First jewel in sports car crown

The Daimler name goes back to 1886 -- the dawn of automotive history -- when Germans Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler introduced what became recognized as the first true motor cars.

Daimler and partners soon formed an auto manufacturing company and, in 1893, the Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd. -- later Daimler Co. Ltd. -- was established in Coventry, England, to manufacture Daimlers under licence.

The English company gradually began making cars of its own design and, in 1900, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) bought a Daimler, beginning an association with the British crown lasting more than 50 years.

Befitting royalty, Daimlers evolved into mostly quiet, conservative vehicles, exemplified by the fitting of the Knight sleeve-valve engine in 1909. The sleeve-valve, 12-cylinder Double Six Daimler, introduced in 1927, was much favoured by the royal family.

Following significant military work during the Second World War, Daimler continued in its staid ways until the 1950s, when it was reorganized and began taking a broader market view. It introduced the sporty Conquest, aimed at the Jaguar XK120, but it was overpriced and underpowered. Only 119 coupes and convertibles were built before production ceased in 1957.

But Daimler wanted to continue trying to cash in on the rising popularity of British sports cars in North America, and it entered the real sports car business in 1959.

Firearms manufacturer Birmingham Small Arms (BSA), better known for motorcycles than cars, had owned Daimler since 1910. Motorcycle engineer Edward Turner was brought over from BSA as managing director. He developed two new V8s, a 2.5-litre for the sports car and a 4.5L for big sedans.

Having little sports car background, Daimler staff looked around, particularly at Triumph, which was also in Coventry. Daimler bought and secretly disassembled a Triumph, so it's no coincidence that the chassis of the Daimler and Triumph TR3 were strikingly similar. The front coil springs and A-arms were the same as the Triumph's, and the four-speed manual transmission was similar. Daimler later offered an automatic gearbox -- which the Triumph didn't -- and its four-wheel-disc brakes were quite advanced.

The heart of Daimler's sports car was its engine, a 90-degree overhead-valve V8 with cross-flow, light-alloy cylinder heads and hemispherical combustion chambers fed by two SU carburetors.

The styling bore no similarity to the Triumph's. Its large, rounded hood sloped down to a wide, oval egg crate grille dominated by a big "V" to advertise the car's V8, which was a rarity in Britain (Rolls-Royce had recently introduced one). Familiar Daimler flutes surrounded the grille.

Styling character lines, probably more for body stiffening than character, curved over the front and rear fenders. It was the tail fin era and the Daimler had them, too. While most observers didn't call the car beautiful, at least it offered the comfort of roll-up windows.

Because large-scale production wasn't planned, and to save money on metal stamping dies, the body was made of glass fibre. This was fairly rare, although fibreglass was being used for the Chevrolet Corvette and by Lotus.

Daimler introduced a preproduction example named the Dart at the 1959 New York Auto Show. Chrysler Corp. immediately objected. It had used the Dart name on a concept car and planned to launch a 1960 Dodge Dart production car. Daimler renamed its car the SP250 (SP for sports, 250 for the engine's 2.5L displacement).

Sales began in late 1959, and British motoring magazine testers found the engine a delight, although they criticized the car's lack of body stiffness and poor workmanship on the fibreglass. The SP250 suffered badly from cowl shake, and Autocar's tester had the disconcerting experience of the driver's door popping open twice during hard turns.

The SP250 suffered the same criticism in North America. Road & Track magazine (3/'60) found cowl shake its biggest criticism, but it loved the V8, "without a doubt the outstanding feature of the machine."

It developed 140 horsepower at 5,800 rpm and 155 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. This propelled the 1,025-kilogram SP250 from zero to 96 kilometres an hour in a respectable 9.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 196 km/h.

The SP250 got off to a somewhat slow start, in part because of quality problems with its body. Then, in 1960, BSA sold Daimler to Jaguar, whose priority was its new Etype, which was just months away.

Despite the emphasis on the E-type, Jaguar did upgrade the SP250 by stiffening the frame/body and making bumpers standard equipment in 1961. It was further improved in 1963, but its early poor quality reputation seemed to plague it to the end. This came quietly in mid-1964 after just 2,645 had been built, ending Daimler's sports car business.