Daimler V8 | |
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Overview | |
Manufacturer | The Daimler Company Limited |
Production |
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Layout | |
Configuration | 90 degree V eight-cylinder [1] |
Displacement | |
Cylinder bore | |
Piston stroke | |
Cylinder block material | Cast iron [3] |
Cylinder head material | Aluminium alloy [3] |
Valvetrain | OHV by pushrods and rockers [2] from a single camshaft, [4] two valves per cylinder, hemispherical head [5] |
Compression ratio | |
Combustion | |
Fuel system | |
Fuel type | Petrol [2] |
Oil system | Filter—Full flow replaceable element [2] |
Cooling system | Water [2] |
Output | |
Power output | |
Torque output | |
Dimensions | |
Length |
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Width |
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Height |
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Dry weight |
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Chronology | |
Predecessor |
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Daimler V-8 engines were designed for the Daimler Company by Edward Turner and produced from 1959 to 1969. Initially used in the SP250 sports car and the Majestic Major saloon, the engine was mostly used in the Daimler 2.5 V8 (later named V8-250) saloon made with Jaguar Mark 2 unit bodies from 1962 to 1969. Approximately 20,000 of the 2.5-litre version of the engine were made for use in the SP250 and the 250 saloon, while approximately 2,000 of the 4.5-litre version were made for use in the Majestic Major saloon and its limousine variant which remained in production until 1968.
Shortly after being appointed managing director (Chief Executive) of BSA's Automotive Division in 1956, Edward Turner was asked to design a saloon car powered by a V8 engine. [6] [7] Turner and his design engineer Jack Wickes began considering the initial concept of their new engine by examining the manual and spare parts list of a Cadillac V8 engine. [note 1] [6] [8] Using a pushrod overhead valve system kept down design, development and production costs and allowed Turner to base the design of the cylinder head on those he developed for Triumph motorcycles [6] [9] including the use of hemispherical combustion chambers. [10] Adapting the Triumph head design for use in a saloon car engine required much work in reducing friction and improving timing. [11] Much of the development of the prototype engine was carried out by Dr. J. N. H. Tait. [12] Tait had been involved with Donald Healey in the early post war years, working successfully on modified Riley 2½-litre Big Four engines, the final incarnation of which was used in 1953 Zethrin Rennsport prototype, delivering close to 200 bhp with surprising tractability.[ citation needed ]
The two sizes of the Daimler derivative engines share similar but not identical external dimensions and design, the 4.5 litre being longer, deeper and wider. Although it is just possible to substitute one for the other, it requires a good deal of alteration of mountings, exhaust piping, etc.
Limited investment in tooling for the 2.5-litre engine led to limited production capacity, with a maximum weekly output of 140 engines, and the 4.5 litre was only ever made in small quantities. This prescribed maximum output was never achieved during the production of the engine. [13]
The 90 degree V8 engine has part-hemispherical combustion chambers with two overhead valves per cylinder operated by push-rods from a single chain-driven camshaft positioned centrally high up in the vee. [14] Aluminium alloy pistons with steel connecting rods run in a cast chrome-iron block with sand-cast high-tensile light alloy heads and crankcase housing a short stiff dynamically balanced crankshaft carried on five bearings. [note 2] [3] The nose of the crankshaft carries a torsional vibration damper, a four or six-bladed fan, and the pulley for the triangulated thin belt drive for the dynamo and water pump. [3] The dynamo is located between the cylinder blocks on the smaller 2.5. [15] At the rear the drive is taken from the back of the camshaft for the distributor positioned high above the unit [16] behind the two semi-downdraught SU carburettors. [17] There is a separate exhaust system for each bank of cylinders. [18] Light alloy is used for the valve covers, tappet blocks, sump and inlet manifolds. [17] Cooling is by pump and fan with a thermostatic by-pass control. [19]
The engine first publicly appeared in the Daimler Dart but, after Chrysler objected to use of that name, it was called the Daimler SP250, a fibreglass bodied sports car aimed at the American market.
In December 1961 Daimler announced a marine version of their 2.5-litre V8. [20] [21]
The 2.5-litre engine, only 30 inches (760 mm) in length and developing 140 bhp (100 kW) @ 5,800 rpm, gave better performance than Jaguar's own 2.4-litre DOHC in-line six, and after the 1960 merger the opportunity was taken to create an up-market Daimler V8 version of the Jaguar Mark 2. Between the years 1962 and 1969 17,620 Daimler/Jaguar V8s were built. Initially called the Daimler 2.5 V8, it was later called the Daimler V8-250.
The 4.5-litre engine was used in the Daimler Majestic Major DQ450, which is now rare, but was a respected high performance saloon in its day. The engine was also used in the Majestic Major's limousine derivative, the DR450. The 4.5-litre was tested in a Jaguar Mark X and there are some unauthenticated reports that this car lapped the Motor Industry Research Association's high-speed test track at 133 mph (214 km/h) but was reportedly not put into production precisely because its performance was better than the original 3.8 Mark X's. [22] However, the more likely explanation is that there was not the production capacity for the engine, and in any event the 4.2 litre mark X gave superior acceleration. All 4.5-litre V8 models sold were automatic, which makes connection to a manual transmission difficult.
