Daimler Dart SP250 Manual

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Introduced in 1959, the wonderfully quirky SP250 Dart was by far the most lively model that Daimler had ever produced.

Powered by Ed Turner’s jewel-like 2.5-litre V8 engine and clothed in lightweight glassfibre bodywork, it could show a clean pair of heels to most sportscars of its era with a 0-60 time of just 8.2 seconds and a top speed of 125mph. The first A spec cars were criticised for having an excessively flexible chassis, a problem sorted when Jaguar acquired Daimler in 1960 and added some essential strengthening to the B and C spec models.

However, as the Dart was considered to be too close a rival to the E-Type for comfort, Jaguar quietly dropped it from the range in 1964 after just 2,645 had been sold, most of them going to the export market. With only around 600 still registered in the UK today, the Dart has become increasingly sought after in recent years and prices have risen accordingly.

As its accompanying Heritage Certificate confirms, this B spec Dart was built in December 1960 and despatched to Drabble & Allen of Manchester, being sold to its first owner via Waterloo Motors of Preston. White with a black interior, the specification included wheel discs front and rear, bumpers, heater, adjustable steering column, windscreen washer and a hard top.

Other documents in the history file suggest that it spent most of its life in the Preston / Manchester area in the hands of four or five owners before being acquired by the current owner in 2009. At this point the car formed part of a private collection and had clearly been unused for many years so the vendor entrusted it to a local specialist for a thorough going over and recommissioning.

The car was fully serviced and many new parts fitted including: new suspension rubbers; new cooling hoses and radiator core; new engine mountings; new brake callipers, pads and pipes; new front shock absorbers; new horns; new headlamps; new fuel lines plus a host of other minor items to bring it up to scratch. The car is now said to be in excellent running order but has not yet been used on the road or submitted for an MOT.

The indicated mileage of 37,244 cannot be warranted but there are various old MOTs going back to 1980 at which point the car had 8,364 miles showing. Supplied with a fair amount of history and much technical literature relating to the model, the Dart also comes with a hard top which is currently in grey primer. Appearing to be in good order throughout and mechanically fully sorted, it now just needs a new owner who can get it back on the road and give it the exercise it has been denied these last many years.