Daimler Motor Company
Encyclopedia
The Daimler Motor Company Limited was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H J Lawson
in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry
. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler
and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
of Cannstatt, Germany. As of 2011, the brand appears to be dormant.
All the Daimler shares were purchased from BSA by Jaguar Cars in 1960. After the introduction of the Daimler DR450
new models used Jaguar bodies with Daimler grilles and badging. Daimler remains in the ownership of Jaguar Cars which now belongs to Tata Group
of India
.
Before 5 October 2007 Jaguar, while still controlled by Ford, reached agreement to permit then de-merging DaimlerChrysler to extend its use of the name Daimler. The announcement of this agreement was delayed until the end of July 2008 and made by Jaguar's new owner, Tata. This agreement might have substantially reduced the price paid by Tata.
As of 2008, Jaguar's use of the Daimler brand was limited to one model, the Daimler Super Eight.
s. The history of both enterprises can be traced back to the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler who built the first four-wheeled car in 1889.
, initially operating at Cannstatt near Stuttgart, was the origin of the business variously known as Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
from 1890 to 1926, Daimler-Benz
from 1926 to 1998, DaimlerChrysler
from 1998 to 2007 and now Daimler AG or Daimler Germany, which has also manufactured vehicles since the 1890s but no cars with the name Daimler since 1908.
Simms first introduced Daimler’s motors to England in 1890 to power launches. At the beginning of 1891 (agreement dated 18 February 1891) he obtained British (and British Empire) rights for the Daimler patents and he founded Simms & Co consulting engineers in June 1891. His Daimler related work was later moved into his new company named The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited formed 26 May 1893.
On 7 June 1895 Simms told his own board he wished to form a company to be known as The Daimler Motor Company Limited (DMC) to acquire both the right to use the name Daimler and the British rights to the Daimler patents. It would manufacture Daimler motors and cars in England. In July 1895 he arranged an agency for the Daimler-powered Panhard & Levassor cars in Britain. Simms asked his good friend Daimler to be consulting engineer to the new enterprise.
of The British Motor Syndicate Limited. Lawson wanted to arrange the public flotation of the proposed new company (and acquire a large shareholding for his British Motor Syndicate). Welcomed by Simms the negotiations proceeded on the basis that this new company should acquire The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern including the name and patent rights.
Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach had withdrawn from Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft to concentrate on cars. Now, towards the end of 1895, without Daimler and Maybach, DMG was drifting towards bankruptcy. Agreement was needed from all the former partners to the transfer of the licences to the new English business. Simms offered to pay DMG £17,100 for that transfer on the condition that Daimler and Maybach rejoined DMG. This was agreed in November 1895 and the Daimler-Maybach car business re-merged with DMG’s. Daimler was appointed DMG’s General Inspector
and Maybach chief Technical Director. At the same time Simms became a director of DMG but did not become a director of the London company. Those close to Daimler considered it ‘no mean feat’ that Simms had managed to obtain Daimler’s signature to the proposed re-amalgamation.
On 14 January 1896 Lawson incorporated The Daimler Motor Company Limited. A prospectus was issued on 15 February. The subscription lists opened on 17 February and closed, oversubscribed, the next day. The Daimler Motor Company Limited bought The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern. One of Lawson’s associates had for sale an empty four-storey cotton mill in Coventry which was promptly purchased and that is how the British motor industry came to begin in Coventry.
In mid 1900 Frederick Simms, as a director of the German firm, proposed a Daimler union between Coventry and Cannstatt but nothing came of the proposal.
had legal problems selling German Daimlers in France, Panhard-Levassor
also used the name as they used German Daimler engines. Jellinek proposed to Daimler Germany that he would place a large order if they would make a car for him that bore his daughter's name, Mercedes
. Daimler Germany now recognized they shared their right to the name Daimler with many others and to avoid further legal action the name Mercedes
was adopted in 1902 for all the cars built by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
itself. The name Daimler was last used for a German-built car in 1908.
The Vienna Austro-Daimler
business has survived as Steyr-Daimler-Puch
, despite being absorbed by General Dynamics in 2003.
. Simms had set up a London office at 49 Leadenhall Street
and, later, works premises on the Thames at Eel Pie Island
where Pears Soap had been making electric motors. The launch business rapidly gained momentum.
At the June 1895 board meeting Simms detailed his plans to form The Daimler Motor Company Limited and to build a brand-new factory, incorporating light rail, for 400 workmen making Daimler Motor Carriages. He then proudly produced the first car licence, for a 3½hp Panhard & Levassor
(later referred to as a ‘Daimler Motor Carriage’). Bought in France by Evelyn Ellis, who had three Daimler motor launches moored by his home at Datchet
, it was landed at Southampton on 3 July and driven by Ellis to Micheldever near Winchester where he met Simms and they drove to Datchet. Ellis later drove it on to Malvern. This was the first long journey by motorcar in Britain. Simms firmed up his plans for the new business and new factory selecting a six-acre site at Cheltenham
.
Then, unexpectedly, Simms received Lawson’s proposal to purchase The Daimler Motor Syndicate as a going concern. It was promptly accepted. The purchase was completed on 27 March 1896 and Lawson took control. Simms was appointed consulting engineer to the new business but was not to be on the board of directors, possibly because he had become a director of the Cannstatt firm. The Coventry
mills were purchased and named Motor Mills. A deal was concluded with Panhard & Levassor in which the Cannstatt firm would receive a commission of 10% on British sales.
1896 passed with car sales limited to imported Panhard and Peugeot cars. Aside from engines Cannstatt seemed unable to supply ordered components or specially commissioned working drawings. Four experimental cars were built and some (redesigned in detail) Daimler engines.
The first Coventry Daimler-engined product made its maiden run on 2 March 1897. By mid-year they were producing three of their own cars a week and producing Léon Bollée
cars under licence. The first car left the works in January 1897, fitted with a Panhard engine, followed in March by Daimler engined cars. Lawson claimed to have made 20 cars by July 1897 making the Daimler Britain's first motor car to go into serial production, an honour that is also credited to Humber motors who had also displayed, but in their case their production models, at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1896. The Daimlers had a twin-cylinder, 1526 cc engine, mounted at the front of the car, four-speed gearbox and chain drive to the rear wheels.
, was given a ride on a Daimler by John Douglas-Scott-Montagu
later known as Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. Scott-Montagu, as a Member of Parliament, also drove a Daimler into the yard of the British Parliament
, the first motorized vehicle to be driven there. Daimler received another Royal Warrant early in 1908, “Motor Car Manufacturer to the Court of Prussia” and the same year yet another as “suppliers of motor cars to the Court of Spain”.
“Few car salesmen ever owned a house on the fashionable Old Mile at Ascot, maintained a stable of racehorses and trotters and rode to Royal Ascot as a guest in the King’s landau.”
Undecimus Stratton (1868-1929) known to friends as Eugene (Undecimus meaning eleventh child, as indeed he was), was born into a family acceptable at the royal court. A notable athlete and rugby player and record-setting balloonist friend of C S Rolls
. Stratton became a lawyer then started his own brewery, and, by the time he was in his early thirties, was able to marry a noted society beauty and to retire in great comfort. As a now wealthy motoring enthusiast he stopped one day in 1903 and offered help with a large Daimler stranded by the roadside. The Daimler’s owner was impressed by Stratton and by his motoring knowledge. He was E. G. Jenkinson, the chairman of Daimler and then hunting a replacement head for Daimler’s London depot, a particularly sensitive position because of the royal cars. Taking up the position Stratton soon found himself deep in the selection of better royal chauffeurs and mechanics. He quickly became an occasional motoring companion to the King
and before long motoring counsellor to other monarchs including the Emperor of Germany and the King of Spain
. In 1911 he spent some weekends at Sandringham tutoring the new Prince of Wales
on the workings of an automobile and then its driving. In 1921 Stratton went into partnership with Ernest Instone and they took charge of the Daimler showrooms at 39 Pall Mall naming the business Stratton-Instone. Each morning at eleven a butler in morning suit brought oysters and champagne to the directors’ rooms. Stratton died suddenly in 1929. His successors and Instone bought out Daimler in 1930 and renamed the business Stratstone Limited. The following summer the future King Edward VIII rented Stratton’s house at Sunningdale from his widow.
Every British monarch from Edward VII to the current queen
has been driven in Daimler limousines. In 1950, after a transmission failure on the King's car, Rolls-Royce
was commissioned as the Royal Primary Carriage, Daimler being reduced to "second fiddle". The current official state car
is either one of a pair specially made for the purpose by Bentley
, unofficial chauffeured transport is by Daimler.
Daimler's chairman contacted Knight in Chicago and Knight settled in England near Coventry in 1907. Daimler contracted Dr Frederick Lanchester as their consultant for the purpose and a major re-design and refinement of Knight's design took place in great secrecy. Knight's design was made a practical proposition. When unveiled in September 1908 the new engine caused a sensation. "Suffice it to say that mushroom valves, springs and cams, and many small parts, are swept away bodily, that we have an almost perfectly spherical explosion chamber, and a cast-iron sleeve or tube as that portion of the combustion chamber in which the piston travels."
The Royal Automobile Club held a special meeting to discuss the new engine, still silent but no longer "Wholly Knight". The Autocar reported on "its extraordinary combination of silence, flexibility and power." In recognition of the design's success the RAC awarded Daimler their coveted Dewar Trophy. Daimler bought rights from Knight "for England and the colonies" and shared ownership of the European rights, in which it took 60%, with Minerva of Belgium. Daimler dropped poppet-valve engines altogether. Sales outran the works' ability to supply.
Daimler's sleeve valve
engines idle silently but when they left royal engagements Daimlers often departed in a just-visible haze of oil smoke. These engines had quite high oil consumption, oil being needed to lubricate the sleeves particularly when cold, but by the standards of their day they required almost no maintenance.
Daimler kept their silent sleeve-valve engines until the mid 1930s. The change to poppet valves beginning with the Fifteen of 1933.
combine. His son Sir Bernard Docker
(1896–1978) became a key player in Daimler's history.
Under an agreement dated 22 September 1910 the shareholders of The Daimler Motor Company Limited "merged their holdings with those of the Birmingham Small Arms Company
(BSA) group of companies". They handed in their Daimler shares for new BSA shares. BSA produced bicycles and motorcycles and rifles, ammunition and military vehicles as well as some BSA branded cars.
Immediately before the merger Daimler had a payroll of 4,116 workmen and 418 staff. The chairman of the enlarged group was Edward Manville who had been chairman of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
- founded by Simms - since 1907.
The military took normal production of cars, lorries, buses and ambulances together with a scout army vehicle and engines used in ambulances, trucks, and double-decker buses. Special products included aero engines and complete aircraft, tank and tractor engines and munitions.
Aero engines manufactured by Daimler included: the French designed Gnome Monosoupape
rotary engine, the air-cooled V8 RAF 1
. Followed by RAF1a, the V12 RAF4
and RAF4a, Le Rhone
and Bentley BR2
.
Daimler trained air force mechanics in its works and its training methods became the standard for all manufacturers instructing RAF mechanics.
Having its own bodyshop Daimler moved to building the complete flying machine and by the end of 1914 they had built 100 of the BE2c. These were followed by the BE12
and RE8
. Their own test-ground beside the factory was compulsorily purchased and became the main RAF testing ground for aircraft built in the Coventry district. After tooling up for the FE4 raider bomber that project was cancelled. The last wartime aircraft produced was the DH10
bomber when they were building 80 aeroplanes a month.
The first special production in late 1914 were the power trains used in the Fosters of Lincoln
made massive artillery tractors to haul 15 inches (381 mm) howitzers. As a result Daimler produced engines for the very first tank
s ever built in 1914 ("Little Willie
" and "Big Willie" or "Mother
"). One major difficulty for the tanks was the fine oil haze above their Daimler engines which the enemy quickly learned meant tanks were operating nearby if out of sight! The early tanks weighed up to 28 tons. They were all Daimler powered. Modifications designed by W. O. Bentley
upgraded output from 105 to 125 horsepower during production. Derivatives included a gun-carrier and a supply vehicle and a salvage machine to rescue broken-down tanks and heavy guns.
Daimler made more twelve inch (305 mm) shells than any other business in the country, 2000 a week. Each was machined from a 994 lb forging down to a finished weight of 684 lb.
After the Armistice it was decided that Daimler Hire
should extend its luxury travel services to include charter aircraft through a new enterprise, Daimler Air Hire. Following the take-over of Airco
and its subsidiaries in February 1920 services included scheduled services London-Paris as well as "Taxi Planes" to "anywhere in Europe". In 1922 under the name of Daimler Airway
services extended to scheduled flights London to Berlin and places between. Frank Searle
, managing director of Daimler Hire and its subsidiaries moved with his deputy Humphery Wood into the new national carrier Imperial Airways
at its formation on 1 April 1924. Searle and Wood and their Daimler Airway
machines formed the core of Imperial Airways operations.
(AEC), formed the Associated Daimler Company to build commercial vehicles.
was sold to the Thomas Tilling Group and, in January 1931, Daimler completed the purchase of The Lanchester Motor Company
. The new Lanchester 15/18 model introduced in 1931 was fitted with Daimler's fluid flywheel transmission.
Although at first they produced separate ranges of cars with the Daimler badge appearing mainly on the larger models, by the mid 1930s the two were increasingly sharing components leading to the 1936 Lanchester 18/Daimler Light 20 differing in little except trim and grille.
