Daimler Regina DF400 and DK400 | |
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Overview | |
Manufacturer | The Daimler Company Limited |
Production | 1954–1959 93 produced |
Body and chassis | |
Class | Ultra-luxury |
Body style | 4-door limousine |
Powertrain | |
Engine | 4617 cc (282 cu. in.) straight six |
Transmission | 4-speed fluid flywheel |
Dimensions | |
Wheelbase | 3,302 millimetres (130 inches) [1] |
Length | 5,512 millimetres (217.0 in) |
Width | 1,956 millimetres (77.0 in) |
Height | 1,790 millimetres (70 in) |
Kerb weight | 2,032 kilograms (4,480 lb) |
Chronology | |
Predecessor | Straight-Eight DE36 |
Successor | DK400A— Daimler Majestic saloon DK400B— Daimler DR450 limousine |
DK400 4½-litre engine | |
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Overview | |
Manufacturer | The Daimler Company Limited |
Layout | |
Configuration | 6-cylinder in-line [2] |
Displacement | 4,617 cc (281.7 cu in) [2] |
Cylinder bore | 95.25 mm (3.750 in) [2] |
Piston stroke | 107.95 mm (4.250 in) [2] |
Cylinder block material | cast iron |
Cylinder head material | aluminium alloy |
Valvetrain | OHV pushrod cam-in-block [3] |
Compression ratio | 6.53:1 [2] |
Combustion | |
Fuel system | twin S.U. horizontal carburettors [4] |
Fuel type | petrol supplied by AC mechanical pump |
Oil system | submerged gear type pump, Tecalemit full-flow oil filter with safety by-pass |
Cooling system | water, pump and fan, thermostatically controlled |
Output | |
Power output |
The Daimler DK400, originally Daimler Regina DF400, was a large luxury car made by The Daimler Company Limited between 1954 and 1959 replacing their Straight-Eight cars. Distinguished, after the Regina, by its hooded headlights it was Daimler's last car to use their fluid flywheel transmission.
The Regina DF400 and DK400 chassis was generally equipped with steel limousine bodywork by Carbodies (identified as DK400B) with a drop division, three occasional seats and more luxurious trim in the rear compartment than in the DK400A owner-driver car.
The Regina limousine was shown at the Earls Court Show in October 1954 and then described as being built on a special edition of the Regency chassis. [6] Some chassis were bodied as hearses and at least one was equipped with a coupé body for Lady Docker.
An unusual feature of the limousine was that the occasional middle seats were three abreast. [7]
The DK400 was the last of the larger of the old long-stroke straight six engines that had been traditional on Daimler's smaller cars since 1910 though production of the smaller 3.8-litre engine, modified to take Borg-Warner's automatic transmission, continued until 1962.
When introduced in 1954 the engine's output was 127 horsepower (95 kW) at 3,600 rpm. [2] In the autumn of 1955 the outputs of both the 3½-litre and 4½-litre engines were substantially increased, the 4½-litre to 167 horsepower (125 kW) at 3,000 rpm. [8] The standard wheelbase versions were re-designated DF402. The long wheelbase limousine remained designated DK400 but its name, Regina, was dropped as was the price of the complete standard-bodied limousine, by more than one-third. Modifications to the limousine's engine led to a similar output of 167 hp but at 3,800 rpm. [9]
The DK400 was the last new Daimler model to use the company's preselector gearbox with fluid flywheel transmission introduced in 1930. A major change in gearing, however, saw the direct-drive top gear replaced by a direct-drive third and an overdrive top. [2] This, intended to improve the car's ability to cruise at high speed with its large engine, could lead to failure because the transmission could not always cope with the torque available from an engine capable of producing 167 horsepower (125 kW) at 3,000 rpm. [5]
It was replaced in the Majestic by a more modern Borg-Warner fully automatic transmission which required modification of the engine and crankcase castings. [3]
The DK400 was as much as 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) lighter than previous postwar Daimlers.[ citation needed ] Two with Hooper bodies, the limousine in royal livery, were supplied as Royal Stock in 1955 and 1956, the limousine was repainted black and sold in 1958 but the landaulette was used by the Queen Mother. [10]
A 4-door all-weather tourer by Hooper, body 10236 on chassis 92724, was specially designed and constructed for Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan. [11]
By the mid-1990s with the country in political turmoil, the same vehicle, part of the national museum collection, was used as target practice by soldiers and was in a dilapidated state with other vehicles before being taken away and scrapped.
