Daimler Motor Company

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the American Daimler Motor Company of the same name, see Daimler Manufacturing Company .

The Daimler Motor Company Limited
legal form	Private Limited Company
founding	November 7, 1910
Seat	Coventry
Branch	Automobiles

Fluted radiator grille of a Daimler Double Six with the Daimler logo

The Daimler Motor Company was founded by Frederick Richard Simms in Coventry in 1896 to start manufacturing commercial vehicles . The previous holding company Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd. , which was founded in 1893, is considered to be the beginning of the British automotive and commercial vehicle industry. As early as 1891, F. R. Simms acquired the license to manufacture and sell the Daimler engine in Great Britain and large parts of the Commonwealth of Nations . In 1904, a lack of capital forced the company to be re-established under the same name: Daimler Motor Company Ltd. From September 1910 the company became part of the BSA group as Daimler Company Limited . On May 29, 1960 Jaguar took over the company and used the naming rights, which have changed hands several times since then.

history

Daimler 1913

Daimler 16 HP (1923)

Daimler Straight Eight (1935)

Daimler DB 18 "Empress Saloon" by Hooper (1951)

Daimler Consort (1952)

Daimler Conquest

Daimler Majestic

Daimler SP 250 (1960)

Daimler DS 420 (1968)

Daimler V8 250 (1969)

Daimler XJS in the Coventry Car Museum

By 18 February 1891 was Frederick R. Simms of Gottlieb Daimler , the license to the high-speed engine for England and the British Empire (later Commonwealth ) with the exception of Canada purchase. On May 26, 1893, Simms founded a company called Daimler Motor Syndicate . Gottlieb Daimler, who sat on the board of the German Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) together with Simms, was also on the board . The Daimler Motor Company was founded by Simms and Harry Lawson on January 14, 1896 in Coventry in central England . About Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd. On October 1, 1896, the shareholder Frederick R. Simms and Otto Mayer organized the first DMG truck with a combustion engine for sale in order to introduce it in London as a commercial vehicle for road transport.

The Daimler Motor Syndicate ran into difficulties in 1904 due to a lack of funds and had to be renamed the Daimler Motor Company (1904) Ltd. to be re-established. The American Percy Martin had been the main engineer since 1902. The slide control, which Daimler preferred from 1908 due to its low noise level, by means of sleeves moving up and down on the cylinder walls, was an invention of the American Charles Yale Knight . At the same time, the genius of the inventor Frederick W. Lanchester was available to Daimler . In the first few years, Daimler made its designs available to other automobile factories, such as the Neapolitan company De Luca-Daimler .

In September 1910, Daimler came under the control of the BSA . During the First World War , the Daimler Motor Company manufactured trucks and tanks as well as some of the first aircraft engines. 1926 was created with the know-how of the designer Lawrence Pomeroy Daimler Double Six - the first European production car with twelve-cylinder - V engine . In 1930 Daimler took over the Lanchester Motor Company and in the following year excelled with the first fluid coupling in automobile construction, so that, together with a preselector, a kind of automatic gearshift was created. At the same time, Daimler switched from the V12 engine to the eight-cylinder in - line engine in its large models , the “Straight Eight”. The slide control was dropped in favor of a conventional valve train.

At the other end of the model range, the 15 HP established itself from autumn 1932, which developed into the DB 18 until the war. In the 1930s, some standard bodies for Daimler chassis came from the independent body manufacturer Butlin .

During the Second World War , Daimler produced approx. 2,700 armored vehicles “Armored Car” and over 6,600 Dingo “Scout car” armored vehicles .

After the war, Daimler built the DB 18 with a displacement of 2½ liters, a new four-liter representation car and the Straight Eight with a displacement of five and a half liters. The latter created some extremely extravagant special bodies as an eye-catcher for the motor show - starting with the Green Goddess in 1948, a seemingly endless convertible with intoxicating, flowing lines. The extraordinary Docker Daimlers followed on from this. The company boss Sir Bernard Docker and his newly wed wife Norah also made extravagances on the social floor. As a result, Queen Elizabeth II , who had just been crowned and who was already fond of Rolls-Royce , stopped using Daimler for official occasions from 1955 onwards. In 1956, Docker lost his senior position at Daimler and was replaced by Jack Sangster.

