Daimler

D, 1886 – 1902

(1) Gottlieb Daimler, Bad Cannstatt, 1886 – 1890

(2) Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft, Bad Cannstatt, 1890 – 1902

Gottlieb Daimler was employed until 1882 as technical director at the Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz, where he worked on internal combustion engines. Wilhelm Maybach was also engaged by Daimler at the Deutz works. Daimler held shares in the Deutz company and the income form these gave Daimler some financial support when Daimler left Deutz. He moved to Bad Cannstatt near Stuttgart, where Daimler started a small workshop for research and experimentation and brought in Maybach to work for him. Daimler’s plans were to develop a high-speed internal combustion engine which could be fitted into road and rail vehicles as well as into boats. In 1883 a high-speed Daimler prototype petrol engines with hot-tube ignition were built. This was the first time that petrol was used for an internal combustion engine. The next step for Daimler was the construction in 1885 of the world’s first Daimler motor cycle, which was also the last one ever built by Daimler or later companies bearing the Daimler name. Next, trials were made with a motorized boat and sleigh before Daimler and Maybach fitted an engine to an ordinary horse-drawn carriage, modified for the purpose . The Daimler car was ready in 1886 and made its first trial runs around Cannstatt. The engine was an air-cooled vertical single-cylinder or 1.5hp with tube ignition. Further trials with Daimler engines in boats, trams and fire-engines followed.

For some time Maybach had tried to convince Daimler that they should build a vehicle designed from the start as a motor car. Daimler opposed the idea for a long time but he at last agreed to build a Daimler prototype. It was a two-seater 4-wheeled vehicle with a rear-mounted V-twin engine. The chassis was a tubular steel frame and the steel wire wheels gave the cars its name of ‘Stahlradwagen’. The Daimler car was sent to the Paris World Fair of 1889. Panhard-Levassor and Peugeot took a great interest in this car, and both firms started car production with Daimler engines and laid the foundation of the French motor car industry.

In 1890 the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft was founded by soon differences arose between Daimler and his new partners. This led to Daimler’s separation from the company in 1893. He and Maybach started an experimental workshop in the Hotel Hermann; this can be regarded as an independent Daimler enterprise which also built cars. Daimler successfully continued his efforts to develop a high-speed engine for motor cars. The very important invention of the atomizing carburetor by Daimler was also made in the Hotel Hermann. In 1895 an agreement was reached and Daimler and Maybach returned to the Daimler company. The Daimler cars produced were the belt-driven 2-cylinder type, the first Daimler car manufactured in any numbers. It was succeeded in 1897 by the Daimler Phönix, the first type with front engine. 1899 saw the first 4-cylinder engines. A car with a 28hp engine was entered by its owner, Emile Jellinek for the Nice Week, 1899; this Daimler car was called the Mercedes after his eldest daughter.

Jellinek was a successful business man and Consul-General of the Austro-Hungarian empire in Nice, taking a great interest in motoring and especially Daimler cars. He acted as an unofficial agent selling Daimler cars to his wealthy friends. But he was not satisfied with their performance and suggested that the Daimler company should build a high-performance car of an entirely new conception. The result was the 35hp 4-cylinder Daimler model which became known as the first Mercedes car. It was designed by Maybach, incorporating some of the principles of the P.D. Car designed by Paul Daimler, a son of Gottlieb Daimler. It made a very successful debut at the Nice Week, 1901. Jellinek had a seat on the Daimler car company’s board of directors since 1900. He now obtained the sole agency for Daimler in France, Belgium, Austro-Hungary and the United States of America. He sold the cars under the name of Mercedes – which formerly had been only his pseudonym – to counter possible legal proceedings by Panhard-Levassor, who owned licences for Daimler cars under an earlier agreement with Gottlieb Daimler himself. As a result of the great successes of Mercedes cars Daimler decided in 1902 to accept this as a new brand name for all subsequent private Daimler cars. Commercial vehicles continued to be marketed under the name Daimler, and this name was also applied to the cars built in 1901 by the breakaway M.M.B. company in Berlin.

GB, 1896 to date

(1) Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1896 – 1904

(2) Daimler Motor Co (1904) Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1904 – 1910