The Daimler Company Limited, before 1910 known as 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 company bought the right to the use of the Daimler name simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cannstatt, Germany. After early financial difficulty and a reorganisation of the company in 1904, the Daimler Motor Company was purchased by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) in 1910, which also made cars under its own name before the Second World War. In 1933, BSA bought the Lanchester Motor Company and made it a subsidiary of the Daimler Company.
The Daimler 2.5 V8/V8-250 is a four-door saloon which was produced by The Daimler Company Limited in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1969. It was the first Daimler car to be based on a Jaguar platform, the first with a unit body, and the last to feature a Daimler engine after the company was bought from the Birmingham Small Arms Company 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.
V-8 engines were produced by the Daimler Company in displacements of 2.5 L (153 cu in) (1959-1968) and 4.5 L (275 cu in) (1959-1968). Designed for Daimler by Edward Turner, they were initially used in the SP250 sports car and the Majestic Major saloon respectively; ultimately, the 2.5 L was mostly used in the Daimler 2.5 V8 saloon made with Jaguar Mark 2 unit bodies from 1962 to 1969. Approximately 20,000 of the 2.5 L were used in the SP250 and the 250 saloon, and approximately 2,000 4.5 L in the Majestic Major saloon and its Daimler DR450 limousine variant which remained in production until 1968.
The Daimler Majestic Major DQ450 is a large luxury saloon produced by Daimler in Coventry, England, between November 1960 and 1968. It was fitted with a 4,561 cc V8 engine and was offered as a much more powerful supplement to their then current Daimler Majestic.
The Daimler Majestic DF316/7 and DF318/9 luxury saloon was launched by the Daimler Company of Coventry in July 1958 and was in production until 1962. Edward Turner had been appointed Chief Executive of BSA Automotive in 1957 and promised new products, this car was to carry his new V8 engine still under development. The six-cylinder, four-door saloon, with new three-speed Borg Warner automatic transmission, power steering and vacuum-servo assisted four-wheel disc brakes was mechanically up-to-date for its time, but it had a heavy coachbuilt body of outdated construction on a separate chassis which kept the car's mass well above more modern designs and made it difficult to manoeuvre, despite the modern steering. The styling was already becoming outdated when the car appeared and became increasingly dated as lighter cars with monocoque construction appeared during the Majestic's production run.
The Daimler Conquest is an automobile which was produced by The Daimler Company Limited in the United Kingdom from 1953 to 1958. Based on the Lanchester Fourteen, the Conquest replaced the Daimler Consort. Sales were affected by increasing prices and by the fuel shortage caused by the Suez Crisis, and production ended by January 1958, before a replacement model was in production.
The Daimler DR450 is a limousine variant of the Majestic Major DQ450 saloon. Produced from 1961 to 1968, it was the last complete car designed by The Daimler Company Limited.
Sir Bernard Dudley Frank Docker was an English industrialist. Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, he was the only child of Frank Dudley Docker, an English businessman and financier.
The Daimler Regency series was a luxury car made in Coventry by The Daimler Company Limited between 1951 and 1958. Only an estimated 49 examples of the 3-litre Regency chassis were made because demand for new cars collapsed just weeks after its introduction. Almost three years later in October 1954, a lengthened more powerful Regency Mark II (DF304) was announced but, in turn, after a production run of 345 cars, it was replaced by the very much faster, up-rated One-O-Four (DF310), announced in October 1955.
