OTT antics of Sir Bernard and Lady ‘Pink Champagne’ Docker. Mink upholstery, anyone?
Norah Docker was quite a character,I’m surprised there’s not been a film of her life.
“You’ve done it, Mike – you’ve made a Packard Hawk look downright attractive!” I was thinking the exact same thing…..
Looks like a Sunbeam mated to a carpet cleaner.
One thing I’m not too clear about is how closely related the 2.5 and 4.5 V-8s actually were. The 2.5 had a bore and stroke of 3.00 and 2.75 inches for 152.6 cu. in. or 2,548cc while the 4.5’s bore and stroke were 3.75 and 3.15 inches, giving 278.2 cu. in. or 4,561cc. I don’t know if the 4.5 was the same block taken out to the nearer its limits or a distinct, bigger block with the same basic architecture but wider bore spacing and perhaps a taller deck.
They aren’t the same block, I think the 4.5 was basically scaled up in all aspects.
From the glory days when fish could design cars
I can clearly remember when I was 7 or 8 years old in ’63 and already a car guy, hearing this deep V8 rumble, sounding very mean, and looking trying to find out where it was coming from – Chrylser 300, big block Galaxie or Impala – nope, finally realized it was coming from this odd shaped small sports car……
I was a Daimler fan from then on – if you haven’t heard that small V8 rev, it’s a real treat.
+1 on the fantastic sound that little V8 makes. Quite distinctive, not to mention incongruous when coming from a so veddy Briddish DS250. Glorious!
sunbeam tiger and Daimler: I was in UK at uni 70 – 73 and was tossing up twixt these two v8 sports. ended up with a tiger which fell to pieces in rust. but did have an incredible race with a Daimler round the London ring Road hitting very high speeds (would be folly to recall what). bet you cant do that these days. always wished I got the Daimler, brought it home (AUS) and kept it. one day soon I hope to invent something, get very rich and come over to find one. so just keep reconstructing them. ps why doesnt someone do a “kit car” like the Daimler, just as they do with the AC Cobra
A pity the 280 + bhp 5-litre Daimler V8 prototype never reached production, along with a V6 variant inspired by the Maserati V8-derived V6 as a way of differentiating between Jaguar and Daimler.
Apparently a Dieselized 4.5 Daimler V8 was also developed at one point during the 1960s though cannot seem to find any information on that project.
It is suggested elsewhere by those involved in the SP250 project that they would have ditched the rear fins in retrospect and was wondering if any (more tasteful) alternative SP250 front end treatments were considered during early development aside from what eventually entered production?
Quite like the idea of a SP250 front end inspired by the first or second Triumph Italia prototypes along with the Triumph Zoom prototype.
Although notoriously ugly little spuds, the Daimler SP250s made quite an impression on SCCA racing during their brief stay on earth. I seem to recall from my salad days that the SP250 began racing in Class E and was later bumped up two classes, thanks to consistently strong showings by Duncan Black and John Piggott in 1960. Mark Donohue was arguably the most famous SP250 pilot. Fortunately for the jealous competition, SP250 entries were always rather limited.
I recall seeing one of these a few years ago.
I had custody of one of these for a few months in 1965, a first series, while living in Anchorage. I first got it before winter was quite over, and was warned that the engine would fire on the first crank from subzero cold … so to make sure that everything in there was free I had to give it no choke for a crank or two. Then choke out, and instant Vroom, even at -15º. That was impressive.
On anything but high-friction dry pavement, it was a nice enough handler, very tossable at moderate (if illegal) speeds as we played tag through the subdivisions. Also, the un-boosted 4-wheel disks had a magical ability to stop on glare ice about as well as most cars do on wet pavement. I would dispute the assertion that these aren’t good long-distance road machines: It was in fact better at that than anything else, as long as you went easy on tight corners. The steering was very heavy at parking speeds, but at anything over 10 mph it was fine, and very direct.
I must also give kudos to the trunk’s capacity – I remember one night we carried a party to another house, and my boot swallowed two guitars and a disassembled BBQ grill. Plus some beverages …
The only time the flexy-flyer thing truly bit me was at 80 mph or so one cold night, with the rare and wonderful hardtop attached, when we ran over a series of ripples in the road. The doors did not come open – they never did that, in fact – but the flexing made the (extremely expensive) wraparound glass window pop out and shatter in a billion bits.