(3) Daimler Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1910 to date

The Daimler Motor Syndicate was formed in England in 1893 by F.R. Simms to exploit Gottlieb Daimler motor patents, but it was not until 1896 that the Coventry factory became active as part of H.J. Lawson’s empire. Though Daimler himself was a director until 1898, the English and German Daimler concerns pursued their separate ways. In the first two years cars were mostly imported, and early English Daimlers were 2-cylinder machines, largely on Panhard lines, with automatic inlet valves, tiller steering, tube ignition, 4-speed and reverse gearboxes, chain drive and solid tyres. Prices ranged from £368 for a pheaeton up to £418 for a ‘Daimler private omnibus’. 1899 saw the first 4-cylinder car, a 3-litre machine rated at 12hp; this Daimler had wheel steering, and the Hon. John Scott-Montagu became the first British driver to compete in a continental race on a vehicle of British construction when he drove one Daimler in the Paris-Ostend that year. King Edward VII, while still Prince of Wales, took delivery of his first Daimler in 1900, thus forging a connection between the Daimler company and the reigning house which lasted until the 1950s. Design policy was very uncertain for the next few seasons, but in 1902 there was a chain-driven 1.8-litre twin Daimler, as well as fours of 2.4 and 4½-litres’ capacity with tubular, Panhard-like radiators. These Daimler cars retained stand-by tube ignition. The fluted radiator and 3-piece bonnet, both to become Daimler hallmarks, were introduced in 1904, the year in which the Daimler company went over to large and powerful chain-driven fours with mechanically-operated side valves and coil ignition, which ran in such events as the herkomer Trophy Trials. The 9¼ litre ‘Daimler 35’ was typical, but there were even bigger versions of over 10½-litres, and Daimler advertising made much of sprint wins on the Continent and in the USA as well as at home. Some of these Daimler cars were made under licence in Italy as the De Luca.

1909 saw a complete volte face with the adoption of Charles Yale Knight’s double-sleeve valve engine and underslung worm drive, and the Daimler cars of the next 23 years were smooth, and silent, but not capable of high performance. They also changed little in appearance, since Daimler, unlike most luxury-car makers, built their own bodywork. Poppet valves were dropped altogether after 1909. By 1914 the Daimler company’s range extended from a 4-cylinder 3.3-litre ‘Daimler 20’ with rear-axle gearbox at £430 for a chassis up to a very large 7.4-litre 6-cylinder ‘Daimler 45’. Electric lighting and starting were standard on the bigger cars. The purchase of Daimler by BSA in 1910 made no difference to the cars, though the BSA itself became merely a cheap Daimler.

After World war 1, 4-cylinder cars were dropped (apart from a short-lived ‘Daimler 20’ in 1922) and the same solid conservative machines were offered in a range of fearsome complexity. There was a 1½-litre six in 1923 and front wheel brakes arrived with the 35hp model in 1924, becoming universal late in 1925, when light steel sleeves were adopted and outputs went up. The immense and stately 12-cylinder 7.1-litre Daimler Double Six was introduced in 1927; 12-cylinder Daimler cars were used by the Royal Family and persisted in a variety of capacities from 3.7 litres until 1938, the last ones using poppet valves. In 1927 the company offered 23 separate Daimler car models (exclusive of body styles), using five engines from 1.9-litres to 7.1-litres, and twelve wheelbase lengths from the 9ft 9in of the owner-driver ’Daimler 16-55’ up to the 13ft 7in of the Royal model of the Double-Six, which cost £1950 for a chassis alone. In 1930 Daimler pioneered the fluid-flywheel transmission with column selector which was used on all Daimler models from 1932 to 1956. The Lanchester company was acquired in 1931 and the make downgraded into another species of inexpensive Daimler cars for sale. In 1933 the influence of Launce Pomeroy Sr was reflected in a 1.8-litre 6-cylinder ‘Daimler 15’ with overhead valves for the owner-driver at £450, and this was followed by a series of ohv sixes and straight-8s, some of them with fixed cylinder heads. Independent front suspension appeared on 1938 versions of the ‘Daimler 15’. In 1939 there were three sixes and two eights, the top of the range being the 4½-litre 32hp limousine.

After World War 2 the 2½-litre Daimler DB.18 (descended from the ‘15’) was revived and there were two limousine models with hypoid final drive, a 4-litre six and a 5½-litre eight. A certain lack of direction punctuated the early 1950s, which saw the short-stroke 2½-litre ‘Daimler Conquest’ saloon and its 100mph variant, the ‘Daimler Conquest Century’, and also a sports two-seater. The company was reorganized in 1956, in which year automatic transmission was available as an alternative to the fluid-flywheel gearbox. The 3.8-litre 6-cylinder ‘Daimler Majestic’ of 1958 had automatic transmission and disc brakes as standard equipment and a year later came the Turner-designed V8 2½-litre Daimler SP250 sports car, a 120mph machine which broke away form traditional Daimler appearance and sold for £1.395. A synchromesh gearbox was standard. A pair of 4.6-litre V8s with traditional bodywork joined it in 1960, in which year the company was bought by Jaguar. A 2½-litre saloon using the small V8 Daimler engine in a Mk II jaguar body was introduced for 1963, and gradually Jaguar influences took over. The 8-cylinder Majestic Major saloon was replaced in 1967 by the Daimler Sovereign, a Jaguar 420 down to its dohc 6-cylinder engine, and a year later there was a new Jaguar-based limousine using the 4235cc power unit and a Vanden Plas body. The last V8 Daimlers were made in 1996, and inevitably the 1973 season brought a Daimler version of the 5.3-litre V12 XJ6 Jaguar, designated the Double Six; a long-chassis version had trim by Vanden Plas.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; HON, MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Standard

