Daimler 20-30 Landaulette

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Britain’s oldest car maker, Daimler, has a history which dates back over 120 years when it started to import German built Daimlers into the UK in 1893.

Soon to distance itself from its German counterpart, Coventry based Daimler began to manufacture cars of extraordinary quality to British designs, selling at the very top-end of the market to the most wealthy customers across the globe. Royalty were keen advocates, the marque soon attracting the attentions of the acquisitive BSA organisation. They purchased the company in 1910.

Supplying both private and commercial chassis', they had a busy time during World War One, adding munitions and aircraft engines to the list of items produced. After the war they developed a bewildering range of vehicles using engines with Knight sleeve-valves to ensure near silent running. Six and eight cylinder engines of quite extraordinary refinement ensured their popularity amongst the carriage trade, with cars built to order much as the customer wanted in terms of engine and chassis length combinations.

By the time of the great depression in the early ‘30s, this bespoke tailoring was fast-tracking the company to financial ruin and in 1930 the firm merged with Lanchester which helped to stave off inevitable bankruptcy. Lawrence Pomeroy was drafted in to update the range, his rapid introduction of a range of conventional poppet valve engines keeping the creditors at bay.

Such was the complexity of vehicles on offer that identifying them often presents quite a challenge, and it was not until some time after its purchase in 2008 that the vendor finally confirmed through contacts at the Daimler Club that his Maythorn bodied Daimler Landaulet is in fact a 20-30 model. This would have been fitted with a six-cylinder 2,648cc sleeve-valve engine with an RAC rating of 20.9HP.

Previously rescued from a scrap-yard in Carmarthen, it was restored some time before he acquired it having been fitted with a later Daimler engine from what is thought to be a pre-war EL24 model. This conventional six-cylinder poppet valve engine was a common conversion, the complex and oft misunderstood sleeve-valve units regularly being swapped in favour of the more straightforward engines from later Daimler models.

The vendor has made a series of improvements to the car since purchase, including fitting four new tyres in the last couple of years, re-tempering the rear springs and rebuilding the shock absorbers.

The restoration of the Maythorn body (number M1981) has been well executed, the driver having to put up with leather seats while the lucky rear passengers get opulent cloth upholstery, fine woodwork and their own bar, complete with fold out tables, glasses and a pair of decanters for their favourite tipple.

Looking most impressive, this imperious limousine is taxed until May 2015 and its straightforward engine of around 3 ½-litres delivers sufficient power to give it a respectable performance.

Early Daimlers seem to have developed a bit of a cult following of late, no doubt thanks to the popular club and the realisation that these beautifully engineered vehicles were built with absolutely no regard to cost. More's the pity that Tata have effectively killed off this once great name as they no longer include upmarket Daimler models in the Jaguar range for fear of diluting the pre-eminent 'leaping cat' brand.   
 

Catalogue amendment: The vendor believes that it has an EL24 engine as catalogued above, but the V5 still shows 2,500cc which would equate to its original engine size as a 20-30 model.