The Daimler New Fifteen was a large saloon/sedan car at the low end of the Daimler's range produced between 1937 and 1940. It had a tax rating of 16.2 hp. In September 1938 it was given a larger engine with the tax rating of 17.9 hp though it retained the name Fifteen. When production resumed in 1946 it was given a revised cylinder head, given chrome channel frames for the side windows, stripped of its running-boards, and renamed Daimler Eighteen.
The Daimler Double-Six sleeve-valve V12 was a piston engine manufactured by The Daimler Company Limited of Coventry, England between 1926 and 1938. It was offered in four different sizes for their flagship cars.
The Mercedes-Benz W08 was a large luxury car produced by Daimler-Benz. It was introduced in Autumn 1928, as Mercedes-Benz's first eight-cylinder passenger car. Also known by various “type numbers”, it remained in production with various modifications and upgrades until the later summer of 1939, the longest lived Mercedes-Benz model of the 1920s and 1930s.
The Mercedes 24/100/140 PS was a large luxury car introduced by Daimler of Untertürkheim in 1924. Production continued until 1929 by which time Daimler had merged with Benz & Cie and the car's name changed to Mercedes-Benz Typ 630. The car was conceptually and structurally similar to the contemporary Mercedes 15/70/100 PS, but the 24/100/140 PS was longer, heavier, more powerful, faster and more expensive.
The Mercedes-Benz W02 was a midsize six-cylinder two-litre-engined automobile introduced by Daimler-Benz at the Berlin Motor Show in October 1926. It was developed in some haste under the manufacturer's Technical Director, Ferdinand Porsche in parallel with the smaller Mercedes-Benz W 01 and the larger three-litre-engined Mercedes-Benz W03 following the creation of Daimler-Benz, formally in July 1926, from the fusion of the Daimler and Benz & Cie auto-businesses.
The Mercedes-Benz W03 was a large six-cylinder-engined automobile introduced as the Mercedes-Benz 12/55 PS and, initially, as the Mercedes-Benz Typ 300, by Daimler-Benz at the Berlin Motor Show in October 1926. It was developed in some haste under the manufacturer's Technical Director, Ferdinand Porsche in parallel with the smaller Mercedes-Benz W 01 and the two-litre-engined Mercedes-Benz W02 following the creation of Daimler-Benz, formally in July 1926, from the fusion of the Daimler and Benz & Cie auto-businesses.
Daimler Straight-Eight engines were eight-cylinder in-line petrol engines made by the Daimler Company to power the largest and most expensive cars in their range. The Straight-Eight engines replaced Daimler's earlier Double-Six V12 engines. Unlike the Double-Six engines, which used sleeve valves based on the Knight patents, the Straight-Eights used conventional poppet valves in the overhead valve configuration.
Daimler DE was a series of chassis made by the Daimler Company from 1946 until 1953. DE chassis were the basis for Daimler's largest and most expensive cars at the time. There were two versions: the short-wheelbase DE 27 with the Daimler Twenty-seven straight-six engine, and the long-wheelbase DE 36, the last Daimler Straight-Eight, with the Thirty-six straight-eight engine. Daimler DEs, especially the DE 36 Straight-Eight, was sold to royalty and heads of state around the world, including British royalty under the royal warrant that Daimler had held since 1900.
The Docker Daimlers were cars built for display at the British International Motor Show at Earls Court Exhibition Centre from 1951 to 1955. The cars were built on Daimler chassis by Hooper, a Daimler subsidiary, on the order of Sir Bernard Docker, chairman of Daimler and managing director of parent company Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), and his second wife, Lady Docker, who had been made a director of Hooper by Sir Bernard.
Their new Daimler 22 horsepower full-size luxury car was first displayed by Daimler in April 1902 at The Automobile Club’s Exhibition in London's Agricultural Hall. Daimler had elected to drop their multiple old low powered designs and restrict themselves to this 22 horsepower and a pair of 9 or 12 horsepower cars to the same design as the 22 but more lightly constructed. The King’s not quite finished new Daimler 22 was reported to be the chief attraction of the show.