GB, 1903 – 1963

Standard Motor Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire

R.W. Maudslay’s company started modestly with a single-cylinder Standard car with an under-floor engine of markedly oversquare (5x3in) dimensions, which was the work of Alex Craig who also designed for Maudslay (made by the same family as the Standard cars founder), Lea-Francis, and Singer. A 12/15hp bonneted twin Standard car was also available, while 4-cylinder engines were offered as proprietary units. In 1906 Standard cars offered Britain’s first inexpensive sixes with side valves, 3-speed gearboxes, and shaft drive; a fairly large 24/30hp Standard car being followed by a really big 50hp Standard car at £850, and a 3.3-litre Standard 20 at £450, these Standard cars being energetically marketed in London by Charles Friswell. 6-cylinder Standard cars dominated Standard design for several years, the Standard 20 doing well in its subsequent 4-litre form; a fleet of 70 Standard cars was shipped to India for the Delhi Durbar in 1911. The shouldered radiator of the Standard car first carried the Union Jack badge in 1908. In 1909 a 2.7-litre 4-cylinder 14 with cylinders cast in pairs was being offered for £350, other fours following until the sixes Standard cars were finally dropped at the end of 1912. A big car in miniature, the 9.5hp Standard Rhyl, was announced in 1913 with a 3-speed gearbox, worm drive, and all brakes on the rear wheels, this Standard car was priced at £185. Electric lighting was available on the Standard car in 1915, and at the outbreak of World War 1 there were also two bigger Standard cars, both sv monobloc fours with capacities of 2.4- and 3.3-litres.

In 1919 an enlarged 1.3-litre version of the Standard Rhyl, the Standard SLS, was the staple product of Standard cars, but this had grown up by 1921 into the 11.6hp Standard SLO with exposed overhead valves – these early Vintage Standard cars also had no sides to their radiator shells. There was a short-lived ohv 8hp in 1922, but the most successful mid-Vintage Standard car was the 13.9hp SLO4, this Standard car still was with overhead valves and worm drive, which had rigid side-curtains and the Standard car could be bought for £375 in 1924. From 1923 these Standard cars carried the emblem of the 9th Roman Legion as their radiator mascot. 10.000 Standard cars were sold in 1924, Front-wheel brakes were standard on the 13.9hp Standard cars in 1926. Some less successful 2.2-litre ohv 6-cylinder Standard cars were marketed in 1927, in which year saloon Standard cars could be bought with sliding roofs, while financial difficulties of the Standard car company were circumvented by the hurried introduction of the very reliable 1.155cc worm-drive Standard Nine car with an sv engine and fabric bodywork for 1928. Within a year a roomier, longer-wheelbase version of this Standard car was listed, as well as supercharged and unsupercharged sports two-seater Standard cars, and the first of the Avon Standard Specials, a low-built two-seater styled by the Jensen brothers, had made its appearance. The Avon, both in its original form and in its later manifestations (the work of C.F. Beauvais) continued in a variety of semi-catalogue forms on many Standard car chassis from the Standard Nine to the 20hp Standard car up to 1937. 1929 was the year of chromium plating on Standard cars, of the first of a line of sv sixes with coil ignition and 7-bearing crankshafts that was to persist up to 1940, and of the appointment of Captain J.P. Black, from Hillman, as Managing Director. Under his control Standard cars rode out the Depression with steadily increasing sales, but at the cost of magneto ignition, worm-driven back axles and the traditional radiator, all of which had disappeared on the Standard car by 1931, when Standard car company were offering the Standard Big Nine, a really roomy small saloon for less than £200, and low-priced 16 and 20hp six Standard cars. This range of Standard cars was rounded out in 1932 by a 1-litre Standard Little Nine at £155, and in this year William Lyons, whose 1930 Swallow-bodies Standard cars had anticipated the new 1931 radiator, launched his first S.S. cars. These used specially-built Standard car chassis and his own style of bodywork, and were to evolve into the Jaguar. Standard-built engines were used in all Lyon’s cars up to 1940 and survived on 4-cylinder Jaguars until 1948. Cruciform-braced frames and silent-third gearboxes were features of the 1933 Standard cars, while that year’s complex Standard car range included a couple of short-lived sixes of under 1.500cc, the option of preselector gearboxes on some Standard cars, and a long-wheelbase 20hp Standard car landaulette. Synchromesh, free wheels and integral boots came in 1934, when a new best-seller Standard car was the well-equipped 1.3-litre Standard Ten, and there were six Standard car models for 1935, including a sporting 10/12hp Standard car consisting of a Standard Ten chassis and body, and a 1.6-litre twin-carburettor 12hp engine. Much of the same Standard cars were offered in 1936, but this year also brought the fastback Flying Standard cars with luggage accommodation and spare wheels streamlined into the tail, though retaining the Bendix brakes of earlier versions of Standard cars. Initially offered only in 12, 16, and 20hp sizes, the style of this Standard car was universal by 1937, when buyers had the choice of four 4-cylinder Standard car and two 6-cylinder types, form the Standard Nine at £149 to the Standard Twenty at £299, as well as a rapid compact V8 Standard car with a 2.7-litre 80bhp sv engine in a Standard Twelve chassis. This Standard car failed to catch on, though its fencer’s mask grille was found on all Standard cars from 1938 to 1947, and the engine was used by Raymond Mays. Other makers buying components from Standard were Railton, whose Ten was based on a Standard car chassis, and Morgan, for whom a special ohv 10hp engine was made by the Standard car company from 1939 – 1950.