Daimler went to great lengths to further develop the cars technically despite the limited number of units. In the 1950s, the model range consisted of the Consort , Conquest , Regency and DK400 series , some of which took part in development steps every year. Usually there were several body versions , including particularly elegant Empress versions in the Hooper design . Furthermore, Daimler followed the trend in the US (and Rolls-Royce) and replaced at the end of the decade the previous six-cylinder engines with two modern V8 engines: a smaller engine with 2548 cc, which for the ultimately unrealized Limousine DN 250 was designed and from 1959 appeared in the sports car SP 250 , as well as a larger version with 4561 cm³, which enabled the large sedans Majestic Major and DR 450 to perform that would not have been expected with their classic British design. However, the effort involved was too much for the comparatively small company. On May 26, 1960, Jaguar bought the Daimler Motor Company and paid the BSA £ 3.4 million for it.

The SP 250 plastic sports car, which was only presented the year before, continued to be built until 1964. Since 1962 its lively, modern V8 engine had been transplanted into the Jaguar Mark 2 , creating a modern Daimler sedan called the 2½ liter V8 . The Majestic Major limousine, which was also quite young, and its Pullman version DR 450 were built until 1968.

In the same year was DS 420 presented, which technically on the Jaguar Mark X based. This new top model has now also been driven by the royal family for representative purposes. The DS 420, again known as the Daimler sedan, is the last state body ever manufactured by Daimler . The best-known user of this model was the Queen Mother ("Queen Mum") until her death in 2002 , for whom a copy was kept on board the royal yacht Britannia for trips abroad.

In 1966 the Daimler Sovereign model , which can only be distinguished from the Jaguar 420 by the more elaborate equipment, was created. The procedure was also with the successor XJ Mark I like that. The luxury versions Double-Six Vanden Plas and Vanden Plas 4.2 , introduced in 1972 and 1974, were the only XJ-Daimler models from 1984 onwards, because the other models were renamed Jaguar Sovereign (for Europe a year earlier, while no Daimler exported to America until 1982 and then only under the name Jaguar Vanden Plas). There were Daimler versions of the XJ 40 , the X 300 and finally the X 308 with the two most powerful engines.

Special features of the Daimler variants in the years 1966–2002: fluted grille surround and rear strip, lettering (including hubcaps, valve covers, steering wheel) with Daimler logo, mostly very lavish standard equipment, with fold-out picnic tables, deep-pile sheep's wool carpets and fine grained wood panels with white wood inlay . The design of the radiator grille is derived from the ribbed upper water tanks of the radiator in the very first Daimler models; the radiators of the time based on the thermosiphon principle were able to radiate more heat with a larger surface (see also picture “ Daimler 1913 ”).

In 1989/90 the Ford Motor Company took over Jaguar and Daimler. In 1992 the production of the Daimler DS 420 sedan was stopped. For the 100th anniversary of the brand, 100 copies of the Daimler Century were built in 1996 based on the Daimler Six and Double Six. In 1997 the Daimler was also built as a version X308 with the V8 and the Super V8 engine until around mid-2002 in small numbers. The long wheelbase was always standard here too. With the X300 and X308 series, the long wheelbase was always standard, but the short version could also be ordered on request without a reduction in price. Here you had to do without individual seats in the rear, but not the continuous center console that made the Daimler four-seater here too. Daimler vehicles with a short wheelbase are rare.

In November 2005, the Daimler brand returned based on the Jaguar X 350 . The previous Jaguar XJ top version with a long wheelbase and 4.2 liter V8 supercharged engine (395 hp) appeared as the Daimler Super Eight in a limited edition and with particularly luxurious equipment.