I see a Packardbaker in that front end shot!
An SP450 would really have been a blast, but the 4.5-liter engine would have tested the car’s structure even more!
I’ve heard that the SP250’s engine was troublesome, but not exactly what the problems were. Can anyone shed any light?
The gearboxes gave problems and having seen a bodyless chassis its easy to see why the gearbox is tiny like it was meant for a low power 4 cylinder engine.
DougD;
I wonder if the one you’ve seen is the same one I’ve seen a few times in the Peterborough area.
There couldn’t be two of them in the province of Ontario.. could there??
There was one in Kingston in the ’80s, although I’m not sure I ever saw it move from the (now gone) open garage it resided in near the Frontenac County courthouse.
My Dad had one for a summer. It was owned by a Judge he knew at his golf club. When the rear end broke, it was replaced with an MG pumpkin. I don’t know but there were some problems with that setup, It had great acceleration, and a lot of cowl shake
Well today, the ‘fish-mouth’ is a standard design feature of many current automobiles.
So I guess, in that respect, the SP250 was ahead of it’s time.
Not that it makes it any prettier!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I rather like the way those look, especially in black. One of those and a Sabra Sport for my fantasy garage please.
Back in the day a 4.5L Daimler Majestic Major could top 130mph, just which sports car could out run it?
Granpa’ had one , remember going for a drive with often, bloody fast!
Very, very fast for it’s time.
Pull the buck-toothed, fishlips grill in to post-orthodontic form and this could be a great looking face!
You are right about that. I saw one getting some bodywork done and the grille was out, and I was astounded at how much better it looked. Interestingly enough, a friend did the same thing to his Volvo P1800, with equally attractive results.
Hasn’t anyone else owned both the SP250 and Packard Hawk? Of course I bought everything weird or different that I found (Anyone for a Tatra 603 or an Armstrong-Siddeley Star Sapphire?) A lot of people miss wonderful cars judging the looks. I heard the SP 250 before seeing it, I LOVED it on sight. Mine was an early car with no bumpers and the special doors that opened at speed on corners, White with saddle interior and black top. It was comfortable and fast, it sounded best with oval exhaust tips but so does my DeSoto Hemi. If you have not seen a Packard Hawk in glistening black with white leather interior, Dayton chrome wires with wide whites, they are stunning, fast, corner well. are comfortable,The gold fins set it off just right. It complimented my ’57 Packard Clipper, also in black.
That’s one ugly car. Just so British of the period: quick, let’s take advantage of this nice new V8 engine by hastily cobbling together and flexing, plastic, ugly body. Ugh!
If it were mine I’d have a big bright colored salt water fishing lure hooked into the corner of the grill.
An unfortunate looking car. Many British and European cars from this era embraced the tail fin ethos. Think of the Sunbeam Tiger, Mercedes sedans, Even Ferrari. The Aston Martin DB4 has the straight through rear fender line, with projecting tail lamp that is somewhat an evolution of the fin. The Daimler front end is sad looking, I think that the Packard does a better job integrating the bumper and grill opening. I saw one of these cars at a show and the little V8 is a jewel, but it’s failing for Jaguar was that there was no continuity with their tradition and the motor could not be increased in size easily, to be used in their big sedan range. The XK six had and still has a lot of historical equity, and the company decided that a “double six” was the best choice for a larger powerplant. The V12 was quite successful for them and they are cherished today.
This is a 1956 Ferrari Super America, there were others in the series.
Something I’d forgotten: The guy who was the actual owner of “my” SP250 (we were doing an unauthorized swap that ended badly later) suggested that I try to sell it, so I put an ad up on a bulletin board somewhere. Okay, ugly car, but it’s pretty fast, right? Well, I got a call from a guy who said, “Yeah, those are those really good-looking cars, but they’re really slow, right?” After a lot of mutual confusion I realized he really was talking about the Daimler … which he wanted to drop a Chevy V8 into! Well, 140 HP was enough to yank that miserable frame out of shape, so I am very glad this never happened.