Daimler 250

Last updated

Daimler 2.5 V8 & V8-250
Daimler 250 V8 (1964).jpg
1964 Daimler 2.5 V8
Overview
Manufacturer The Daimler Company Limited
Production1962–1967 (2.5 V8)
1967–1969 (V8-250) total in excess of 17,600 [1]
Assembly Coventry, England
Designer William Lyons (body)
Edward Turner (engine)
Body and chassis
Class Executive car (E)
Body style 4-door saloon
Layout FR layout
Related Jaguar Mark 2
Powertrain
Engine Daimler 2.5-litre V8
Transmission
  • 3-speed automatic
  • Borg-Warner 35 (1962-1964) [2] [3]
  • Borg-Warner D1/D2 (1964-1969) [4] [3]
  • 4-speed manual (with optional overdrive) available from 1967
[5] [6]
Dimensions
Wheelbase 2,720 mm (107.1 in)
Length4,570 mm (179.9 in)
Width1,670 mm (65.7 in)
Kerb weight 3020 pounds 1375 kg
Chronology
Predecessor Daimler Conquest
Successornot replaced, Daimler Sovereign 2.8

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.

Contents

Background and development

Daimler had entered the medium-sized saloon market in 1932 with the Daimler Fifteen but left the market with the end of production of the Conquest in 1957. Attempts to re-enter the market with Turner's 2.5-litre V8 included development of the DN250 based on the Vauxhall Cresta PA's unibody, [7] [8] which was discontinued before Jaguar's purchase of Daimler, [9] and the DP250 two-door saloon based on the SP250, [10] [11] [12] which was discontinued by Jaguar after it bought Daimler. [13]

Despite claiming interest in expanding Daimler's markets, Jaguar had bought Daimler primarily to expand their production facilities and, [14] apart from replacing the DK400B limousine with the Majestic Major-based DR450, [15] [16] Jaguar had done little to develop new Daimler models. [note 1] Stratstone Ltd., Daimler dealers since their founding in 1921 as Stratton-Instone by former Daimler executives, [17] pressed Jaguar to develop a medium-sized saloon to replace the Conquest, which Jaguar agreed to do in exchange for Stratstone dropping their Volkswagen franchise. [18]

Daimler's development of the 2.5-litre saloon was initially given few resources; the first prototype was based on an old Jaguar Mark 1 unibody that had been abandoned outside one of the factory buildings after having been modified for suspension experiments. [19] Once the concept had been proven, a new prototype based on a Mark 2 body shell was built [3] The Daimler V8 engine was more compact and lighter than the Jaguar XK6 engine used in the Mark 2, and weighed approximately 1 long cwt (51 kg) less. [20] Spring and damper settings were revised accordingly to suit the altered weight distribution. [2] [3] [20] The engine sump had to be redesigned to fit between the Mark 2's front suspension units and around one of its crossmembers, [3] [21] new exhaust manifolds were designed to fit in the engine bay, the water pump and cooling fan were relocated, and different air filters were used. [3] The cylinder head fasteners were changed from studs to set bolts to allow the heads to be removed while the engine was still in the car. [3] The radiator fan was driven through a viscous coupling unit that slipped progressively with increased engine speed, which reduced noise from the fan. [2] The Daimler's Borg-Warner Type 35 automatic transmission was smaller and lighter than the units used on the Mark 2 and had strong engine braking in each gear range. [2]

As a result of being built with the unit body of the Jaguar Mark 2, the 2.5-litre saloon became the first Daimler motor car without a separate frame. [5] [note 2]

Daimler 2.5 V8

Fluted or "furrowed brow" grille on a 1967 2.5 V8 1967 Daimler 2.5 V8 5800456298.jpg
Fluted or "furrowed brow" grille on a 1967 2.5 V8
Daimler 2.5 V8 rear Daimler V8 250 rear.jpg
Daimler 2.5 V8 rear

The Daimler 2.5 V8 (or 2½-litre V8) was a four-door saloon produced in Coventry, England by Daimler. Launched late in 1962. [22] It was essentially a rebadged Jaguar Mark 2 fitted with Daimler's 2.5-litre V8 engine and drive-train, a Daimler fluted grille and rear number plate surround, distinctive wheel trims, badges, and interior details including a split-bench front seat from the Jaguar Mark 1 and a black enamel steering wheel. Special interior and exterior colours were specified. Most cars were fitted with power-assisted steering but it was optional. Automatic transmission was standard; manual, with or without overdrive, became an option in 1967.

The 2.5 V8 was the first Jaguar designed car to have the Daimler badge. A casual observer, though not its driver, might mistake it for a Jaguar Mark 2. The Daimler's stance on the road was noticeably different from a Mark 2.

In April 1964 the Borg-Warner Type 35 automatic transmission was replaced by a D1/D2 type, also by Borg-Warner. [4] [3]

Three years after its launch, a Daimler 2½-litre saloon with automatic transmission tested by Britain's Autocar magazine in May 1966 had a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 13.6 seconds. An overall fuel consumption of 19.0 miles per imperial gallon (14.9 L/100 km; 15.8 mpgUS) was achieved. The test car was priced in the UK at £1,647 including taxes: Rover's 3-litre with automatic transmission was retailing for £1,770. At the end of 1965, [20] the final drive ratio had been changed from 4.55:1 to 4.27:1, addressing complaints that the car as launched in 1963 had needed to exceed its recommended rev limit in order to reach its top speed, with a corresponding penalty in fuel consumption and engine noise and wear. The testers found the car refined and well equipped with efficient, if rather heavy, brakes. The engine and transmission were felt to be well matched. The car was quiet and smooth but with poor low speed torque. [23]

A manual transmission, with or without an overdrive unit usable with the top gear, became available on British 2.5 V8 saloon in February 1967 and on export versions the following month. Cars optioned with the overdrive had the original 4.55:1 final drive ratio [5] [6]

Daimler V8-250

V8-250 1968 Daimler 2.5 V8 - Flickr - exfordy.jpg
V8-250

Produced from October 1967 to 1969, the V8-250 was a minor facelift and renaming of the 2.5 V8 saloon and differed in relatively small details: "slimline" bumpers and over-riders (shared with the Jaguar 240/340 relabelled at the same time), negative-earth electrical system, an alternator instead of a dynamo and twin air cleaners, one for each carburettor. Other new features included padding over the instrument panel, padded door cappings and ventilated leather upholstery, reclinable split-bench front seats and a heated rear window. [24] Power steering and overdrive were optional extras.