This marketing concept already employed with their BSA range of cars continued to the end of Lanchester and BSA car production. Some very important customers were supplied with big Daimler limousines with Lanchester grilles. The Daimler range was exceptionally complex in the 1930s with cars using a variety of six and eight cylinder engines with capacities from 1805 cc in the short lived 15 of 1934 to the 4624 cc 4.5 litre of 1936.
Through the whole life of its business Daimler seemed to suffer from often truly crippling boardroom battles, intense personal rivalries.
It has been suggested Simms and Daimler soon withdrew from their initial association with Lawson because Lawson showed little potential ability for managing a manufacturing business. Altogether an unsatisfactory group of people to be associated with. Once relieved of Lawson the next period, Sturmey's chairmanship, suffered from the division between his supporters and his opponents. Sturmey departed in 1899.
Yet in the early 1900s the achievement of a Royal Warrant and acquisition of some capable talent led to improved fortunes; Percy Martin, a substantial shareholder, as works manager and Ernest Instone as general manager under the chairmanship of Sir Edward Jenkinson. Jenkinson was succeeded in 1906 by Edward Manville a distinguished consulting engineer who was to become chairman of BSA. The involvement of the Docker family, father and son, from 1910 failed to solve boardroom difficulties transferred to BSA and in the end may have brought about disaster but in any case the collective Daimler leadership did well until the late 1920s and the business prospered. Its repute and its profits grew. "Side by side with an apprenticeship scheme which was as good as any in the trade, they had begun to attract pupils from public schools with such success that shortly before (Word War I) there was a hostel full of them in a pleasant house in St Nicholas Street near the Coventry works." During that war the labour force grew from 4,000 to 6,000 men.
Manville died in 1933, Percy Martin was forced out two years later, Frederick Lanchester resigned as consultant in 1936, Laurence Pomeroy was not re-elected to the board and left for de Havilland. Ernest Instone had left the works in the early 1920s to concentrate his efforts on distribution (Stratton-Instone) but he too died, in 1932.
The staid Daimler was never a young man's car. It might be smooth silent and impeccable but a Bentley or Hispano-Suiza was a great deal faster and more appealing to the adventurous. Most important of all Daimler was not paying dividends and by 1936 BSA shareholders' meetings were stormy. Attempted solutions had been the 10hp Lanchester and its matching but 6-cylinder stable mate the Daimler Fifteen (later DB17 and DB18) introduced in the early thirties. This line as the Lanchester Fourteen and Daimler Conquest was to run through to the very end.
Edward H W Cooke attempted a revival and from 1937 introduced saloons with a freshness of design new to Daimler. The new products had remarkable successes in competitions and rallies. His policy was proved sound but another war, post-war austerity and yet more boardroom battles, this time in public, seemed to put an end to Daimler's once-proud business.
Daimler became a proponent of the preselector gearbox
and Fottinger's
fluid flywheel
. They were introduced by Daimler in 1930 on their double-six 30 for an extra £50 and soon they were used in all Daimler vehicles. The chairman reported to the shareholders at their Annual General Meeting in November 1933 "The Daimler Fluid Flywheel Transmission now has three years of success behind it and more than 11,000 vehicles, ranging from 10 h.p. passenger cars to double-deck omnibuses, aggregating over 160,000 h.p., incorporate this transmission. . . . . it has yet to be proved that any other system offers all the advantages of the Daimler Fluid Flywheel Transmission. Our Daimler, Lanchester and BSA cars remain what we set out to make them—the aristocrats of their class and type. . . . We have also received numerous inquiries from overseas markets. (Applause)". These transmissions remained in production until replaced by Borg-Warner fully automatic units beginning in the mid 1950s. Late in that period a new Lanchester model with a Hobbs fully automatic gearbox did not, in the end, enter full production.
The production programme for 1930 encompassed six engine types and seventeen variants on seven chassis types. A substantial part of the progamme had been completed and sold by November 1929. Orders held for 1930 were:
During World War II
, Daimler turned to military production. A four wheel drive scout car
, known to the Arny as the Dingo
, had a 2.5 litre engine, along with a larger armoured car
powered by a 4.1 litre engine and armed with a 2pdr.
were produced, both with six cylinder power units, fluid flywheels and epicyclic gearboxes. These military vehicles incorporated various innovative features including all-round disc brakes.
During the war Daimler built over 6,600 scout and some 2,700 Mk I and Mk II armoured cars. Tank components, particularly epicyclic gearboxes were provided for some 2,500 Crusader
, Covenanter
and Cavalier tank
s. No complete aircraft as in the previous war but 50,800 radial aero-engines—Bristol Mercury
, Hercules
and Pegasus—with full sets of parts for a further 9,500 of these engines; propeller shafts for Rolls-Royce aero-engines; 14,356 gun-turrets for bombers including their Browning machine gun
s; 74,000 Bren guns—bombed-out that production had to be moved to a boot and shoe factory in Burton-on-Trent. Over 10 million aircraft parts were produced during the war. All this production is Daimler's alone excluding BSA's other involvements.
Daimler's peak workforce, 16,000 people, was reached in this period.
After that war, Daimler produced the Ferret armoured car
, a military reconnaissance vehicle based on the innovative 4.1 litre engined armoured car they had developed and built during the war, which has been used by over 36 countries.
of Coventry, but there were by now 'shadow factories' elsewhere in the city including one located at Brown's Lane, Allesey—now itself destroyed—but which after the Jaguar takeover became for several decades the principal Jaguar car plant. This acquisition, made by buying Daimler and getting a Coventry plant and its workforce, was a clever move by Sir William Lyons. Most motor industry members were forced by planning controls to expand in areas of unemployment without skilled operatives. Consequently they suffered lasting difficulties with quality of workmanship.
Foreign monarchs re-ordered to replenish their fleets. The 1946 golden jubilee of the founding of the business was celebrated with a luncheon at the Savoy.
However 'austerity' seemed infectious. The new Lanchester looked just like a Ford Prefect and its body was made in the same factory. A new model Eighteen
with a lot of aluminium because of the steel supply shortage, a modified pre-war Fifteen
, was introduced with technical innovations limited to a new cylinder head and curved glass in its side windows now framed by elegant chromed metal channels. Windows were 'in'. The big DE27 and DE36 models were the first series-built cars with electrically operated windows. Daimler ambulances became a common sight.
Then in June 1947 purchase tax was doubled—home market sales had already been restricted to cars for "essential purposes". Petrol remained rationed, ten gallons a month. Princess Elizabeth took her 2½ litre drophead coupé, an 18th birthday gift from her father, to Malta where her new husband was stationed. The King took delivery of a new open tourer straight-eight in March 1949. In the commodities boom caused by the 1950 Korean War Australasian woolgrowers reported the new electrically operated limousine-division to be 'just the thing' if over-heated sheepdogs licked the back of a driver's ears. The newest royal Daimler's transmission failed again and again.
This schedule shows where what should have been Daimler repeat-orders went to. Daimler subsidiary Hoopers at least got to make some of the bodies.
held during the 1951 Earl's Court motor show. Lady Docker told her husband to rethink his marketing policies. 3 litre Regency
production was stopped. In the hope of keeping 4,000+ employed the Consort price was dropped from 4 February 1953 to the expected new tax-inclusive level.
Stagnation of all the British motor industry was relieved by the reduction of purchase tax in the April 1953 budget. Daimler announced the introduction of the moderately sized Conquest
in May (apparently developed in just four months from the four-cylinder Lanchester 14 or Leda with a Daimler grille). But somehow it was all too late. The image had changed. Even local royalty deserted for Rolls-Royce.
Daimler and Lanchester, there were no more BSA cars, struggled after the War, producing too many models with short runs and limited production, and frequently selling too few of each model, while Jaguar seemed to know what the public wanted and expanded rapidly. Daimler produced heavy staid large and small luxury cars with a stuffy, if sometimes opulent image. Jaguar produced lower quality cars at a remarkably low price and they were designed for enthusiasts.
The BSA group's leadership of the world's motorcycle market was eventually lost to Japanese manufacturers.
was the Managing Director of BSA from early in WWII, and married Norah Lady Collins
in 1949. It was twice-widowed and wealthy in her own right Norah's third marriage, she had originally been a successful dance hall hostess. Lady Docker took an interest in her husband's companies and became a director of Hooper
, the coachbuilders.
Daughter of an unsuccessful Birmingham car salesman Lady Docker could see that the Daimler cars, no longer popular with the royal family, were in danger of becoming an anachronism in the modern world. She took it upon herself to raise Daimler's profile, but in an extravagant fashion, by encouraging Sir Bernard to produce show cars.
The first was the 1951 "Golden Daimler", an opulent touring limousine, in 1952, "Blue Clover, a two door sportsmans coupe, in 1953 the "Silver Flash" based on the 3 litre Regency
chassis, and in 1954 "Stardust", redolent of the "Gold Car", but based on the DK400
chassis as was what proved to be her Paris 1955 grande finale, a 2-door coupé she named "Golden Zebra", the "last straw" for the Tax Office and now on permanent display at The Hague
.
At the same time Lady Docker earned a reputation for having rather poor social graces when under the influence, and she and Sir Bernard were investigated for failing to correctly declare the amount of money taken out of the country on a visit to a Monte Carlo
casino. Sir Bernard was instantly dumped "for absenteeism" by the Midland Bank board without waiting for the court case. Norah drew further attention. She ran up large bills and presented them to Daimler as business expenses but some items were disallowed by the Tax Office. The publicity attached to this and other social episodes told on Sir Bernard's standing as some already thought the cars far too opulent and perhaps a little vulgar for austere post-war Britain. To compound Sir Bernard's difficulty, the royal family shifted allegiance to Rolls Royce
. By the end of 1960 all the State Daimlers had been sold and replaced by Rolls-Royces.
in 1960 were:
In 1951 Jack Sangster
sold his motorcycle companies Ariel
and Triumph to BSA, and joined their board. In 1956 Sangster was elected Chairman, defeating Sir Bernard 6 votes to 3. After a certain amount of electioneering by the Dockers an extraordinary shareholders' meeting backed the board decision and Bernard and Norah bought a brace of Rolls-Royces registering them as ND5 and BD9. Many important European customers turned out to have been Docker friends and did not re-order Daimler cars.
Sangster promptly made Edward Turner
head of the automotive division which as well as Daimler and Carbodies
(London Taxicab manufacturers) included Ariel, Triumph, and BSA motorcycles. Turner designed the Daimler SP250
and Majestic Major
, and their lightweight hemi head
Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 Litre V8 Engines
. Under Sangster Daimler's vehicles became a little less sober and more performance oriented. Their Majestic Major proved an agile high-speed cruiser on the new motorways.
The two excellent Turner V8 engines disappeared with British Leyland's first rationalization, the larger in 1968 and the smaller a year later.
patents of Belgian Henri Pieper
, a petrol-electric vehicle and on 23 May 1906 registered Gearless Motor Omnibus Co. Limited. It was too heavy. Following the introduction of Daimler-Knight sleeve-valve engines re-designed for Daimler by Dr Frederick Lanchester Lanchester also refined the Gearless design and it re-emerged in 1910 as the KPL (Knight-Pieper-Lanchester) omnibus, a very advanced integral petrol electric hybrid. The KPL bus had four-wheel brakes and steel unitary body/chassis construction. Failure to produce the KPL set bus design back twenty years.
Introduction of the KPL was stopped by a patent infringement action brought by London General Omnibus's associate Tilling-Stevens in early May 1911 when just twelve KPL buses had been built. This was just after Daimler had poached LGOC's Frank Searle
and announced him to be general manager of its new London bus service which would be using its new KPL type to compete directly with LGOC.
Some of LGOC's vehicles used Daimler engines. With the collapse of Daimler's plans Searle, an engineer and designer of the LGOC X-type
and AEC B-type
bus, instead joined Daimler's commercial vehicle department. Reverting to (before LGOC) omnibus salesman Searle rapidly achieved some notable sales. 100 to Metropolitan Electric Tramways and 250 to LGOC's new owner, Underground.
First Searle designed for Daimler a 34-seater with gearbox transmission (the KPL used electric motors each side) very like the B-Type and it was introduced by Daimler in early 1912. The main difference from what became the AEC B-Type was the use of Daimler's sleeve-valve engine. In June 1912 what had been LGOC's manufacturing plant was hived off as AEC. Between 1913–16 AEC built some Daimler models under contract and Daimler sold all AEC vehicles which were surplus to LGOC needs. After war service now Colonel Searle moved to Daimler Hire Limited and its involvement in aviation. The Searle models were developed after World War I, but from 1926–8 Daimler entered into a joint venture with AEC vehicles being badged as Associated Daimler.
In the 1930s the Daimler CO became the main model, there was a similar but heavier CW produced during World War II and in postwar years production worked through the Daimler CV to the long-running Daimler CR Fleetline, built from 1960 to 1980 (CVG5 and CVG6 had been a common type of bus in Hong Kong between 1950 to 1988 and Fleetline had also become a major type of bus in Hong Kong till 1995). Small numbers of single deck vehicles were also built. Many British bus operators bought substantial numbers of the vehicles and there were also a number built for export. The standard London double-decker bus
bought from 1970 to 1978 was the Daimler Fleetline.
Daimler buses were fitted with proprietary diesel engines, the majority by the Gardner company, although there were a few hundred Daimler diesels built in the 1940s & 1950s, and the Leyland O.680 was offered as an option on the Fleetline (designated CRL6) after the merger with Leyland. The bus chassis were also fitted with bodywork built by various outside contractors, as standard in the British bus industry, so at a casual glance there is no real identifying feature of a Daimler bus apart from the badges (Daimler buses retained the distinctive fluted radiator grille top). The last Daimler Fleetline was built at the traditional Daimler factory in Radford, Coventry, in 1973, after that date the remaining buses were built at the Leyland factory in Farington
, Lancashire, the final eight of years of Fleetline production being badged as Leyland. The last Fleetline built was bodied by Eastern Coach Works
in 1981.