Since the beginning of 2007, the Ford Motor Company has been actively looking for a buyer for Jaguar and Daimler in order to draw urgently needed liquidity. The deal came about on March 26, 2008 for a purchase price of 2.3 billion US dollars with the Indian corporation Tata. With the trade, the naming rights of Daimler, Lanchester and Rover are also assigned to Tata . The deal was completed by mid-2008.

The Daimler Motor Company recently only produced one automobile, the Daimler Super Eight . The vehicle is roughly comparable to the Jaguar XJ . Queen Elizabeth II privately uses a Super Eight.

At the beginning of 2009, the production of Daimler vehicles was discontinued after only 120 vehicles could be sold worldwide in 2008. The last new list price was just under 119,000 euros.

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  Daimler Sovereign Series 1 (1972)

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  Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas (1981)

• 

  Daimler 3.6 (1988)

• 

  Daimler Double-Six Series 3 (1992)

• 

  Daimler Six 4.0 SWB (1996)

Car

Car models from 1945

Daimler Sovereign (Series 3) convertible conversion

Type	engine	Model years	vehicles produced
DB 18	2522 cc, 6 cylinders	1939-1950	3355
DE 27 / DH 27	4095 cc, 6 cylinders	1946-1952	255
EN 36	5460 cc, 8 cylinders	1946-1953	205
DB 18 Special Sports (Baker et al.)	2522 cc, 6 cylinders	1949-1952	608
Empress	2522 cc, 6 cylinders	1949-1952	6th
DB 18 Consort	2522 cc, 6 cylinders	1950-1952	4250
Regency Mark I.	2952 cc, 6 cylinders	1952-1954	52
Empress II	2952 cc, 6 cylinders	1952-1954	52
Conquest	2433 cc, 6 cylinders	1953-1957	4568
Conquest Roadster	2433 cc, 6 cylinders	1953-1956	65
Conquest Century	2433 cc, 6 cylinders	1954-1957	4818
Conquest Century Drophead Coupe	2433 cc, 6 cylinders	1954/1955	234
Regina / DK 400	4617 cc, 6 cylinders	1954-1959	132
Empress IIa and III	3468 cc, 6 cylinders	1955-1958	39
Sportsman	3468 cm³ / 4617 cm³, 6 cylinders	1955-1957	69
Conquest Drophead Coupe (Mk II)	2433 cc, 6 cylinders	1956/1957	54
One-0-Four	3468 cc, 6 cylinders	1956-1958	561
Majestic	3794 cc, 6 cylinders	1958–1962	940
SP 250	2548 cc, 8 cylinders	1959-1964	2645
Majestic Major / DR 450	4561 cc, 8 cylinders	1959-1968	2049
Daimler 2 ½ liter V8 and V8 250	2548 cc, 8 cylinders	1962-1969	17,884
DS 420	4235 cc, 6 cylinders	1968-1992	4939
Sovereign Series 1	2792 cc / 4235 cc, 6 cylinders	1970-1973	15,249
Double Six Series 1	5343 cc, 12 cylinders	1972/1973	877
Sovereign Series 2	3442 cm³ / 4,235 cm³, 6 cylinders	1974-1988	21,889
Double Six Series 2	5343 cc, 12 cylinders	1974-1988	4733
4.2 Series 3	4235 cc, 6 cylinders	1979-1986	29,283
Double Six Series 3	5343 cc, 12 cylinders	1979-1992	11,949
3.6 / 4.0 (XJ 40)	3590 cc / 3980 cc, 6 cylinders	1987-1994	19,232
Double Six (XJ 81)	5993 cc, 12 cylinders	1993-1995	1086
Six (X 300) and Century 1996 special model	3980 cc, 6 cylinders	1995-1997
Double Six (X 305) and Century 1996 special model	5993 cc, 12 cylinders	1995-1997
V8 / Super V8 (X 308)	3996 cc, 8 cylinders	1998-2002
Super Eight (X 350)	4196 cc, 8 cylinders	2006-2009	853

