Daimler are the grand-daddy of them all. Set up by Frederick Sims(?)
in 1896 or there abouts in Coventry, England. Sims had the British
rights to the Daimler engine and used the name as well. They built
large, luxury cars and pioneered the use of the Knight sleeve valve
engine, the fluid flywheel and semi-automatic transmissions, although
these latter two ideas were killed by GM inventing synchromesh. They
were bought by BSA in the 1930's and sold, with Lanchester, to Jaguar
in the 1960's. Jaguar did this as a cheap way of expanding as it
brought Daimler's plant, now Jaguar's suspension and transmission
plant at Radford. Subsequent Daimlers have been Jaguars with fluted
radiators and more luxurious trim, although the Daimler V8 engine was
used for a while. The exception to that rule was the Daimler
limousine introduced in 1969 (the first new car introduced by British
Leyland), although even that had the XK engine. This monster was
available either as a limousine or as chassis only until a couple of
years ago. They were very popular in the UK as wedding cars, funeral
cars, hearses and transport for mayors.
Mark
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