During that Jaguar-owned period 1960-1968, Daimler became the second-largest (after Leyland) double-decker bus manufacturer in Britain, with the "Fleetline" model. At the same time, Daimler made trucks and motorhomes. BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation to give the British Leyland Motor Corporation
in 1968. Production of Daimler buses in Coventry ceased in 1973 when production of its last bus product (the Daimler Fleetline
) was transferred to Leyland plant in Farington. Daimler stayed within BLMC and its subsequent forms until 1982, at which point Jaguar (with Daimler) was demerged from BL as an independent manufacturer.
was looking to expand manufacture, wanted the manufacturing facilities and had to decide what to do with the existing Daimler vehicles.
Jaguar had been refused planning permission for a new factory in the area in which it wanted it to be. Daimler had shrunk to representing just 15% of BSA group turnover in 1959-1960 and BSA wished to dispose of its motoring interests.
"Jaguars reiterate their previous statement that the production of the current range of Daimler models is to be continued. Furthermore, research and development work in connexion with future Daimler models will proceed normally. Jaguars deny rumors to the effect that sweeping changes, including even the extinction of the Daimler marque, are to be expected. The company's long term view envisages not merely the retention of the Daimler marque, but the expansion of its markets at home and overseas, it is stated."
It is said that Jaguar put a Daimler 4.5L V8 in a Mark X
, and it went better than the Jaguar version. It is also said that when Jaguar ceased production of Daimler designed vehicles, Lyons had all the spares bulldozed into a pit.
The Daimler Majestic Major and the sporty Dart
, already in production, were continued for a number of years, using the Daimler V8 engine. In 1961 Daimler introduced the DR450
, a limousine version of its Majestic Major with a longer chassis and bodyshell and higher roofline. It continued in production until the DS420
arrived in 1968, by which time it had sold almost as many as the "Major" saloon.
They were the last Daimler-badge cars not designed by Jaguar.
While this car became the most popular Daimler ever produced it had two remarkable characteristics:
Significant new Daimler models for this Jaguar-owned period include:
(BMC), the new masters of badge-engineering, in 1966 and a few months later BMC was re-named British Motor Holdings
(BMH).
and Coventry-Climax to their group they remained dependent on Pressed Steel
for bodies. Once BMC had taken control of Pressed Steel Lyons felt compelled to submit to the BMC takeover. Lyons remained anxious to see that Jaguar maintained its own identity and came to resent the association with British Leyland. He was delighted by Sir John Egan
's accomplishments and by the new independence arranged in 1984.
At this point, 1967, it was decided there was insufficient in the group advertising budget to cope with marketing the Daimler brand in USA.
Limousine introduced in 1968 and withdrawn from production in 1992 employed a strengthened Mk X Jaguar unitary carcass with a new roof and a rear extension—21 inches were let in to the floor pan behind the front seat by Rubery Owen. Finishing from the bare metal was carried out by Vanden Plas who had lost their Princess. The floor pan with mechanicals—a drive-away chassis— was also sold for specialized bodywork, mostly hearses. The very last hearse was delivered on 9 February 1994 to a Mr Slack, funeral director of Cheshire.
Though entirely a Jaguar the DS420 was unique to Daimler. These stately limousines, wedding and funeral cars and the hearses made by independent coachbuilders, their majestic bulk preceded by the fluted grille, are now the way most remember Daimler cars.
These were the first series of vehicles that were badge-engineered Jaguars (XJ Series), but given a more luxurious and upmarket finish.
For example the Daimler Double-Six was a Jaguar XJ-12
, the Daimler badge and fluted top to its grille and boot handle being the only outward differences from the Jaguar, with more luxurious interior fittings and extra standard equipment marking it out on the inside.
Significant Daimler models for that period include:
Visitors to USA found fluted Daimlers labelled 'Jaguar Vanden Plas'.
, a Daimler apprentice 1927-1932, joined Jaguar in 1946.
Service manager, Jaguar Cars 1946-56, service director 1956-61, assistant managing director 1961-66, deputy managing director 1966-67, joint managing director 1967-68, deputy chairman 1968-72, chairman and chief executive 1972-74.
1984 produced a record group output of 36,856 cars but less than 5% were badged Daimler. Two years later Daimler's share had reached 11.5%—in fact almost 23% if the Vanden Plas for USA is included.
paid £1.6 billion to buy Jaguar and with it the right to use the Daimler name. In 1992, Daimler (Ford) stopped production of the DS420 Limousine, the only model that was a little more than just a re-badged Jaguar. In 1996 Jaguar Cars produced a "Daimler Century" model to celebrate 100 years of motoring.
The name Daimler continued to be used to determine top-line XJ Jaguars in every country except the USA, where the top XJ is known as the "XJ Vanden Plas" — Jaguar may have feared that the American market would confuse Jaguar Daimler with Daimler AG. Marketing of the Daimler name in USA had ceased in 1967.
.
Significant Daimler Models for the Ford Premier Auto Group period include:
Sports Car Show in January 2004. The Daimler Corsica prototype is owned by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, who have decommissioned it to operate as a fully functional road-legal car. It is on display at their museum at Browns Lane in Coventry
, England
. The car was recently displayed at Harewood House as part of the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club show.
In July 2008 Tata Group, the current owners of Jaguar and Daimler, announced they were considering transforming Daimler into "a super-luxury marque to compete directly with Bentley and Rolls-Royce". Until the early 1950s it was often said "the aristocracy buy Daimlers, the nouveau riche buy Rolls-Royce".
(Dorothy L Sayers) on wine packed in the rear of one's Daimler double-six: 'Great speed would render the wine undrinkable for a fortnight, excessive speed would render it undrinkable for six months'.
Agatha Christie
's characters prefer chauffeur driven cars from Daimler Hire.
In the James Bond book Diamonds are Forever
Tiffany travels from the Queen Elizabeth direct to London by Daimler Hire car. "She's on her way to London in a Daimler Hire, Sir. I'm putting her up in my flat."
Clive Cussler
's character Dirk Pitt
has the author's own 1951 Daimler DE36 Straight-Eight Hooper bodied Green Goddess convertible.
Harry John Lawson
Henry John Lawson, also known as Harry Lawson, was a British bicycle designer, motor industry pioneer, and fraudster. As part of his attempt to create and control a British motor industry Lawson formed and floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited in London in 1896. It later began manufacture in...
in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
. The right to the use of the name Daimler had been purchased simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler
Gottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...
and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt...
of Cannstatt, Germany. As of 2011, the brand appears to be dormant.
Current status
The Daimler Motor Company Limited is still registered as active and accounts are filed each year though it is currently marked "non-trading".All the Daimler shares were purchased from BSA by Jaguar Cars in 1960. After the introduction of the Daimler DR450
Daimler DR450
The Daimler DR450 was a limousine based on the 4.5 litre V8 Majestic Major saloon. Although intended for the carriage trade or as a hire car for those needing something larger than a five-seater saloon, it was produced in almost the same numbers as the "Major" saloon itself. It was also used as the...
new models used Jaguar bodies with Daimler grilles and badging. Daimler remains in the ownership of Jaguar Cars which now belongs to Tata Group
Tata Group
Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Tata Group is one of the largest companies in India by market capitalization and revenue. It has interests in communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy,...
of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Before 5 October 2007 Jaguar, while still controlled by Ford, reached agreement to permit then de-merging DaimlerChrysler to extend its use of the name Daimler. The announcement of this agreement was delayed until the end of July 2008 and made by Jaguar's new owner, Tata. This agreement might have substantially reduced the price paid by Tata.
As of 2008, Jaguar's use of the Daimler brand was limited to one model, the Daimler Super Eight.
People
Some of the men who led “The Daimler” and some whose work gave special assistance.- Gottlieb DaimlerGottlieb DaimlerGottlieb Daimler was an engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf , in what is now Germany. He was a pioneer of internal-combustion engines and automobile development...
inventor of the high-speed petrol engine who lent his name to his friend and English agent, Simms - Frederick Richard SimmsFrederick Richard SimmsFrederick Richard Simms was a British mechanical engineer, businessman, prolific inventor and motor industry pioneer. Simms coined the words "petrol" and "motorcar"...
(1863-1944) 1890-1896 consulting mechanical engineer, Gottlieb Daimler’s agent who proposed this car business - Henry John LawsonHarry John LawsonHenry John Lawson, also known as Harry Lawson, was a British bicycle designer, motor industry pioneer, and fraudster. As part of his attempt to create and control a British motor industry Lawson formed and floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited in London in 1896. It later began manufacture in...
(1852-1925) 1896-1904 company promoter, floated Daimler on the London Stock Exchange and started the business - James Sidney Critchley (1865-1944) 1896-1901 first works manager and a director
- Henry Sturmey (1857-1930) 1896-1899 journalist, Autocar and Motor, chairman of Daimler
- Edward George Jenkinson (1837-1919) 1898-1906 chairman of Daimler
- Percy Martin (1871-1958) 1901-1934 electrical engineer, American-born managing director of Daimler and BSA director
- Edward Manville (1862-1933) MP 1905-1933 consulting electrical engineer, chairman of Daimler and BSA
- Charles Yale Knight (1868-1940) 1907-1908 sleeve-valve engine
- Ernest Martyn Critchley Instone (1872-1932) 1896-1932 sales Stratton-Instone Stratstone
- Undecimus Stratton (1868-1929) 1903-1929 courtier. sales Stratton-Instone Stratstone
- Frederick LanchesterFrederick LanchesterFrederick William Lanchester, Hon FRAeS was an English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering, aerodynamics and co-invented the field of operations research....
(1868-1946) "1907-1930" consulting engineer, polymath - Dudley Docker (1862-1944) 1910-1944 industrialist and financier
- Laurence Henry PomeroyLaurence PomeroyLaurence Henry Pomeroy was an English automotive engineer.Laurence Pomeroy was born in London and after leaving school served as an apprentice with the North London Railway Company. From there he became a draughtsman with Thornycroft in Basingstoke before moving to Vauxhall Motors in Luton in...
(1883-1941) 1926-1936 managing director - Walter Gordon WilsonWalter Gordon WilsonMajor Walter Gordon Wilson was an engineer and member of the British Royal Naval Air Service. He was credited by the 1919 Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors as the co-inventor of the tank, along with Sir William Tritton....
(1874–1957) preselector gearbox - Dr. Hermann FöttingerHermann FöttingerHermann Föttinger was a German engineer and inventor. In the course of his life he submitted over 100 patent applications, but he is most notable for inventing fluid coupling....
(1877-1945) fluid flywheel - Edward Henry William Cooke (1875-1951) 1937-1941 managing director of Daimler, director of BSA
- George Hally ( -1975) 1941-1948 managing director of Daimler
- James Leek ( - ) 1913-1957 managing director of Daimler and Cycles and Guns, director of BSA
- Bernard DockerBernard DockerSir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker was an English industrialist.Bernard Docker was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the only child of Frank Dudley Docker an industrialist....
(1896-1978) 1939-1956 BSA chairman - Norah Royce Docker née TurnerNorah, Lady DockerNorah Docker, Lady Docker was an English socialite.Daughter of Amy and Sydney Turner, she was originally a successful dance hall hostess and was noted for her colourful lifestyle.-Marriages:...
(1906-1983) 1949-1956 publicist - John Young SangsterJack SangsterJohn Young Sangster was an industrialist who became an important figure in the history of the British motorcycle industry. He is more commonly known as Jack Sangster.-Early life:...
(1896-1977) 1951-1961 BSA chairman - Edward TurnerEdward TurnerEdward Turner was a British motorcycle designer. He was born in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark, on the day King Edward VII was proclaimed King....
(1901-1973) 1957- Daimler V8 engine designer - Eric TurnerEric TurnerEric Ray Turner was a defensive back who played for the Cleveland Browns, the Baltimore Ravens and the Oakland Raiders. He died of intestinal cancer at the age of 31, two weeks after claiming he was not gravely ill...
(1918-1980) 1 January 1960-1971 BSA chairman
Foundation of the Coventry business 1896
The name Daimler is used by two completely separate groups of car manufacturerAutomaker
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
s. The history of both enterprises can be traced back to the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler who built the first four-wheeled car in 1889.
Cannstatt
This German firmFirm
A firm is a business.Firm or The Firm may also refer to:-Organizations:* Hooligan firm, a group of unruly football fans* The Firm, Inc., a talent management company* Fair Immigration Reform Movement...
, initially operating at Cannstatt near Stuttgart, was the origin of the business variously known as Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt...
from 1890 to 1926, Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
from 1926 to 1998, DaimlerChrysler
DaimlerChrysler
Daimler AG is a German car corporation. By unit sales, it is the thirteenth-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm...
from 1998 to 2007 and now Daimler AG or Daimler Germany, which has also manufactured vehicles since the 1890s but no cars with the name Daimler since 1908.
Coventry
The British business was begun by engineer F R Simms who was Hamburg born-and-raised though of English parents. Simms was impressed by Daimler’s motor when supervising construction of an aerial cableway of Simms own design for the Bremen Exhibition in 1889. Daimler, an ardent Anglophile, had spent from autumn 1860 to summer 1862 working in England then regarded as “the motherland of technology”. Simms’ then wife was Austrian. The two men became firm friends though Simms was near thirty years younger.Simms first introduced Daimler’s motors to England in 1890 to power launches. At the beginning of 1891 (agreement dated 18 February 1891) he obtained British (and British Empire) rights for the Daimler patents and he founded Simms & Co consulting engineers in June 1891. His Daimler related work was later moved into his new company named The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited formed 26 May 1893.
