Lot details Registration No: T.B.A. Chassis No: 104404 Mot Expiry: Aug 2010
Daimler's attempts to crack the lucrative US sports car market culminated in the introduction of the SP250 (codenamed `Dart') at the 1959 New York Motor Show. Transatlantic styling was a feature of the ultra-strong GRP bodywork, but the understated interior gave a truly British flavour. Built on a traditional cruciform-braced ladder-frame chassis equipped with independent coil-and-wishbone front suspension and a leaf-sprung 'live' rear axle, it was the SP250's advanced powerplant and strong performance that intrigued the contemporary motoring press. The engine was designed by Edward Turner, and used a combustion chamber design first seen on the Triumph vertical-twin motorcycle engine. With hemispherical combustion chambers, the engine proved powerful for its 2.5 litre size, and makes a glorious noise when driven. The Metropolitan Police used a fleet of Black SP250s as high-speed pursuit cars, and the model is noted for being the last car US racing driver Mark Donohue owned, raced and modified as an unsponsored amateur driver. `A' series variants were only built until 1960, when Jaguar-modified `B' spec cars were released, addressing some complaints to ride quality and door security. Later `C' series cars had a heater as standard. Production lasted until 1964, by which time 2645 examples had been built.
Finished in black with red leather upholstery, this particular example is described by the vendor as being in "good" condition with regard to its four-speed manual gearbox, electrical equipment, interior trim, bodywork and paintwork, while he notes that the engine "revs high". Entering the current ownership during 1985 at which time it had purportedly covered just 39,000 miles from new, the Daimler is since understood to have "only been driven in dry conditions" and now displays an odometer reading of 44,000 miles. Sporting a stainless steel exhaust, the Dart has reportedly been the beneficiary of "a recent service" not to mention "considerable maintenance work to its brakes and suspension". While, we are further informed that the two-seater is "currently road registered in the Isle of Man but a new MOT certificate has been obtained using the chassis number. The original number plates are in the boot and might be reassigned if the car is reregistered in the UK".
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