Timeline car models from 1970

Timeline of the Jaguar and Daimler models since 1970
Jaguar:	British Leyland													Independently						ford																			Tata
Daimler:	British Leyland													jaguar						Ford ("a division of Jaguar Cars")																			Tata
Type \ vintage	1970s										1980s										1990s										2000s										2010s										2020s
	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	0
Middle class																																X-Type														XE
upper middle class																														S-type									XF (X250)								XF (X260)
Upper class	… XJ 6 (Series 1)				XJ 6 (Series 2)					XJ 6 (Series 3)								XJ 6 (XJ 40)								XJ 6 (X 300)			XJ 8 / XJR (X 308)					XJ (X 350)							XJ (X 351)
	Sovereign 2.8 / 3.4 / 4.2 / Vanden Plas 4.2 (series 1/2/3)																	3.6 / 4.0 (XJ 40)								Six (X 300)			V8 (X 308)
					XJC
	… 420 G		XJ 12 (p. 1)		XJ 12 (p. 2)					XJ 12 (Series 3)														XJ 12 (XJ 81)		XJ 12 (X 305)
				Double-Six (p. 1/2)						Double Six (Series 3)														Double Six (XJ 81)		Double Six (X 305)			Super V8 (X 308)								Super Eight (X 350)
limousine	... DS 420
SUV																																																E-pace
																																															F-pace
																																																	I-pace
Sports car																																												F-type
	... E-Type 4.2 (p. 2)	E-Type V12					XJ-S						XJ-S HE / XJ-S 3.6										XJS					XK8 / XKR (X 100)									XK / XKR (X 150)
High-performance sports car																				XJ 220		XJR-15	XJ 220 V6
race car													XJR-5 to 17											220 C							R1 / 2/3/4/5

buses

The manufacture of chassis for buses was an essential part of the Daimler production range. These were mainly produced for double-decker buses . The company's first bus chassis was the KPL developed by Frederick W. Lanchester in 1911 . It was a vehicle with a hybrid drive consisting of a gasoline and an electric motor . The bus already had an all-metal structure, a design feature that only slowly gained acceptance in the 1930s. However , the project was halted by a patent infringement suit brought by Tilling-Stevens .

In 1912 Frank Searle , who had developed the B-type at the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), from whose bus production the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) emerged , joined Daimler and began building up the company's commercial vehicle division. The main difference to the buses manufactured by AEC was the use of a slide motor . Between 1913 and 1926, AEC built some types of Daimler under license , while Daimler sold the chassis manufactured by AEC , which were manufactured beyond the requirements of the London General Omnibus Company , under its own name. From 1926 AEC and Daimler formed a joint venture under the name Associated Daimler Company (ADC) .

In the 1930s, the Daimler CO became the company's most important model. During the Second World War, it was replaced by the similar but heavier Daimler CW , which was also produced in the immediate post-war period. The first CWG5 appeared in 1943 and was associated with a five-cylinder diesel engine of Gardner equipped with 7 liters. In the same year, after only around one hundred units had been built, it was replaced by the CWA6 with a six-cylinder diesel engine with a displacement of 7.7 l from AEC. After around 800 buses were built, the CWD6 followed in 1945 with an 8.6-liter six-cylinder diesel engine from Daimler. Production ended in 1946, but due to the lack of superstructures, the last chassis were not completed until 1947. Regardless of the engine installed, all buses were fitted with a four-speed transmission with gear preselection and vacuum-assisted brakes developed by Daimler .

The successor to the CW was the Daimler CV , with the V in the type designation standing for victory . Production began in 1946. The five-cylinder diesel engine from Gardner, already known from the CW, with 7 liter displacement and an output of 87, later 94  bhp in the CVG5 and the more powerful six-cylinder diesel engine with 8.4 l displacement and 102, later 112 bhp, also from Gardner. A diesel engine developed by Daimler itself was installed in a few hundred copies in the 1940s and 1950s. The CL , which is around five tons lighter , was derived from the CV ; the L in the type designation stood for lightweight . Since the lighter components originally developed for the CL were also soon available for the CV , production of the CL ended in 1955. Another variant was the CCV , with the middle C standing for constant mesh gearbox , which is a powershift transmission .