On 7 June 1895 Simms told his own board he wished to form a company to be known as The Daimler Motor Company Limited (DMC) to acquire both the right to use the name Daimler and the British rights to the Daimler patents. It would manufacture Daimler motors and cars in England. In July 1895 he arranged an agency for the Daimler-powered Panhard & Levassor cars in Britain. Simms asked his good friend Daimler to be consulting engineer to the new enterprise.
Simms revives Cannstatt
Simms was approached on 15 October 1895 by H J LawsonHarry John Lawson
Henry John Lawson, also known as Harry Lawson, was a British bicycle designer, motor industry pioneer, and fraudster. As part of his attempt to create and control a British motor industry Lawson formed and floated The Daimler Motor Company Limited in London in 1896. It later began manufacture in...
of The British Motor Syndicate Limited. Lawson wanted to arrange the public flotation of the proposed new company (and acquire a large shareholding for his British Motor Syndicate). Welcomed by Simms the negotiations proceeded on the basis that this new company should acquire The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern including the name and patent rights.
Healing Cannstatt's splintering
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
and Maybach chief Technical Director. At the same time Simms became a director of DMG but did not become a director of the London company. Those close to Daimler considered it ‘no mean feat’ that Simms had managed to obtain Daimler’s signature to the proposed re-amalgamation.
On 14 January 1896 Lawson incorporated The Daimler Motor Company Limited. A prospectus was issued on 15 February. The subscription lists opened on 17 February and closed, oversubscribed, the next day. The Daimler Motor Company Limited bought The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern. One of Lawson’s associates had for sale an empty four-storey cotton mill in Coventry which was promptly purchased and that is how the British motor industry came to begin in Coventry.
In mid 1900 Frederick Simms, as a director of the German firm, proposed a Daimler union between Coventry and Cannstatt but nothing came of the proposal.
Name confusion
Aristocrat and car dealer Emil JellinekEmil Jellinek
Emil Jellinek, known after 1903 as Emil Jellinek-Mercedes was a wealthy European entrepreneur who sat on the board of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft between 1900 and 1909. He specified an engine designed there by Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler for the first 'modern' car...
had legal problems selling German Daimlers in France, Panhard-Levassor
Panhard
Panhard is currently a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA , for 40 years...
also used the name as they used German Daimler engines. Jellinek proposed to Daimler Germany that he would place a large order if they would make a car for him that bore his daughter's name, Mercedes
Mércédès Jellinek
Mercédès Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek called Mercédès was the daughter of Austrian automobile entrepreneur Emil Jellinek and his wife Rachel Goggmann Cenrobert. She was born on September 16, 1889 and named as a term of endearment Mercedes...
. Daimler Germany now recognized they shared their right to the name Daimler with many others and to avoid further legal action the name Mercedes
Mercedes (car)
Mercedes was a brand of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft . DMG which began to develop in 1900, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler...
was adopted in 1902 for all the cars built by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was a German engine and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt...
itself. The name Daimler was last used for a German-built car in 1908.
The Vienna Austro-Daimler
Austro-Daimler
Austro-Daimler was an Austrian automaker company, from 1899 until 1934. It was subsidiary of the German Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft .-Early history:...
business has survived as Steyr-Daimler-Puch
Steyr-Daimler-Puch
Steyr-Daimler-Puch was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names.-History:...
, despite being absorbed by General Dynamics in 2003.
Motors, launches, cars
In February 1891 Cannstatt loaned Simms a motorboat with a 2 hp engine and an extra engine and in June, named Cannstatt, it began running on the Thames from PutneyPutney
Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
. Simms had set up a London office at 49 Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street is a street in the City of London, formerly part of the A11. It runs east from Cornhill to Aldgate, and west vice-versa. Aldgate Pump is at the junction with Aldgate...
and, later, works premises on the Thames at Eel Pie Island
Eel Pie Island
Eel Pie Island is an island in the River Thames in England at Twickenham, in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London. It is situated on the Tideway and can be reached only by footbridge or boat...
where Pears Soap had been making electric motors. The launch business rapidly gained momentum.
At the June 1895 board meeting Simms detailed his plans to form The Daimler Motor Company Limited and to build a brand-new factory, incorporating light rail, for 400 workmen making Daimler Motor Carriages. He then proudly produced the first car licence, for a 3½hp Panhard & Levassor
Panhard
Panhard is currently a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA , for 40 years...
(later referred to as a ‘Daimler Motor Carriage’). Bought in France by Evelyn Ellis, who had three Daimler motor launches moored by his home at Datchet
Datchet
Datchet is an English Thameside village and civil parish situated in the unitary authority of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974....
, it was landed at Southampton on 3 July and driven by Ellis to Micheldever near Winchester where he met Simms and they drove to Datchet. Ellis later drove it on to Malvern. This was the first long journey by motorcar in Britain. Simms firmed up his plans for the new business and new factory selecting a six-acre site at Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
.
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
mills were purchased and named Motor Mills. A deal was concluded with Panhard & Levassor in which the Cannstatt firm would receive a commission of 10% on British sales.
1896 passed with car sales limited to imported Panhard and Peugeot cars. Aside from engines Cannstatt seemed unable to supply ordered components or specially commissioned working drawings. Four experimental cars were built and some (redesigned in detail) Daimler engines.
The first Coventry Daimler-engined product made its maiden run on 2 March 1897. By mid-year they were producing three of their own cars a week and producing Léon Bollée
Léon Bollée Automobiles
Léon Bollée Automobiles was a French company founded by Léon Bollée in Le Mans to build a first vehicle called "Voiturette".The Bollée family, all car makers, created three brands:* steam vehicles, Amédée Bollée , built between 1873 and 1885....
cars under licence. The first car left the works in January 1897, fitted with a Panhard engine, followed in March by Daimler engined cars. Lawson claimed to have made 20 cars by July 1897 making the Daimler Britain's first motor car to go into serial production, an honour that is also credited to Humber motors who had also displayed, but in their case their production models, at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1896. The Daimlers had a twin-cylinder, 1526 cc engine, mounted at the front of the car, four-speed gearbox and chain drive to the rear wheels.
Royal patronage
Known as Britain's oldest car manufacturers, Daimler became the official transportation of royalty in 1898, after the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIIEdward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, was given a ride on a Daimler by John Douglas-Scott-Montagu
John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu , was a British Conservative politician and promoter of motoring....
later known as Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. Scott-Montagu, as a Member of Parliament, also drove a Daimler into the yard of the British Parliament
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
, the first motorized vehicle to be driven there. Daimler received another Royal Warrant early in 1908, “Motor Car Manufacturer to the Court of Prussia” and the same year yet another as “suppliers of motor cars to the Court of Spain”.
“Few car salesmen ever owned a house on the fashionable Old Mile at Ascot, maintained a stable of racehorses and trotters and rode to Royal Ascot as a guest in the King’s landau.”
Undecimus Stratton (1868-1929) known to friends as Eugene (Undecimus meaning eleventh child, as indeed he was), was born into a family acceptable at the royal court. A notable athlete and rugby player and record-setting balloonist friend of C S Rolls
Charles Rolls
Charles Stewart Rolls was a motoring and aviation pioneer. Together with Frederick Henry Royce he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in a flying accident, when the tail of his Wright Flyer broke off during a flying display near Bournemouth,...
. Stratton became a lawyer then started his own brewery, and, by the time he was in his early thirties, was able to marry a noted society beauty and to retire in great comfort. As a now wealthy motoring enthusiast he stopped one day in 1903 and offered help with a large Daimler stranded by the roadside. The Daimler’s owner was impressed by Stratton and by his motoring knowledge. He was E. G. Jenkinson, the chairman of Daimler and then hunting a replacement head for Daimler’s London depot, a particularly sensitive position because of the royal cars. Taking up the position Stratton soon found himself deep in the selection of better royal chauffeurs and mechanics. He quickly became an occasional motoring companion to the King
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
and before long motoring counsellor to other monarchs including the Emperor of Germany and the King of Spain
Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
. In 1911 he spent some weekends at Sandringham tutoring the new Prince of Wales
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
on the workings of an automobile and then its driving. In 1921 Stratton went into partnership with Ernest Instone and they took charge of the Daimler showrooms at 39 Pall Mall naming the business Stratton-Instone. Each morning at eleven a butler in morning suit brought oysters and champagne to the directors’ rooms. Stratton died suddenly in 1929. His successors and Instone bought out Daimler in 1930 and renamed the business Stratstone Limited. The following summer the future King Edward VIII rented Stratton’s house at Sunningdale from his widow.
Every British monarch from Edward VII to the current queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
has been driven in Daimler limousines. In 1950, after a transmission failure on the King's car, Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
was commissioned as the Royal Primary Carriage, Daimler being reduced to "second fiddle". The current official state car
Bentley State Limousine
The Bentley State Limousine is an official state car created by Bentley for Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 2002.The vehicle's twin-turbocharged, 6.75-litre V8 engine has been modified from Bentley's Arnage R version to produce and of torque. Its maximum speed is . The...
is either one of a pair specially made for the purpose by Bentley
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...
, unofficial chauffeured transport is by Daimler.
Fluted radiator
Since 1904, the fluted top surface to the radiator grille has been Daimler's distinguishing feature. This motif developed from the heavily finned water-cooling tubes slung externally at the front of early cars and clearly visible in the photograph of the 1903 car to the right.Sleeve-valve engines
Attracted by the possibilities of the "Silent Knight" engineKnight Engine
The Knight Engine was an internal combustion engine, designed by American Charles Yale Knight , that used sleeve valves instead of the more common poppet valve construction.- History :...
Daimler's chairman contacted Knight in Chicago and Knight settled in England near Coventry in 1907. Daimler contracted Dr Frederick Lanchester as their consultant for the purpose and a major re-design and refinement of Knight's design took place in great secrecy. Knight's design was made a practical proposition. When unveiled in September 1908 the new engine caused a sensation. "Suffice it to say that mushroom valves, springs and cams, and many small parts, are swept away bodily, that we have an almost perfectly spherical explosion chamber, and a cast-iron sleeve or tube as that portion of the combustion chamber in which the piston travels."
The Royal Automobile Club held a special meeting to discuss the new engine, still silent but no longer "Wholly Knight". The Autocar reported on "its extraordinary combination of silence, flexibility and power." In recognition of the design's success the RAC awarded Daimler their coveted Dewar Trophy. Daimler bought rights from Knight "for England and the colonies" and shared ownership of the European rights, in which it took 60%, with Minerva of Belgium. Daimler dropped poppet-valve engines altogether. Sales outran the works' ability to supply.
Daimler's sleeve valve
Sleeve valve
The sleeve valve is a type of valve mechanism for piston engines, distinct from the usual poppet valve. Sleeve-valve engines saw use in a number of pre-World War II luxury cars and in USA in the Willys-Knight car and light truck...
engines idle silently but when they left royal engagements Daimlers often departed in a just-visible haze of oil smoke. These engines had quite high oil consumption, oil being needed to lubricate the sleeves particularly when cold, but by the standards of their day they required almost no maintenance.
Daimler kept their silent sleeve-valve engines until the mid 1930s. The change to poppet valves beginning with the Fifteen of 1933.
BSA amalgamation 1910
This business deal was engineered by F Dudley Docker, deputy-chairman of BSA and famous for previous successful business mergers. He later created the Metropolitan-VickersMetropolitan-Vickers
Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...
combine. His son Sir Bernard Docker
Bernard Docker
Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker was an English industrialist.Bernard Docker was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the only child of Frank Dudley Docker an industrialist....
(1896–1978) became a key player in Daimler's history.
Under an agreement dated 22 September 1910 the shareholders of The Daimler Motor Company Limited "merged their holdings with those of the Birmingham Small Arms Company
Birmingham Small Arms Company
This article is not about Gamo subsidiary BSA Guns Limited of Armoury Road, Small Heath, Birmingham B11 2PP or BSA Company or its successors....
(BSA) group of companies". They handed in their Daimler shares for new BSA shares. BSA produced bicycles and motorcycles and rifles, ammunition and military vehicles as well as some BSA branded cars.
Immediately before the merger Daimler had a payroll of 4,116 workmen and 418 staff. The chairman of the enlarged group was Edward Manville who had been chairman of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is the trade association for the United Kingdom motor industry. It "promote the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad".-History:...
- founded by Simms - since 1907.
Transport of emperors, kings and princes
By 1914 Daimlers were in the service of royal families including Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Greece; its list of owners among the British nobility "read like a digest of Debrett"; the Bombay agent supplied Indian princes; the Japanese agent, Okura, handled sales in Manchuria and Korea.World War I work
War was declared on 4 August 1914. It would last until 11 November 1918 and involve much of the world in the conflict.The military took normal production of cars, lorries, buses and ambulances together with a scout army vehicle and engines used in ambulances, trucks, and double-decker buses. Special products included aero engines and complete aircraft, tank and tractor engines and munitions.
Aero engines manufactured by Daimler included: the French designed Gnome Monosoupape
Gnome Monosoupape
The Monosoupape , was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company...
rotary engine, the air-cooled V8 RAF 1
RAF 1
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Lumsden, Alec. British Piston Engines and their Aircraft. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-85310-294-6....
. Followed by RAF1a, the V12 RAF4
RAF 4
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopaedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9...
and RAF4a, Le Rhone
Le Rhône
Le Rhône was the name given to a series of popular rotary aircraft engines produced in France by Société des Moteurs Le Rhône and the successor company of Gnome et Rhône. They powered a number of military aircraft types of the First World War...
and Bentley BR2
Bentley BR2
-See also:-Bibliography:* Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9*Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War I. London. Studio Editions Ltd, 1993. ISBN 1-85170-347-0...