Market placement

Daimler 2.5 V8 (North America) Daimler V8 (Hudson).JPG
Daimler 2.5 V8 (North America)

Aside from the smoother and more powerful engine and a number of external markers the Daimler V8-250 was simply a more luxuriously finished Jaguar 240. The 250's place in the Jaguar range was always ill-defined. Whilst historically Daimler had been a genuine luxury and super-luxury brand the 250, though far better equipped than the base-model Jaguar 240, lacked some interior appointments found on the 340. The Daimler 250's engine, being a V8 (in its home market a prestige feature), producing 142 bhp (106 kW)—in between the outputs of the 2.4- and 3.4-litre six-cylinder engines. The V8-250 was a car with a high prestige badge sitting in the middle of its parent-company's range.

End of production

Jaguar replaced its range of saloons—the 240, the 340, the 420, and the 420G—with the XJ6 at the end of 1968. The company launched the XJ6-based Daimler Sovereign the following year to replace the Daimler saloons—the 240-based V8-250 and the 420-based Sovereign. Henceforth all new Daimlers would be re-badged Jaguars with no engineering links to the pre-1960 Daimlers.

More than 17,600 units were sold; by 1995 the 250 was still the best-selling car in Daimler's history. [1]

Die-cast models

Notes

Footnotes
  1. Jaguar had, however, developed existing Daimler models, especially the SP250 sports car.( Smith 1972 , p. 276)
  2. The Lanchester Sprite had been designed in the 1950s with a unit body, but did not reach series production and only thirteen were built.( Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995 , p. 268)
Citations
  1. 1 2 Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, p. 279.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Smith 1972, p. 286.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Long 2008, p. 133.
  4. 1 2 Smith 1972, p. 291.
  5. 1 2 3 Smith 1972, p. 293.
  6. 1 2 Long 2008, p. 137.
  7. Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, p. 273.
  8. Smith 1972, p. 285.
  9. Long 2008, p. 26.
  10. Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, pp. 275–277.
  11. Smith 1972, pp. 282–283.
  12. Long 2008, p. 82.
  13. Long 2008, p. 85.
  14. Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, pp. 277–278.
  15. Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, p. 280.
  16. Smith 1972, p. 300.
  17. Long 2008, p. 46.
  18. Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, pp. 276–277.
  19. Douglas-Scott-Montagu & Burgess-Wise 1995, p. 277.
  20. 1 2 3 "Used Car Test – 1964 Daimler 2½-litre V8". Autocar . Vol. 127 (nbr 3746). 30 November 1967. pp. 36–37.
  21. Culshaw & Horrobin 2013, p. 117.
  22. Jaguar's Clothing for a Daimler Top Speed of 112 M.P.H. From our motoring correspondent. The Times, Monday, 8 Oct 1962; p. 7; Issue 55516; col C
  23. "Road Test Daimler 2½-litre V8". Autocar . May 1966. pp. 1022–1026.
  24. Restyled Daimler on show. The Times, Thursday, 5 Oct 1967; p. 4; Issue 57064
  25. Ramsey, John (7 November 1984). The Swapmeet and Toyfair Catalogue of British Diecast Model Toys. Swapmeet Toys and Models. p. 30. ISBN   095093190X.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaguar Cars</span> Car marque owned by Jaguar Land Rover and former British car company

Jaguar is the sports car and 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Company</span> British motor vehicle manufacturer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaguar Mark X</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transverse engine</span> Vehicle engine whose crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel

A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel. Many modern front-wheel drive vehicles use this engine mounting configuration. Most rear-wheel drive vehicles use a longitudinal engine configuration, where the engine's crankshaft axis is parallel with the direction of travel, except for some rear-mid engine vehicles, which use a transverse engine and transaxle mounted in the rear instead of the front. Despite typically being used in light vehicles, it is not restricted to such designs and has also been used on armoured fighting vehicles to save interior space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaguar Mark 2</span> Motor vehicle

The Jaguar Mark 2 is a mid-sized luxury sports saloon built from late 1959 to 1967 by Jaguar in Coventry, England. The previous Jaguar 2.4 Litre and 3.4 Litre models made between 1955 and 1959 are identified as Mark 1 Jaguars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler V8 engines</span> Reciprocating internal combustion engine

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler SP250</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Majestic Major</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Majestic</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Conquest</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooper (coachbuilder)</span> British coachbuilding business

Hooper & Co. was a British coachbuilding business for many years based in Westminster London. From 1805 to 1959 it was a notably successful maker, to special order, of luxury carriages, both horse-drawn and motor-powered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Sovereign</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Regency</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaguar 420 and Daimler Sovereign (1966–1969)</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler New Fifteen</span> Motor vehicle

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Double-Six sleeve-valve V12</span> Reciprocating internal combustion engine

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler Straight-Eight engines</span> Reciprocating internal combustion engine

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daimler DE</span> Motor vehicle platform

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docker Daimlers</span> Motor vehicle

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.

References