Production of the Daimler CD began in the same period . Originally equipped with the A173 , a 7.7-liter diesel engine from AEC or the CD 8.6-liter diesel engine from Daimler, it was later also available with the Daimler D650 with a displacement of 10.6 liters. Equipped with hydraulically assisted brakes, steering and gear preselection, it was a modern design for the time, but the hydraulic assemblies in particular suffered from a lack of acceptance by many British transport companies. The superstructures came from Northern Counties and Weymann , later also from East Lancashire Coachbuilders .

This line of development led to the Daimler CR , which was built from 1960 to 1980 and became known under the name Daimler Fleetline . After the Leyland Atlantean , which appeared in 1958, the Fleetline was the second British double-decker bus type with a diesel engine positioned transversely in the rear instead of the conventional designs with a front engine directly next to the driver. With its special, cranked rear axle construction, it enabled much lower bodies than the early Atlantean . This was important, it made it possible to drive under lower bridges. Leyland soon followed suit with a similar rear axle construction, discontinuing production of the Fleetline with a low body after taking over Daimler . The Fleetline was initially six-cylinder diesel engines from Gardner, while the equipment with Leyland engines was either possible later. Since Leyland only offered the Atlantean with its own engines, but many operators preferred engines from Gardner, the engine turned out to be a market advantage for Daimler. In 1968 Daimler brought out the 36-foot (approximately 12 m) long Fleetline , whose chassis construction was based on that of the Roadliner with a longitudinally arranged engine. The last Fleetline was manufactured in 1973 at the traditional plant in Radford , Coventry , after which production continued at Leyland in Lancashire . For the past eight years, the buses have been marketed as Leyland Fleetline . The last Fleetline ever built was built in 1981 at the Eastern Coach Works (ECW).

The company also produced a smaller number of single-deck buses. The Freeline was produced between 1951 and 1964 . The bus had a conventional ladder frame and an underfloor engine. The chassis was available with the well-known five- and six-cylinder engines from Gardner. These buses were given the type designation G5HS and G6HS . With the D650H , Daimler also offered its own engine for this bus. Developed from the D650, from which it differed in principle only in the oil pan, it achieved 125 bhp with a displacement of 10.6 l  . Later, the output was increased to 150 bhp with the same displacement, making it the most powerful engine in its class at the time. These buses were given the type designation D650HS . The bus had hydraulic brakes, as well as hydraulically assisted steering and gear selection. Originally installed with a five-speed preselection gearbox from Daimler, the semi-automatic five-speed gearbox also developed by Daimler became standard from 1957. The chassis were only offered for the domestic market with a wheelbase of 16 feet 40 inches, which made it possible to mount bodies 30 feet long and 8 feet wide. This corresponded to the British size restrictions for buses at the time. For export, wheelbases of 17 feet 60 inches or 20 feet 40 inches for 33 and 36 feet long bodies were offered. Despite the innovative design, sales on the British market were disappointing, with only 19 chassis sold. However, the Freeline was quite successful in exports , with a total of 558 Freeline s being exported. The largest customer was the Auckland Transport Board in Auckland , New Zealand , with 160 copies.

The Roadliner was a 36 foot single deck bus . Since the one-man operation of double-decker buses was not permitted everywhere in the United Kingdom until the end of the 1960s, many bus line operators asked for longer single-decker buses with greater passenger capacity (including standing room), which could only be operated with the driver and a passenger capacity comparable to double-decker buses exhibited. The bus initially suffered from the unreliable six-cylinder Cummins V6-200 diesel engine. Although the engine had an output of 192 bhp, it was originally developed as a ship propulsion system and suffered from the frequent load changes in bus operation. The Perkins V8 diesel engine, later installed from 1968 on, proved to be more reliable, but the buses now suffered from problems with the brakes and the wheel suspension. Due to the maintenance-intensive operation, Potteries Motor Traction Ltd (PMT) was the last operator to retire the Roadliner in 1976.