.
Daimler trained air force mechanics in its works and its training methods became the standard for all manufacturers instructing RAF mechanics.
Having its own bodyshop Daimler moved to building the complete flying machine and by the end of 1914 they had built 100 of the BE2c. These were followed by the BE12
Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12
|-See also:-External links:*...
and RE8
Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8
The Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 was a British two-seat biplane reconnaissance and bomber aircraft of the First World War designed by John Kenworthy. Intended as a replacement for the vulnerable B.E.2, the R.E.8 was more difficult to fly, and was regarded with great suspicion at first in the Royal...
. Their own test-ground beside the factory was compulsorily purchased and became the main RAF testing ground for aircraft built in the Coventry district. After tooling up for the FE4 raider bomber that project was cancelled. The last wartime aircraft produced was the DH10
Airco DH.10
|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography*Jackson, A. J. British Civil Aircraft Since 1919, Volume 2. London: Putnam, Second Edition, 1973. ISBN 0-370-10010-7.*Jackson A. J. De Havilland Aircraft since 1909. London:Putnam, 1987. ISBN 0-85177-802-X....
bomber when they were building 80 aeroplanes a month.
William Foster & Co.
William Foster & Co Ltd was an agricultural machinery company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England and usually just called "Fosters of Lincoln." The company can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a flour mill in Lincoln. William Foster then proceeded to start small scale...
made massive artillery tractors to haul 15 inches (381 mm) howitzers. As a result Daimler produced engines for the very first tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s ever built in 1914 ("Little Willie
Little Willie
Little Willie was a prototype in the development of the British Mark I tank. Constructed in the summer of 1915 through a close cooperation of the military and industry of the United Kingdom, it was the first completed tank prototype in history...
" and "Big Willie" or "Mother
Mark I tank
The British Mark I was a tracked vehicle developed by the British Army during the First World War and the world's first combat tank. The Mark I entered service in August 1916, and was first used in action on the morning of 15 September 1916 during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, of the Somme...
"). One major difficulty for the tanks was the fine oil haze above their Daimler engines which the enemy quickly learned meant tanks were operating nearby if out of sight! The early tanks weighed up to 28 tons. They were all Daimler powered. Modifications designed by W. O. Bentley
W. O. Bentley
Walter Owen Bentley, MBE engineer; designer of aero engines, designer and racer of motor cars, founder of Bentley Motors Limited in Cricklewood near London.He was known as "W.O." without any need to add the word Bentley....
upgraded output from 105 to 125 horsepower during production. Derivatives included a gun-carrier and a supply vehicle and a salvage machine to rescue broken-down tanks and heavy guns.
Daimler made more twelve inch (305 mm) shells than any other business in the country, 2000 a week. Each was machined from a 994 lb forging down to a finished weight of 684 lb.
Civil aviation
Daimler Hire
Daimler Hire Limited a service begun in 1897, provided a luxury chauffeur-driven Daimler Limousine-hire-service from Knightsbridge in London. It was a wholly owned operation and later a subsidiary of The Daimler Motor Company Limited....
should extend its luxury travel services to include charter aircraft through a new enterprise, Daimler Air Hire. Following the take-over of Airco
Airco
The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited was established in 1912 by George Holt Thomas at The Hyde in Hendon, north London, England.-Geoffrey de Havilland:...
and its subsidiaries in February 1920 services included scheduled services London-Paris as well as "Taxi Planes" to "anywhere in Europe". In 1922 under the name of Daimler Airway
Daimler Airway
Daimler Airway was an airline subsidiary of BSA group's Daimler Motor Company created to use some of the assets of the failed ventures Airco and its subsidiary Aircraft Transport and Travel acquired by BSA in February 1920.-History:...
services extended to scheduled flights London to Berlin and places between. Frank Searle
Frank Searle (businessman)
Frank Searle CBE, DSO, MIME was a British transport entrepreneur, a locomotive engineer who moved from steam to omnibuses, the motor industry and airlines.-Personal:...
, managing director of Daimler Hire and its subsidiaries moved with his deputy Humphery Wood into the new national carrier Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long range air transport company, operating from 1924 to 1939 and serving parts of Europe but especially the Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East...
at its formation on 1 April 1924. Searle and Wood and their Daimler Airway
Daimler Airway
Daimler Airway was an airline subsidiary of BSA group's Daimler Motor Company created to use some of the assets of the failed ventures Airco and its subsidiary Aircraft Transport and Travel acquired by BSA in February 1920.-History:...
machines formed the core of Imperial Airways operations.
Commercial vehicles
In late 1920s, it, together with Associated Equipment CompanyAEC (Associated Equipment Company)
AEC was a United Kingdom based vehicle manufacturer which built buses, motorcoaches and lorries from 1912 until 1979. The acronym stood for the Associated Equipment Company, but this name was hardly ever used; instead it traded under the AEC and ACLO brands.While famously associated with London's...
(AEC), formed the Associated Daimler Company to build commercial vehicles.
Lanchester acquisition and Badging
In 1930 the bulk of Daimler's shareholding in its subsidiary Daimler Hire LimitedDaimler Hire
Daimler Hire Limited a service begun in 1897, provided a luxury chauffeur-driven Daimler Limousine-hire-service from Knightsbridge in London. It was a wholly owned operation and later a subsidiary of The Daimler Motor Company Limited....
was sold to the Thomas Tilling Group and, in January 1931, Daimler completed the purchase of The Lanchester Motor Company
Lanchester Motor Company
The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a car manufacturer based until 1930 at Armourer Mills, Montgomery Street, Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England. It operated from 1895 to 1955....
. The new Lanchester 15/18 model introduced in 1931 was fitted with Daimler's fluid flywheel transmission.
Although at first they produced separate ranges of cars with the Daimler badge appearing mainly on the larger models, by the mid 1930s the two were increasingly sharing components leading to the 1936 Lanchester 18/Daimler Light 20 differing in little except trim and grille.
This marketing concept already employed with their BSA range of cars continued to the end of Lanchester and BSA car production. Some very important customers were supplied with big Daimler limousines with Lanchester grilles. The Daimler range was exceptionally complex in the 1930s with cars using a variety of six and eight cylinder engines with capacities from 1805 cc in the short lived 15 of 1934 to the 4624 cc 4.5 litre of 1936.
Mid-term review and outlook
By 1930 the BSA Group's primary activities were BSA motorcycles and Daimler vehicles.Through the whole life of its business Daimler seemed to suffer from often truly crippling boardroom battles, intense personal rivalries.
It has been suggested Simms and Daimler soon withdrew from their initial association with Lawson because Lawson showed little potential ability for managing a manufacturing business. Altogether an unsatisfactory group of people to be associated with. Once relieved of Lawson the next period, Sturmey's chairmanship, suffered from the division between his supporters and his opponents. Sturmey departed in 1899.
Yet in the early 1900s the achievement of a Royal Warrant and acquisition of some capable talent led to improved fortunes; Percy Martin, a substantial shareholder, as works manager and Ernest Instone as general manager under the chairmanship of Sir Edward Jenkinson. Jenkinson was succeeded in 1906 by Edward Manville a distinguished consulting engineer who was to become chairman of BSA. The involvement of the Docker family, father and son, from 1910 failed to solve boardroom difficulties transferred to BSA and in the end may have brought about disaster but in any case the collective Daimler leadership did well until the late 1920s and the business prospered. Its repute and its profits grew. "Side by side with an apprenticeship scheme which was as good as any in the trade, they had begun to attract pupils from public schools with such success that shortly before (Word War I) there was a hostel full of them in a pleasant house in St Nicholas Street near the Coventry works." During that war the labour force grew from 4,000 to 6,000 men.
Manville died in 1933, Percy Martin was forced out two years later, Frederick Lanchester resigned as consultant in 1936, Laurence Pomeroy was not re-elected to the board and left for de Havilland. Ernest Instone had left the works in the early 1920s to concentrate his efforts on distribution (Stratton-Instone) but he too died, in 1932.
The staid Daimler was never a young man's car. It might be smooth silent and impeccable but a Bentley or Hispano-Suiza was a great deal faster and more appealing to the adventurous. Most important of all Daimler was not paying dividends and by 1936 BSA shareholders' meetings were stormy. Attempted solutions had been the 10hp Lanchester and its matching but 6-cylinder stable mate the Daimler Fifteen (later DB17 and DB18) introduced in the early thirties. This line as the Lanchester Fourteen and Daimler Conquest was to run through to the very end.
Edward H W Cooke attempted a revival and from 1937 introduced saloons with a freshness of design new to Daimler. The new products had remarkable successes in competitions and rallies. His policy was proved sound but another war, post-war austerity and yet more boardroom battles, this time in public, seemed to put an end to Daimler's once-proud business.
Daimler's semi-automatic transmissions
Preselector gearbox
A preselector or self-changing gearbox is a type of manual gearbox used on a variety of vehicles, most commonly in the 1930s...
and Fottinger's
Hermann Föttinger
Hermann Föttinger was a German engineer and inventor. In the course of his life he submitted over 100 patent applications, but he is most notable for inventing fluid coupling....
fluid flywheel
Fluid coupling
A fluid coupling is a hydrodynamic device used to transmit rotating mechanical power. It has been used in automobile transmissions as an alternative to a mechanical clutch...
. They were introduced by Daimler in 1930 on their double-six 30 for an extra £50 and soon they were used in all Daimler vehicles. The chairman reported to the shareholders at their Annual General Meeting in November 1933 "The Daimler Fluid Flywheel Transmission now has three years of success behind it and more than 11,000 vehicles, ranging from 10 h.p. passenger cars to double-deck omnibuses, aggregating over 160,000 h.p., incorporate this transmission. . . . . it has yet to be proved that any other system offers all the advantages of the Daimler Fluid Flywheel Transmission. Our Daimler, Lanchester and BSA cars remain what we set out to make them—the aristocrats of their class and type. . . . We have also received numerous inquiries from overseas markets. (Applause)". These transmissions remained in production until replaced by Borg-Warner fully automatic units beginning in the mid 1950s. Late in that period a new Lanchester model with a Hobbs fully automatic gearbox did not, in the end, enter full production.
Royal Daimlers
A wide variety of engines were made in the earlier years. In an attempt to give some kind of indication of the complexities involved what follows is a list, by year of first supply, of the different engines in cars supplied to the King. In many cases a number of cars were supplied with the same engine and over a period of some years.- 1899 6 hp 2 cylinder 1.527 litres
- 1901 12 hp 4 cylinder 2.324 litres TA
- 1903 22 hp 4 cylinder 5.733 litres TB
- 1904 22 hp 4 cylinder 5.702 litres TB
- 1904 28 hp 4 cylinder 6.786 litres TB
- 1905 30 hp 4 cylinder 7.246 litres TJ
- 1905 35 hp 4 cylinder 8.462 litres TK
- 1905 35 hp 4 cylinder 9.236 litres TK
- 1907 30 hp 4 cylinder 4.942 litres TO
- 1908 42 hp 4 cylinder 7.964 litres TC
- 1908 58 hp 4 cylinder 10.431 litres TC
- 1909 38 hp 4 cylinder 6.281 litres TC
- 1909 57 hp 6 cylinder 9.420 litres TC
- 1911 23 hp 6 cylinder 3.921 litres TA
- 1911 38 hp 6 cylinder 9.420 litres TH
- 1914 20 hp 4 cylinder 3.308 litres TO
- 1914 45 hp 6 cylinder 7.412 litres TB
- 1920 30 hp 6 cylinder 4.962 litres TL
- 1923 45 hp 6 cylinder 7.413 litres TJ
- 1924 20 hp 6 cylinder 2.648 litres C
- 1925 45 hp 6 cylinder 8.458 litres N "The largest production car in the world"
- 1926 35 hp 6 cylinder 5.764 litres R
- 1928 30 hp 12 cylinder 3.744 litres V Light Double Six
- 1929 25 hp 6 cylinder 3.568 litres V
- 1931 40/50 hp 12 cylinder 6.511 litres OP Double Six, fluid flywheelFluid couplingA fluid coupling is a hydrodynamic device used to transmit rotating mechanical power. It has been used in automobile transmissions as an alternative to a mechanical clutch...
, self-changing gearboxPreselector gearboxA preselector or self-changing gearbox is a type of manual gearbox used on a variety of vehicles, most commonly in the 1930s... - 1935 25 hp 8 cylinder 3.746 litres Light Straight Eight
- 1935 50 hp 12 cylinder 6.511 litres Double Six
- 1936 32 hp 8 cylinder 4.624 litres Straight Eight
- 1937 24 hp 6 cylinder 3.317 litres EL24
The production programme for 1930 encompassed six engine types and seventeen variants on seven chassis types. A substantial part of the progamme had been completed and sold by November 1929. Orders held for 1930 were:
- 16 hp 1,180
- 20 hp 2,176
- 25 hp 1,735
- 35 hp 396
- 30 hp 236 Light Double Six
- 50 hp 74 Double Six
World War II work
War was declared on 3 September 1939. It would last until 15 August 1945 and again involve much of the world in the conflict.During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Daimler turned to military production. A four wheel drive scout car
Scout car
A scout car is a of military armored reconnaissance vehicle, capable of off-road mobility and often carrying mounted weapons such as machine guns for offensive capabilities and crew protection...
, known to the Arny as the Dingo
Daimler Dingo
-external links :*** has a Daimler Dingo in its exposition.* wwiivehicles.com**...