Peter Westbury, an engineer from Surrey, England, competed in hillclimbing events in cars powered by Daimler V8 engines. Between the end of the 1962 RAC Hillclimb Championship season, in which he finished seventh in a V8-powered Cooper, and the beginning of the 1963 season, Westbury built a new hillclimbing special called the Felday-Daimler powered by a 2.5-litre Daimler V8 with a 2 in (51 mm) SU carburettor and a Roots supercharger. Westbury won the 1963 RAC Hillclimb Championship in the Felday-Daimler, setting course records at Craigantlet in Ulster and Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire. [13] [23]
In 1970, Russ Carpenter and Tony Anderson built the "Glacier Grenade," a rear-engined dragster. [24] It was the first "All British" rear engined dragster of its type.[ citation needed ] Powered by a 2.5litre Daimler V8 it would compete in drag racing from March 1972 until 1989 when the car was outlawed from European racing. Russ began to drive the car in 1974 taking over sole driving duties after Tony's retirement from the sport in 1976 due to a spinal injury. Russ continued the car's development all the way through its racing life. [25] In 1980 it became the first drag car under 5.5 litres, and the first all-British car to complete a quarter-mile race in less than eight seconds. [24] By the time of its retirement, the car, using mainly stock engine parts,[ citation needed ] produced 1400 bhp and ran the standing quarter mile in 7.2 seconds at 180 mph. [26] The car was restored and was to be displayed at Dunsfold Aerodrome near Guildford in April 2014. [24]
In 2014 Russ Carpenter was inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame for his development of this engine and influencing others to use a British engine in a largely American engine focused Motorsport. [25]
Jaguar became part of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) in 1968. BLMC chairman Sir Donald Stokes decided that the production costs of the Daimler V8 engine were too high and ordered its discontinuation. [27] The Majestic Major was discontinued without replacement in 1968, followed by the V8-250 in 1969. [28] By 1970 the Daimler range was reduced to the Jaguar XJ6-based Daimler Sovereign saloon and the Jaguar Mark X-based Daimler DS420 limousine, both powered by Jaguar XK6 engines.
Jaguar is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars until its operations were fully merged with those of Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover on 1 January 2013.
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 Jaguar XJ is a series of full-size luxury cars produced by British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars from 1968 to 2019. It was produced across five basic platform generations with various updated derivatives of each. From 1970, it was Jaguar's flagship four-door model. The original model was the last Jaguar saloon to have had the input of Sir William Lyons, the company's founder, and the model has been featured in countless media and high-profile appearances.
The Jaguar XK is an inline 6-cylinder dual overhead camshaft (DOHC) engine produced by Jaguar Cars between 1949 and 1992. Introduced as a 3.4-litre, it earned fame on both the road and track, being produced in five displacements between 2.4 and 4.2-litres for Jaguar passenger cars, with other sizes being made by Jaguar and privateers for racing. A de-rated version was also used in certain military vehicles built by Alvis and Daimler.
The Jaguar Mark X, later renamed the Jaguar 420G, was British manufacturer Jaguar's top-of-the-range saloon car for a decade, from 1961 to 1970. The large, luxurious Mark X not only succeeded the Mark IX as the company's top saloon model, but radically broke with both its predecessor's styling and technology.
The Peugeot 604 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1975 to 1985. 153,252 cars were sold during its 10-year production life. It was made in France and also assembled by Kia in South Korea, beteween 1979 and 1981.
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.
The Daimler SP250 is a sports car built by the Daimler Company, a British manufacturer in Coventry, from 1959 to 1964. It was the last car to be launched by Daimler before its parent company, the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), sold it to Jaguar Cars in 1960.
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 Jaguar XF (X250) is an executive luxury sports sedan car that was manufactured and marketed by the British automobile manufacturer Jaguar Cars. The XF was available as a four-door saloon and a five-door estate marketed as the Sportbrake. Launched Autumn 2007 as a replacement for the S-Type, the XF was designated internally as the X250. The X250 was succeeded by the X260 in 2015. X250 was the first of the new styled Jaguars.
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.
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
Daimler 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.
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 Jaguar 420 and its Daimler Sovereign equivalent were introduced at the October 1966 London Motor Show and produced for two years as the ultimate expression of a series of "compact sporting saloons" offered by Jaguar throughout that decade, all of which shared the same wheelbase. Developed from the Jaguar S-Type, the 420 cost around £200 more than that model and effectively ended buyer interest in it, although the S-Type continued to be sold alongside the 420/Sovereign until both were supplanted by the Jaguar XJ6 late in 1968.
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 Jaguar XJ (X300) is a full-size luxury saloon car manufactured by Jaguar Cars between 1994 and 1997. It was the first Jaguar XJ produced entirely under Ford Motor Company ownership, and can be considered an evolution of the outgoing XJ40 generation. Like all previous XJ generations, it features the Jaguar independent rear suspension arrangement. The design of the X300 placed emphasis on improved build quality, improved reliability, and a return to traditional Jaguar styling elements.
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.
He was already one jump ahead and had decided the engine would have its valve gear operated by push rods rather than by overhead camshafts! By following this route the engine would be cheaper to manufacture and he could introduce motorcycle engine practice when designing the cylinder head, drawing from experience acquired from his Thunderbird engine.