Daimler was particularly successful in the export business; the CVG5 and CVG6 were the bus types most frequently used in Hong Kong between 1950 and 1988 . The Fleetline played the same role in the former British Crown Colony until 1995. But Daimler was also successful on the domestic market, the standard bus in London in the 1970s (1970–1978) was the Fleetline , known by the London Transport Executive as type DMS or DM. The buses were equipped with both Gardner and Leyland diesel engines (O.680, later O.690). As was common in the UK at the time, the chassis were fitted with bodies from various manufacturers. Therefore, apart from the typical Daimler surround of the radiator grille, there are no identifying features of the buses manufactured by Daimler.

• 

  Daimler CO5 built by Metro Cammell

• 

  Daimler CWA6 with body from Duple , built in 1945

• 

  Daimler CVG6 built by Metro Cammell

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  Daimler CVG6 with Weymann body and Gardner engine

• 

  Daimler Fleetline , built in 1974

• 

  Daimler Fleetline with the structure of Park Royal Vehicles , London Transport Type XF from 1965

• 

  Daimler Fleetline London Transport DMS from 1970

Bus models

Type	engine	Model years	execution
Daimler CO	Front engine		double-decker bus
Daimler CW	Front engine	1943-1946	double-decker bus
Daimler CV	Front engine	1946-1972	double-decker bus
Daimler CD	Front engine	1947-1961	double-decker bus
Daimler CL	Front engine	1946-1955	Double-decker bus, lighter version of the CV
Daimler CR (Fleetline)	Rear engine	1960-1980	double-decker bus
Daimler Freeline	Underfloor motor	1951-1964	Single deck bus
Daimler Roadliner	Rear engine	1962-1972	Single deck bus

Naming rights

Gottlieb Daimler already sold the rights to the name Daimler in relation to cars. From 1907 the Daimler Motor Company in Coventry produced motor vehicles under this brand. Jaguar Cars , which took over the company on May 29, 1960, used the name for large chauffeur limousines (until 1992) as well as for particularly luxuriously equipped versions of the Jaguar limousines. After taking over Jaguar at the end of 1989, Ford Motor Company received the naming rights. In October 2007, Daimler AG bought part of the naming rights from Ford for 20 million US dollars (around 14 million euros). In 2008, the naming rights to the Daimler brand were taken over by the Indian Tata Motors . The agreement states that Daimler AG may only use the name as a trade name or company name; no naming rights have been permanently transferred.

literature

• Nigel Thorley: Jaguar - All the Cars . Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2003, ISBN 1-84425-001-6 .
• Andrew Whyte: Jaguar - The history of a great British car . 2nd Edition. Stephens, Wellingborough 1985, ISBN 0-85059-746-3 .
• Lord Montagu of Beaulieu: Jaguar . 7th edition. Quiller, London 1997, ISBN 1-899163-34-4 .
• Heiner Stertkamp: Jaguar - The complete chronicle from 1922 to today . 2nd Edition. Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2006, ISBN 3-89880-337-6 .
• Halwart Schrader : Jaguar. The complete brand history . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 978-3-613-02259-1 .
• Charles Klapper: The Golden Age of Buses . Routledge, London 1978, ISBN 0-7102-0232-6 .
• James Adlam, Keith Hamer: The DMS Handbook . Capital Transport, Harrow Weald 1994, ISBN 1-85414-171-6 (English).

Web links

Commons : Daimler Company vehicles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• private website
• Old Bus Photos website with information and pictures of British buses

Individual evidence

1. ^ A century of automotive technology - commercial vehicles . VDI-Verlag, 1987, ISBN 3-18-400656-6 , p. 14
2. ↑ Trucks - history, technology, types . GeraMond-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7654-7804-8 , p. 14
3. ↑ Group pays Ford . In: Die Welt , October 5, 2007
4. Jump up ↑ wrangling over Gottlieb . Spiegel Online , August 24, 2007
5. ↑ The “Daimler” brand before the revival? Tata thinks about Rolls-Royce competition. Handelsblatt.com, July 28, 2008, accessed October 25, 2019 .