, had a 2.5 litre engine, along with a larger armoured car
Daimler Armoured Car
The Daimler Armoured Car was a British armoured car of the Second World War.-History:The Daimler Armoured Car was a parallel development to the Daimler Dingo "Scout car", a small armoured vehicle for scouting and liaison roles. It was another Birmingham Small Arms design...
powered by a 4.1 litre engine and armed with a 2pdr.
Ordnance QF 2 pounder
The Ordnance QF 2-pounder was a British anti-tank and vehicle-mounted gun, employed in the Second World War. It was actively used in the Battle of France, and during the North Africa campaign...
were produced, both with six cylinder power units, fluid flywheels and epicyclic gearboxes. These military vehicles incorporated various innovative features including all-round disc brakes.
During the war Daimler built over 6,600 scout and some 2,700 Mk I and Mk II armoured cars. Tank components, particularly epicyclic gearboxes were provided for some 2,500 Crusader
Crusader tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk VI or A15 Crusader was one of the primary British cruiser tanks of the early part Second World War and perhaps the most important British tank of the North African Campaign...
, Covenanter
Covenanter tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk V, Covenanter was a British Cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was named for the Covenanters, a Scottish religious faction in the British Isles at the time of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
and Cavalier tank
Cavalier tank
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk VII Cavalier was an unsuccessful design of British cruiser tank during World War II. It suffered from an underpowered engine, and problems because of the rush to design and build it.- Development :...
s. No complete aircraft as in the previous war but 50,800 radial aero-engines—Bristol Mercury
Bristol Mercury
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Bridgman, L, Jane's fighting aircraft of World War II. Crescent. ISBN 0-517-67964-7* Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9...
, Hercules
Bristol Hercules
|-See also:-Bibliography:*Gunston, B. Classic World War II Aircraft Cutaways. Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-526-8*Gunston, Bill. World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines. Cambridge, England. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1989. ISBN 1-85260-163-9...
and Pegasus—with full sets of parts for a further 9,500 of these engines; propeller shafts for Rolls-Royce aero-engines; 14,356 gun-turrets for bombers including their Browning machine gun
Browning machine gun
Any of the following designs by John Browning, a prolific weapon designer, may be referred to as a Browning machine gun:*M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun*M1917 Browning machine gun, a family of water-cooled machine guns in .30-'06...
s; 74,000 Bren guns—bombed-out that production had to be moved to a boot and shoe factory in Burton-on-Trent. Over 10 million aircraft parts were produced during the war. All this production is Daimler's alone excluding BSA's other involvements.
Daimler's peak workforce, 16,000 people, was reached in this period.
After that war, Daimler produced the Ferret armoured car
Ferret armoured car
The Ferret armoured car, also commonly called the Ferret Scout car, is a British armoured fighting vehicle designed and built for reconnaissance purposes. The Ferret was produced between 1952 and 1971 by the UK company, Daimler...
, a military reconnaissance vehicle based on the innovative 4.1 litre engined armoured car they had developed and built during the war, which has been used by over 36 countries.
Brown's Lane
The original Sandy Lane plant, used as a government store, was destroyed by fire during intensive enemy bombingCoventry Blitz
The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place in the English city of Coventry. The city was bombed many times during the Second World War by the German Air Force...
of Coventry, but there were by now 'shadow factories' elsewhere in the city including one located at Brown's Lane, Allesey—now itself destroyed—but which after the Jaguar takeover became for several decades the principal Jaguar car plant. This acquisition, made by buying Daimler and getting a Coventry plant and its workforce, was a clever move by Sir William Lyons. Most motor industry members were forced by planning controls to expand in areas of unemployment without skilled operatives. Consequently they suffered lasting difficulties with quality of workmanship.
Postwar decline
Churchill, always a regular customer, did his electioneering for his first postwar election sitting on the top of the back seat of a discreetly fast and luxurious low-slung DB18 two door drophead coupé first registered in 1944. The government ordered new limousines for the top brass of the occupying forces. New straight-eights were supplied to the former colonies for the planned royal tours.Foreign monarchs re-ordered to replenish their fleets. The 1946 golden jubilee of the founding of the business was celebrated with a luncheon at the Savoy.
However 'austerity' seemed infectious. The new Lanchester looked just like a Ford Prefect and its body was made in the same factory. A new model Eighteen
Daimler Consort
The Daimler Eighteen or Daimler DB18, a 2½ litre version of the preceding 2.2 litre New Fifteen introduced in 1938 now using the engine developed for the Scout Car, started out in 1939 as a six cylinder chassis on which Daimler and various British coach builders offered a range of bodies including...
with a lot of aluminium because of the steel supply shortage, a modified pre-war Fifteen
Daimler New Fifteen
The Daimler New Fifteen, also called the DB17 was a large saloon/sedan car at the lower end of the manufacturer’s range, introduced towards the end of 1937 and offered for sale by Daimler in 1938 and 1939...
, was introduced with technical innovations limited to a new cylinder head and curved glass in its side windows now framed by elegant chromed metal channels. Windows were 'in'. The big DE27 and DE36 models were the first series-built cars with electrically operated windows. Daimler ambulances became a common sight.
Then in June 1947 purchase tax was doubled—home market sales had already been restricted to cars for "essential purposes". Petrol remained rationed, ten gallons a month. Princess Elizabeth took her 2½ litre drophead coupé, an 18th birthday gift from her father, to Malta where her new husband was stationed. The King took delivery of a new open tourer straight-eight in March 1949. In the commodities boom caused by the 1950 Korean War Australasian woolgrowers reported the new electrically operated limousine-division to be 'just the thing' if over-heated sheepdogs licked the back of a driver's ears. The newest royal Daimler's transmission failed again and again.
This schedule shows where what should have been Daimler repeat-orders went to. Daimler subsidiary Hoopers at least got to make some of the bodies.
Consorts discounted
Sir Bernard Docker took the extra responsibility of Daimler's Managing Director in January 1953 when James Leek was unable to continue through illness. Car buyers were still waiting for the new (Churchill) government's easing of the 'temporary' swingeing purchase tax promised in the lead up to the snap-electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
held during the 1951 Earl's Court motor show. Lady Docker told her husband to rethink his marketing policies. 3 litre Regency
Daimler Regency
The Daimler Regency was a luxury car made in Coventry by the British Daimler Motor Company between 1951 and 1956. Announced at the October 1951 Motor Show it was a 3 litre derivative of the 2½ litre DB18 Consort....
production was stopped. In the hope of keeping 4,000+ employed the Consort price was dropped from 4 February 1953 to the expected new tax-inclusive level.
Stagnation of all the British motor industry was relieved by the reduction of purchase tax in the April 1953 budget. Daimler announced the introduction of the moderately sized Conquest
Daimler Conquest
The Daimler Conquest was made in the following models:*Daimler Conquest Saloon , *Daimler Conquest Roadster , *Daimler Conquest Century Saloon ,...
in May (apparently developed in just four months from the four-cylinder Lanchester 14 or Leda with a Daimler grille). But somehow it was all too late. The image had changed. Even local royalty deserted for Rolls-Royce.
Daimler and Lanchester, there were no more BSA cars, struggled after the War, producing too many models with short runs and limited production, and frequently selling too few of each model, while Jaguar seemed to know what the public wanted and expanded rapidly. Daimler produced heavy staid large and small luxury cars with a stuffy, if sometimes opulent image. Jaguar produced lower quality cars at a remarkably low price and they were designed for enthusiasts.
The BSA group's leadership of the world's motorcycle market was eventually lost to Japanese manufacturers.
Lady Docker's Daimlers
Sir Bernard DockerBernard Docker
Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker was an English industrialist.Bernard Docker was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the only child of Frank Dudley Docker an industrialist....
was the Managing Director of BSA from early in WWII, and married Norah Lady Collins
Norah, Lady Docker
Norah Docker, Lady Docker was an English socialite.Daughter of Amy and Sydney Turner, she was originally a successful dance hall hostess and was noted for her colourful lifestyle.-Marriages:...
in 1949. It was twice-widowed and wealthy in her own right Norah's third marriage, she had originally been a successful dance hall hostess. Lady Docker took an interest in her husband's companies and became a director of Hooper
Hooper (coachbuilder)
Hooper was a British coachbuilding company based in London.-Founding:The company was founded as Adams and Hooper in 1805 and held a royal warrant from 1830, building elegant horse drawn carriages, supplying them to King William IV, Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. The first royal car, a Hooper...
, the coachbuilders.
Daughter of an unsuccessful Birmingham car salesman Lady Docker could see that the Daimler cars, no longer popular with the royal family, were in danger of becoming an anachronism in the modern world. She took it upon herself to raise Daimler's profile, but in an extravagant fashion, by encouraging Sir Bernard to produce show cars.
The first was the 1951 "Golden Daimler", an opulent touring limousine, in 1952, "Blue Clover, a two door sportsmans coupe, in 1953 the "Silver Flash" based on the 3 litre Regency
Daimler Regency
The Daimler Regency was a luxury car made in Coventry by the British Daimler Motor Company between 1951 and 1956. Announced at the October 1951 Motor Show it was a 3 litre derivative of the 2½ litre DB18 Consort....
chassis, and in 1954 "Stardust", redolent of the "Gold Car", but based on the DK400
Daimler DK400
The Daimler DK400, originally called the Daimler Regina, was a large luxury car made by Daimler Motor Company between 1955 and 1959. It was generally equipped with steel limousine bodywork by Carbodies DK400B with a drop division, three occasional seats and more luxurious trim in the rear...
chassis as was what proved to be her Paris 1955 grande finale, a 2-door coupé she named "Golden Zebra", the "last straw" for the Tax Office and now on permanent display at The Hague
Louwman Museum
The Louwman Museum is a museum for historic cars, coaches, and motorcycles in The Hague, The Netherlands, on the Leidsestraatweg near the A44 highway. The museum's former names are "Nationaal Automobiel Museum" and "Louwman Collection".-History:...
.
At the same time Lady Docker earned a reputation for having rather poor social graces when under the influence, and she and Sir Bernard were investigated for failing to correctly declare the amount of money taken out of the country on a visit to a Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
casino. Sir Bernard was instantly dumped "for absenteeism" by the Midland Bank board without waiting for the court case. Norah drew further attention. She ran up large bills and presented them to Daimler as business expenses but some items were disallowed by the Tax Office. The publicity attached to this and other social episodes told on Sir Bernard's standing as some already thought the cars far too opulent and perhaps a little vulgar for austere post-war Britain. To compound Sir Bernard's difficulty, the royal family shifted allegiance to Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
. By the end of 1960 all the State Daimlers had been sold and replaced by Rolls-Royces.
Some Daimler models
Some of the more well-known vehicles produced by Daimler and their factory catalogued variants by Barker and Hooper prior to Daimler's acquisition by JaguarJaguar (car)
Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....
in 1960 were:
- 1896 First Daimler Vehicle
- 1908 switch to sleeve-valve engines
- 1926–1938 Daimler double-six
- 1933–1936 Daimler Fifteen 2.003 litres, first return to poppet-valve engines. popularly priced
- 1936–1953 Daimler Straight-Eight
- 1936-1940 Daimler Light Straight-Eight all-alloy 3421cc to 3960cc
- 1938–1939 Daimler New FifteenDaimler New FifteenThe Daimler New Fifteen, also called the DB17 was a large saloon/sedan car at the lower end of the manufacturer’s range, introduced towards the end of 1937 and offered for sale by Daimler in 1938 and 1939...
2.166 litres (DB17) - 1938–1945 Daimler ScoutDaimler Dingo-external links :*** has a Daimler Dingo in its exposition.* wwiivehicles.com**...
(4wd 2½ litre) known to the Army as Dingo, made at J C Bamford Uttoxeter. - 1939–1949 Daimler Eighteen 2½ litre (DB18). (prod: 3355) New Fifteen with a Scout engine
- 1940– ? Daimler Armoured CarDaimler Armoured CarThe Daimler Armoured Car was a British armoured car of the Second World War.-History:The Daimler Armoured Car was a parallel development to the Daimler Dingo "Scout car", a small armoured vehicle for scouting and liaison roles. It was another Birmingham Small Arms design...
all-wheel-drive - 1946–1952 Daimler Twenty-Seven DE27/DH27 (6 cyl.) (prod: 255)
- 1946–1953 Daimler Straight-Eight DE36 (prod: 205)
- 1952–1971 Ferret Scout CarFerret armoured carThe Ferret armoured car, also commonly called the Ferret Scout car, is a British armoured fighting vehicle designed and built for reconnaissance purposes. The Ferret was produced between 1952 and 1971 by the UK company, Daimler...
- 1948–1953 Daimler DB18 2½ litre, Sports Special Barker drophead coupé, Hooper Empress - owner-driver and limousine (prod: 608)
- 1949–1953 Daimler ConsortDaimler ConsortThe Daimler Eighteen or Daimler DB18, a 2½ litre version of the preceding 2.2 litre New Fifteen introduced in 1938 now using the engine developed for the Scout Car, started out in 1939 as a six cylinder chassis on which Daimler and various British coach builders offered a range of bodies including...
2½ litre (DB18), (prod: 4250) - 1952–1957 Daimler RegencyDaimler RegencyThe Daimler Regency was a luxury car made in Coventry by the British Daimler Motor Company between 1951 and 1956. Announced at the October 1951 Motor Show it was a 3 litre derivative of the 2½ litre DB18 Consort....
3 litre, Barker Special Sports Coupé, Hooper Empress - owner-driver and limousine (prod: 560) - 1953–1956 Daimler Conquest and Daimler Conquest CenturyDaimler ConquestThe Daimler Conquest was made in the following models:*Daimler Conquest Saloon , *Daimler Conquest Roadster , *Daimler Conquest Century Saloon ,...
