1961 Daimler SP250

The English firm of Daimler (no relation to Mercedes-Benz) was known as a quality builder of stodgy limousines, particularly to the Royal Family, until the 1950s. Early on, they embraced the Knight sleeve-valve engine, whose principal characteristics were silence and mosquito-fogging smoke, and they favoured the Wilson pre-select gearbox in the 1930s.

After WWII, there were signs of life, with the elephantine “Lady Docker” convertible show cars, and the smaller Conquest series, but nobody was prepared for the 1959 Daimler Dart two-seater.

Export dollars were streaming into Jaguar, MG, Triumph, and Austin-Healey, and Daimler jumped in with an offering of their own. They hired Triumph motorcycle designer Edward Turner, who came up with one of the best sports car motors ever, a 2.5-litre Hemi V-8.

The Dart had a four-speed gearbox (albeit with a crash first gear), disc brakes all round and a body created from that new-fangled lightweight glass fibre material. The result was 0-60 in less than 9 seconds and a top speed around 120 mph. The new London-to-Birmingham M1 motorway had no speed limit at its introduction, and the police needed something to chase the Jaguars. So a police version of the Dart was pressed into service.

The dream of cracking the American market was doomed to failure when the Dart was launched at the 1959 New York Auto Show. First Chrysler complained about the use of the name, which was attached to a dull Dodge saloon in the US. Then sports car fans flinched at the low, wide grille with its fluted surround. The Daimler was sold in the US as an SP250, but the eccentric design proved practically sale-proof.

Equipment was excellent, with reclining leather seats, full instrumentation and an optional overdrive. The Dart weighed only 2,910 lbs and knock-off wire wheels were optional, as was a hard top.

Early cars had bodywork issues; the fibreglass flexed alarmingly on the TR3-style frame, so much so that doors would pop open during corners. The brakes were excellent and the engine even better, but the steering was a very slow worm-and-peg design. Many of the problems were solved in the 1962 “B” cars, and the 1963-64 “C” cars had standard heaters, but it didn’t matter by then.

Jaguar had bought Daimler in 1960 for extra production capacity, and the Dart was replaced by the E-Type Jaguar, which would eclipse other British sports cars for more than 10 years. Jaguar did pick up the little V-8 and used it in a version of their Mark 2 saloon until 1969, but Daimler Darts are rare these days with only about 1,000 survivors.