Daimler DB18 Saloon

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Very few large cars work well in white, but this 1948 Daimler DB18 pulls it off – it’s the automotive equivalent of Sidney Greenstreet in Casablanca (always worth watching again).

As you might expect, the Daimler has seen use as a wedding car, but its current owner kept the car in France where, he says: “The considerable engine torque and pre-selector gearbox with fluid flywheel made it ideal for pottering up and down the steep mountain roads”. He is only selling the DB18 as he has just bought a Daimler Empress limousine (at Brightwells, naturally), alongside which the DB is a sporty little runabout.

During his ownership, the vendor replaced the non-functioning dynamo with an alternator, fitted an electric pump (keeping original in situ) and renovated the SU carburettor. There are some invoices on file.

The car was serviced and brought up to scratch mechanically and, he says, “You can cruise on the main road at 60 mph if you wish. I have never known it to overheat.”

This luxury Daimler saloon appears in fine order mechanically and cosmetically and is ready for showing, long-distance touring, a return to wedding work, or just lording it over the neighbours where it will literally and metaphorically put their Morris Minor in the shade.

The car is currently registered in France and comes with French registration papers, its original V5C (no longer current) and we expect to have valid NOVA form for it by the time of the auction, all of which should make UK registration a formality.

On offer at No Reserve so the best bid on the day wins the car, the icing on the cake is a rather fine equestrian mascot fitted to the radiator cap.