2½ litre, Barker Conquest Century coupé (prod: 9620) - 1955–1957 Daimler Conquest Century RoadsterDaimler ConquestThe Daimler Conquest was made in the following models:*Daimler Conquest Saloon , *Daimler Conquest Roadster , *Daimler Conquest Century Saloon ,...
(prod: 119) - 1954–1960 Daimler Regina (DK400)Daimler DK400The Daimler DK400, originally called the Daimler Regina, was a large luxury car made by Daimler Motor Company between 1955 and 1959. It was generally equipped with steel limousine bodywork by Carbodies DK400B with a drop division, three occasional seats and more luxurious trim in the rear...
3½ or 4.6 litre, (prod: 132) last Daimler car with preselector transmission, owner-driver and limousine - 1955–1958 Daimler One-O-Four (prod: 561) standard equipment included a vanity case with cosmetics by Max Factor
- 1958–1962 Daimler MajesticDaimler MajesticThe Daimler Majestic 101 was launched by the Daimler Motor Company of Coventry in July 1958 and was in production until 1962. The six cylinder, four door saloon, with new three speed Borg Warner automatic transmission, power steering and four-wheel disc brakes, vacuum-servo assisted, was very...
3.8 litre, (prod: 1490) One-O-Four with different shape, BW automatic transmission, 4 wheel disc brakes, owner-driver and limousine
Turner's engines
Jack Sangster
John Young Sangster was an industrialist who became an important figure in the history of the British motorcycle industry. He is more commonly known as Jack Sangster.-Early life:...
sold his motorcycle companies Ariel
Ariel (vehicle)
Ariel was a bicycle, motorcycle and automobile marque manufacturer based in Bournbrook, Birmingham, England. Car production moved to Coventry in 1911. The company name was reused in 1999 for the formation of Ariel Ltd, a sports car producer.-History:...
and Triumph to BSA, and joined their board. In 1956 Sangster was elected Chairman, defeating Sir Bernard 6 votes to 3. After a certain amount of electioneering by the Dockers an extraordinary shareholders' meeting backed the board decision and Bernard and Norah bought a brace of Rolls-Royces registering them as ND5 and BD9. Many important European customers turned out to have been Docker friends and did not re-order Daimler cars.
Sangster promptly made Edward Turner
Edward Turner
Edward Turner was a British motorcycle designer. He was born in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark, on the day King Edward VII was proclaimed King....
head of the automotive division which as well as Daimler and Carbodies
Carbodies
Carbodies LImited is a British company based at Holyhead Road, Coventry. It started business as a coachbuilder, and now, as The London Taxi Company is best known for its production of London taxicabs.-History:...
(London Taxicab manufacturers) included Ariel, Triumph, and BSA motorcycles. Turner designed the Daimler SP250
Daimler SP250
The Daimler Dart was a sports car built by British manufacturer Daimler in Coventry.It was launched at the 1959 New York Motor Show, and its greatest success was in the North American market. It had a fibreglass body, four-wheel Girling disc brakes, and a 2.5-litre Hemi-head V8 engine designed by...
and Majestic Major
Daimler Majestic Major
The Daimler Majestic Major was a large executive saloon made by Daimler in Coventry between 1959 and 1968, using a 4,561 cc V8 engine and offered as a much more powerful supplement to their then current Daimler Majestic....
, and their lightweight hemi head
Hemi engine
A Hemi engine is an internal combustion engine in which the roof of each cylinder's combustion chambers is of hemispherical form.- History :...
Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 Litre V8 Engines
Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 litre
The Daimler 2.5 & 4.5 litre V-8 engines were designed by Edward Turner in 1959 and used in several of the cars made by the British Daimler company in the 1950s and 1960s...
. Under Sangster Daimler's vehicles became a little less sober and more performance oriented. Their Majestic Major proved an agile high-speed cruiser on the new motorways.
- 1959–1964 Daimler SP250Daimler SP250The Daimler Dart was a sports car built by British manufacturer Daimler in Coventry.It was launched at the 1959 New York Motor Show, and its greatest success was in the North American market. It had a fibreglass body, four-wheel Girling disc brakes, and a 2.5-litre Hemi-head V8 engine designed by...
V8 (Dart, A-spec.) - 1959–1964 Daimler SP250Daimler SP250The Daimler Dart was a sports car built by British manufacturer Daimler in Coventry.It was launched at the 1959 New York Motor Show, and its greatest success was in the North American market. It had a fibreglass body, four-wheel Girling disc brakes, and a 2.5-litre Hemi-head V8 engine designed by...
V8 (B and C spec.) (prod: 2645, A B & C) - 1959–1968 Daimler Majestic MajorDaimler Majestic MajorThe Daimler Majestic Major was a large executive saloon made by Daimler in Coventry between 1959 and 1968, using a 4,561 cc V8 engine and offered as a much more powerful supplement to their then current Daimler Majestic....
V8 (prod: 1180) - 1961–1967 Daimler DR450Daimler DR450The Daimler DR450 was a limousine based on the 4.5 litre V8 Majestic Major saloon. Although intended for the carriage trade or as a hire car for those needing something larger than a five-seater saloon, it was produced in almost the same numbers as the "Major" saloon itself. It was also used as the...
Hemi V8 Limousine, (prod: 864) a nimble high-speed top-executive transport and the last true Daimler
Hybrid - 1962–1969 Daimler 250Daimler 250The 2.5-V8/V8-250 was the last Daimler car to feature a Daimler engine after the marque was acquired by Jaguar Cars in 1960. The engine is the hemispherical head V8 designed by Edward Turner and first used in the Daimler SP250 sports car.-Daimler 2.5-V8:...
V8 a Daimler-engined Jaguar Mk 2 (prod: 17620)
The two excellent Turner V8 engines disappeared with British Leyland's first rationalization, the larger in 1968 and the smaller a year later.
Daimler buses 1911-1973
A significant element of Daimler production was bus chassis, mostly for double deckers. Daimler had been interested in the commercial vehicle market from 1904. In 1906 it produced, using the Auto-MixteAuto-Mixte
Auto-Mixte build cars between 1906 and 1912 using a hybrid-technology under license from Pieper, after Henri Pieper died. From 1912 to 1914 the cars are made as Pescatore, named after the owner. The outbreak of World War I marks the end of the car. The workshop was eventually taken over by...
patents of Belgian Henri Pieper
Anciens Etablissements Pieper
Anciens Etablissements Pieper is a Belgian arms manufacturer established under the name Henri Pieper in Herstal, Belgium in 1884 , by Henri Pieper. In 1898, it was renamed to Nicolas Pieper, and it became the Anciens Etablissements Pieper in 1905. It stayed in business until approximately 1950...
, a petrol-electric vehicle and on 23 May 1906 registered Gearless Motor Omnibus Co. Limited. It was too heavy. Following the introduction of Daimler-Knight sleeve-valve engines re-designed for Daimler by Dr Frederick Lanchester Lanchester also refined the Gearless design and it re-emerged in 1910 as the KPL (Knight-Pieper-Lanchester) omnibus, a very advanced integral petrol electric hybrid. The KPL bus had four-wheel brakes and steel unitary body/chassis construction. Failure to produce the KPL set bus design back twenty years.
Introduction of the KPL was stopped by a patent infringement action brought by London General Omnibus's associate Tilling-Stevens in early May 1911 when just twelve KPL buses had been built. This was just after Daimler had poached LGOC's Frank Searle
Frank Searle (businessman)
Frank Searle CBE, DSO, MIME was a British transport entrepreneur, a locomotive engineer who moved from steam to omnibuses, the motor industry and airlines.-Personal:...
and announced him to be general manager of its new London bus service which would be using its new KPL type to compete directly with LGOC.
Some of LGOC's vehicles used Daimler engines. With the collapse of Daimler's plans Searle, an engineer and designer of the LGOC X-type
LGOC X-type
-History:The X-type was the first bus built by London General Omnibus Co. Ltd . The manufacturing part of LGOC became AEC in June 1912.In 1908 LGOC merged with its two main rivals, London Motor Omnibus Co Ltd , and London Road Car Co. Ltd...
and AEC B-type
LGOC B-type
The LGOC B-type is a model of double-decker bus that was introduced in London on 1910. It was both built and operated by the London General Omnibus Company .-History:...
bus, instead joined Daimler's commercial vehicle department. Reverting to (before LGOC) omnibus salesman Searle rapidly achieved some notable sales. 100 to Metropolitan Electric Tramways and 250 to LGOC's new owner, Underground.
First Searle designed for Daimler a 34-seater with gearbox transmission (the KPL used electric motors each side) very like the B-Type and it was introduced by Daimler in early 1912. The main difference from what became the AEC B-Type was the use of Daimler's sleeve-valve engine. In June 1912 what had been LGOC's manufacturing plant was hived off as AEC. Between 1913–16 AEC built some Daimler models under contract and Daimler sold all AEC vehicles which were surplus to LGOC needs. After war service now Colonel Searle moved to Daimler Hire Limited and its involvement in aviation. The Searle models were developed after World War I, but from 1926–8 Daimler entered into a joint venture with AEC vehicles being badged as Associated Daimler.
In the 1930s the Daimler CO became the main model, there was a similar but heavier CW produced during World War II and in postwar years production worked through the Daimler CV to the long-running Daimler CR Fleetline, built from 1960 to 1980 (CVG5 and CVG6 had been a common type of bus in Hong Kong between 1950 to 1988 and Fleetline had also become a major type of bus in Hong Kong till 1995). Small numbers of single deck vehicles were also built. Many British bus operators bought substantial numbers of the vehicles and there were also a number built for export. The standard London double-decker bus
Double-decker bus
A double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or 'decks'. Global usage of this type of bus is more common in outer touring than in its intra-urban transportion role. Double-decker buses are also commonly found in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and former British colonies and protectorates...
bought from 1970 to 1978 was the Daimler Fleetline.
Daimler buses were fitted with proprietary diesel engines, the majority by the Gardner company, although there were a few hundred Daimler diesels built in the 1940s & 1950s, and the Leyland O.680 was offered as an option on the Fleetline (designated CRL6) after the merger with Leyland. The bus chassis were also fitted with bodywork built by various outside contractors, as standard in the British bus industry, so at a casual glance there is no real identifying feature of a Daimler bus apart from the badges (Daimler buses retained the distinctive fluted radiator grille top). The last Daimler Fleetline was built at the traditional Daimler factory in Radford, Coventry, in 1973, after that date the remaining buses were built at the Leyland factory in Farington
Farington
Farington is a small village and civil parish in the South Ribble local government district of Lancashire, England.-Geography:Situated to the immediate north of Leyland, Farington consists of villages, farms and mossland, modern residential development and an industrial area around the Leyland...
, Lancashire, the final eight of years of Fleetline production being badged as Leyland. The last Fleetline built was bodied by Eastern Coach Works
Eastern Coach Works
Eastern Coach Works Ltd was a bus and railbus body building company based in Lowestoft, England.-History:The company can trace its roots back to 1912, when United Automobile Services was founded in the town to run bus services. United began a coach building business at the Lowestoft site in 1920...
in 1981.
During that Jaguar-owned period 1960-1968, Daimler became the second-largest (after Leyland) double-decker bus manufacturer in Britain, with the "Fleetline" model. At the same time, Daimler made trucks and motorhomes. BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation to give the British Leyland Motor Corporation
British Leyland Motor Corporation
British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd in 1978...
in 1968. Production of Daimler buses in Coventry ceased in 1973 when production of its last bus product (the Daimler Fleetline
Daimler Fleetline
The Daimler Fleetline is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis built between 1960 and 1973 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and from 1973 until 1980 in Farington, Lancashire, England. However, the last complete vehicle did not enter service until 1983...
) was transferred to Leyland plant in Farington. Daimler stayed within BLMC and its subsequent forms until 1982, at which point Jaguar (with Daimler) was demerged from BL as an independent manufacturer.
Jaguar, Daimler, William Lyons 1960
In May 1960, the Daimler business was purchased from BSA by Jaguar Cars for 3.4 million pounds. William LyonsWilliam Lyons
Sir William Lyons , known as "Mr. Jaguar", was with fellow motorcycle enthusiast William Walmsley, the co-founder in 1922 of the Swallow Sidecar Company, which became Jaguar Cars Limited after the Second World War....
was looking to expand manufacture, wanted the manufacturing facilities and had to decide what to do with the existing Daimler vehicles.
Jaguar had been refused planning permission for a new factory in the area in which it wanted it to be. Daimler had shrunk to representing just 15% of BSA group turnover in 1959-1960 and BSA wished to dispose of its motoring interests.
"Jaguars reiterate their previous statement that the production of the current range of Daimler models is to be continued. Furthermore, research and development work in connexion with future Daimler models will proceed normally. Jaguars deny rumors to the effect that sweeping changes, including even the extinction of the Daimler marque, are to be expected. The company's long term view envisages not merely the retention of the Daimler marque, but the expansion of its markets at home and overseas, it is stated."
It is said that Jaguar put a Daimler 4.5L V8 in a Mark X
Jaguar Mark X
The Jaguar Mark X was the top-of-the-range saloon car built by the British manufacturer Jaguar, originally aimed at the United States market. The Mark X succeeded the Mark IX as the company's large saloon model.-Body:...
, and it went better than the Jaguar version. It is also said that when Jaguar ceased production of Daimler designed vehicles, Lyons had all the spares bulldozed into a pit.
The Daimler Majestic Major and the sporty Dart
Daimler SP250
The Daimler Dart was a sports car built by British manufacturer Daimler in Coventry.It was launched at the 1959 New York Motor Show, and its greatest success was in the North American market. It had a fibreglass body, four-wheel Girling disc brakes, and a 2.5-litre Hemi-head V8 engine designed by...
, already in production, were continued for a number of years, using the Daimler V8 engine. In 1961 Daimler introduced the DR450
Daimler DR450
The Daimler DR450 was a limousine based on the 4.5 litre V8 Majestic Major saloon. Although intended for the carriage trade or as a hire car for those needing something larger than a five-seater saloon, it was produced in almost the same numbers as the "Major" saloon itself. It was also used as the...
, a limousine version of its Majestic Major with a longer chassis and bodyshell and higher roofline. It continued in production until the DS420
Daimler DS420
The Daimler DS420, popularly known as the Daimler Limousine, is a large limousine produced by Daimler Motor Company between 1968 and 1992. The vehicles are used extensively as official state cars in several countries, including by the British and Danish Royal Families...
arrived in 1968, by which time it had sold almost as many as the "Major" saloon.
They were the last Daimler-badge cars not designed by Jaguar.
Daimler V8-250
The last car to have a Daimler engine was the V8-250 which was essentially, apart from a fluted top to its grille, different badges and drivetrain, a more luxurious Jaguar Mk 2. Its distinctive personality may have attracted buyers who would have avoided the matching Jaguar.While this car became the most popular Daimler ever produced it had two remarkable characteristics:
- buyers did not include previous Daimler owners but rather people trading up from the bigger Ford, BMC or Rover cars.
- No-one traded their V8-250 for a new V8-250. This at a time when 60% of new Jaguars were sold in exchange for Jaguars.
Daimler Sovereign
The decision was straightforward, now there would be no more than a Daimler label for a luxury version of a Jaguar car. After discussion it was decided it would not be a Royale but a Sovereign.Significant new Daimler models for this Jaguar-owned period include:
- 1962–1969 Daimler 250Daimler 250The 2.5-V8/V8-250 was the last Daimler car to feature a Daimler engine after the marque was acquired by Jaguar Cars in 1960. The engine is the hemispherical head V8 designed by Edward Turner and first used in the Daimler SP250 sports car.-Daimler 2.5-V8:...
V8 (Daimler-engined Jaguar Mk 2) - 1966–1969 Daimler SovereignDaimler SovereignDaimler Sovereign was a name applied by British manufacturer Jaguar Cars to a sequence of luxury automobiles built by it but carrying the Daimler badge between 1966 and 1983....
(badge-engineered Jaguar 420)
BMC—BMH, Jaguar, Daimler 1966
Jaguar was taken over by British Motor CorporationBritish Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
(BMC), the new masters of badge-engineering, in 1966 and a few months later BMC was re-named British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited was a British motor company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited .-History:...
(BMH).
Sir William Lyons
Though Jaguar had diversified by adding, after Daimler, Guy trucksGuy Motors
Guy Motors was a British company based in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton that made cars, lorries, buses, and trolleybuses.-History:Guy Motors Ltd was founded in 1914 by Sydney Guy who had been the Works Manager of nearby Sunbeam. A factory was built on the site at Fallings Park, Wolverhampton...
and Coventry-Climax to their group they remained dependent on Pressed Steel
Pressed Steel Company
The Pressed Steel Company Limited was a British car body manufacturing company founded at Cowley near Oxford in 1926 as a joint venture between William Morris, the Budd Corporation and an American bank. Today at what was the company's Cowley plant, the BMW new MINI is assembled, this site is...
for bodies. Once BMC had taken control of Pressed Steel Lyons felt compelled to submit to the BMC takeover. Lyons remained anxious to see that Jaguar maintained its own identity and came to resent the association with British Leyland. He was delighted by Sir John Egan
John Egan (industrialist)
Sir John Egan is a notable British industrialist, associated with businesses in the automotive, airports, construction and water industries. He was chief executive of Jaguar Cars from 1984 to 1990, and then served as chief executive of BAA from 1990 to 1999...
's accomplishments and by the new independence arranged in 1984.
USA
At this point, 1967, it was decided there was insufficient in the group advertising budget to cope with marketing the Daimler brand in USA.
Daimler DS420 Limousine
The Daimler DS420Daimler DS420
The Daimler DS420, popularly known as the Daimler Limousine, is a large limousine produced by Daimler Motor Company between 1968 and 1992. The vehicles are used extensively as official state cars in several countries, including by the British and Danish Royal Families...
Limousine introduced in 1968 and withdrawn from production in 1992 employed a strengthened Mk X Jaguar unitary carcass with a new roof and a rear extension—21 inches were let in to the floor pan behind the front seat by Rubery Owen. Finishing from the bare metal was carried out by Vanden Plas who had lost their Princess. The floor pan with mechanicals—a drive-away chassis— was also sold for specialized bodywork, mostly hearses. The very last hearse was delivered on 9 February 1994 to a Mr Slack, funeral director of Cheshire.
Though entirely a Jaguar the DS420 was unique to Daimler. These stately limousines, wedding and funeral cars and the hearses made by independent coachbuilders, their majestic bulk preceded by the fluted grille, are now the way most remember Daimler cars.
Daimler Sovereign, Daimler Double-Six
For example the Daimler Double-Six was a Jaguar XJ-12
Jaguar XJ
Jaguar XJ is the designation that has been used for a series of luxury saloon cars sold under the British Jaguar marque. The first XJ was launched in 1968 and the designation has been used for successive Jaguar flagship models since then. The original model was the last Jaguar saloon to have had...
, the Daimler badge and fluted top to its grille and boot handle being the only outward differences from the Jaguar, with more luxurious interior fittings and extra standard equipment marking it out on the inside.
Significant Daimler models for that period include:
- 1968–1992 Daimler DS420Daimler DS420The Daimler DS420, popularly known as the Daimler Limousine, is a large limousine produced by Daimler Motor Company between 1968 and 1992. The vehicles are used extensively as official state cars in several countries, including by the British and Danish Royal Families...
Limousine, successor to the DR450, an extended Jaguar Mark X - 1969–1983 Daimler SovereignDaimler SovereignDaimler Sovereign was a name applied by British manufacturer Jaguar Cars to a sequence of luxury automobiles built by it but carrying the Daimler badge between 1966 and 1983....
a badge-engineered Jaguar XJ6 - 1972–1992 Daimler Double-Six a badge-engineered Jaguar XJ12 series I II and III
(the 1986 XJ40 Jaguar body could not take a V12 engine)
Continental Europe
The Daimler name was dropped in Europe for two or three years in the early 1980s. Jaguar adopted the Sovereign designation. The Daimler name returned in Europe at the end of 1985. Jaguar decided it would have its part of the fortune European dealers were making from importing conversion kits of Daimler body parts to convert Jaguars to Daimlers.Visitors to USA found fluted Daimlers labelled 'Jaguar Vanden Plas'.
Chairmen
The Daimler brand was kept going by the local fleet market, a chairman could have his Daimler and board members their Jaguars.Jaguar's Daimler-trained chief executive
Lofty EnglandLofty England
Frank Raymond Wilton "Lofty" England was an engineer and motor company manager from England. He rose to fame as the manager of the Jaguar Cars sports car racing team in the 1950s, during which time Jaguar cars won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race on five occasions...
, a Daimler apprentice 1927-1932, joined Jaguar in 1946.
Service manager, Jaguar Cars 1946-56, service director 1956-61, assistant managing director 1961-66, deputy managing director 1966-67, joint managing director 1967-68, deputy chairman 1968-72, chairman and chief executive 1972-74.
Jaguar's brief artificial independence 1984
If Jaguar was not to follow Daimler into becoming just another once iconic brand it needed immense amounts of capital to develop new models and build and equip new factories. This was beyond the ability of the BMH—now British Leyland—Group. It was decided to market the Jaguar business by first obtaining a separate London Stock Exchange listing to fix a price then ensuring any successful bid for all the listed shares in the whole business would be from a bidder with, or with access to, the necessary capital. That bidder proved to be Ford.1984 produced a record group output of 36,856 cars but less than 5% were badged Daimler. Two years later Daimler's share had reached 11.5%—in fact almost 23% if the Vanden Plas for USA is included.
- 1986–1992 Daimler XJ40 new car and new engine as prescribed by British Leyland
Ford, Jaguar, Daimler 1989
In 1989 the Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
paid £1.6 billion to buy Jaguar and with it the right to use the Daimler name. In 1992, Daimler (Ford) stopped production of the DS420 Limousine, the only model that was a little more than just a re-badged Jaguar. In 1996 Jaguar Cars produced a "Daimler Century" model to celebrate 100 years of motoring.
The name Daimler continued to be used to determine top-line XJ Jaguars in every country except the USA, where the top XJ is known as the "XJ Vanden Plas" — Jaguar may have feared that the American market would confuse Jaguar Daimler with Daimler AG. Marketing of the Daimler name in USA had ceased in 1967.
Daimler Super V8
In 2002, with the arrival of the new Mark III XJ, the Daimler name (seen on the Mark II XJ as the "Daimler V8") was not immediately used to mark out the top models, with the "Jaguar Super V8" the new flagship model. However, the Daimler name was brought back with the "Super Eight" model.Daimler Super Eight
In July 2005, after a three-year hiatus, a new Daimler, the Super Eight, was presented, with a 4.2 L V8 supercharged engine which produces 291 kW and a torque rating of 533 newton metre at 3500 rpm. It is derived from the Jaguar XJ (X350)Jaguar X350
The Jaguar XJ is a luxury car from Jaguar Cars introduced as the successor of the XJ Mark 2 , and facelifted as the XJ in 2008....
.
Significant Daimler Models for the Ford Premier Auto Group period include:
- 1992-1994 Daimler Majestic XJ340 wheelbase extended 5 inches (127 mm); 3.2 and 4 litre engines
- 1992-1994 Daimler Majestic Double-Six XJ381 6 litre engine. Intended to take 75% of group V12 sales
- 1994-2002 Daimler X300 and X330 body returns to a more recognizable shape. V8 from 1997
- 1996 Daimler Century limited edition: 50 V12, 50 straight 6; marking 100 years of Daimler Coventry
- 2002-2005 Daimler Super V8 X350 V8 engine, alloy structure
- 2005 Daimler Super EightJaguar X350The Jaguar XJ is a luxury car from Jaguar Cars introduced as the successor of the XJ Mark 2 , and facelifted as the XJ in 2008....
Daimler Corsica concept
A single 2-door convertible was built in 1996 to commemorate Daimler's centenary. The concept car, called the Daimler Corsica, was based on the Daimler Double-Six saloon and can seat four. The prototype, which lacked an engine, had all the luxury features of the standard saloon, but a shorter wheelbase. It is painted in a now-discontinued colour called "Seafrost." The Daimler Corsica was named after the 1931 Daimler Double-Six Corsica. The concept was a one-off, and may have been intended for limited production beginning in 1997. The car has made a limited number of appearances at car shows and events since 1996. It has most recently appeared at the BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
Sports Car Show in January 2004. The Daimler Corsica prototype is owned by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, who have decommissioned it to operate as a fully functional road-legal car. It is on display at their museum at Browns Lane in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The car was recently displayed at Harewood House as part of the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club show.
Tata, Jaguar, Daimler 2007
At the end of 2007, the formal announcement was delayed until 25 March 2008, it became generally known that India's Tata Group had completed arrangements to purchase Jaguar and Daimler.In July 2008 Tata Group, the current owners of Jaguar and Daimler, announced they were considering transforming Daimler into "a super-luxury marque to compete directly with Bentley and Rolls-Royce". Until the early 1950s it was often said "the aristocracy buy Daimlers, the nouveau riche buy Rolls-Royce".
Daimler in the media
- The Queen MotherElizabeth Bowes-LyonElizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
was usually driven in a Daimler DS420Daimler DS420The Daimler DS420, popularly known as the Daimler Limousine, is a large limousine produced by Daimler Motor Company between 1968 and 1992. The vehicles are used extensively as official state cars in several countries, including by the British and Danish Royal Families...
and one of her cars is now in the royal fleet. - The Queen's own car for personal use is a 2008 Daimler Super Eight (based on the Jaguar XJ).
- 10:45.—Mr MenziesRobert MenziesSir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
, Australia’s Prime Minister, is a big Daimler.[sicSicSic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] The crowd clapped. —Evening Standard.
Daimlers in fiction
Lord Peter WimseyLord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
(Dorothy L Sayers) on wine packed in the rear of one's Daimler double-six: 'Great speed would render the wine undrinkable for a fortnight, excessive speed would render it undrinkable for six months'.
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's characters prefer chauffeur driven cars from Daimler Hire.
In the James Bond book Diamonds are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever (novel)
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of novels. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 26 March 1956 and the first print run of 12,500 copies sold out quickly...
Tiffany travels from the Queen Elizabeth direct to London by Daimler Hire car. "She's on her way to London in a Daimler Hire, Sir. I'm putting her up in my flat."
Clive Cussler
Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussler is an American adventure novelist and marine archaeologist. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than seventeen times...
's character Dirk Pitt
Dirk Pitt
Dirk Pitt is a fictional character, the protagonist of a series of bestselling adventure novels written by Clive Cussler. The name Dirk Pitt is a registered trademark of Clive Cussler.-Character information and the supporting cast:...
has the author's own 1951 Daimler DE36 Straight-Eight Hooper bodied Green Goddess convertible.
See also
- Daimler-BenzDaimler-BenzDaimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
a business in no way associated with The Daimler Motor Company of Coventry except by the word Daimler