A 1939 Standard car best seller was the 1-litre Standard Eight at £129, the first British small saloon with independent front suspension: similar layouts were found on Super versions of the Ten and Twelve, but this year’s Flying Standard cars no longer had fastbacks. Of the extensive pre-World War 2 range of Standard cars, only the Eight, Twelve, and Fourteen were continued after the war, the Fourteen using a 1.8-litre engine in the Twelve chassis, although Standard car products now included Triumph, acquired in 1945.

Late in 1947 came the Standard car company’s first true post-war design, the unitary-construction Standard Vanguard with a 2.1-litre ohv wet-liner 4-cylinder engine, full width six-seater bodywork, hydraulic brakes, and a 3-speed gearbox with column change. This Standard car sold for £544, though for some time the Standard car was practically unobtainable on the home market, and was the only Standard car model catalogued between 1949 and 1953. Standard cars were made under licence in Belgium by Imperia, and the Standard car engine also went into the bigger Triumphs, the Ferguson tractor, the earlier Plus-Four Morgan, and, in 2-litre form, into Triumph’s successful TR series. Overdrive became an option in 1950 on Standard cars; the body was restyled in 1953, 1956, and 1959; a diesel version with separate chassis was marketed in 1954 and 1955; and a luxury Sportsman verion with a 90bhp engine, a traditional grille, and overdrive as standard appeared in 1957, though this Standard car was too expensive at £1.231, and did not last long. Towards the end automatic Standard Vanguards were available, but the tough old four Standard car was dropped in 1961.

There were other Standard cars. An 803cc ohv Standard Eight with coil-spring independent front suspension and very basic appointments was announced late in 1953 at £481, followed shortly after by a more luxurious Standard car with 948cc 10hp at £581. These Standard cars were quite best-sellers despite such later options as 2-pedal control, triple overdrive (on the Standard Eight) and the addition of a luxury Pennant version of the Standard Ten in 1957. Fairthrope used this engine, which later served as the basis for the Triumph Herald, but production of the small Standard cars tailed off in 1959. There were other variations on the Vanguard theme: the Standard Ensign with a 1.6-litre 62bhp engine was cooly received, though the Standard car was revived in 1962 with a 75bhp 2.138cc unit and 4-speed gearbox. After the Leyland take-over in 1961, the Standard car company’s efforts concentrated increasingly on the Triumph range, but Standard cars final fling in 1962 was once again Vanguard-based, though the Standard car company broke new ground with a 2-litre short-stroke ohv 6-cylinder engine later used in the Triumph 2000. The last Standard cars were delivered in the summer of 1963. The name died because the term, ‘standard’, when applied to cars, had been debased; it had come to mean the opposite of ‘de luxe’ – and this despite the comfortable appointments of the Luxury Six.

US, 1903 – 1907

Standard/ Standard Tourist

Standard Motor Construction, Jersey City, N.J.

Th Standard car succeeded the US Long Distance. The only model Standard car was a five-seater in wood at $3.250, or in aluminium for $3.500. The engine of this Standard car was a 4-stroke, 4-cylinder one of 25hp.

Italy, 1906 – 1912

Fabbrica Automobili Standard, Turin

Also known as the FAS, the Standard car was a conventional machine with a 14/20hp 4-cylinder engine and 4-speed gearbox. The Standard car company had no known connection with any firm bearing the name Standard.

US, 1909 – 1910

(1) St. Louis Motor Car Co, St. Louis, Mo., 1909

(2) St. Louis Car Co, St. Louis, Mo., 1910

From 1906 to 1909 this Standard car company first made three models of the Mors under the name American Mors, but in 1909 they introduced a car of their own design. This Standard car had an ohv 50hp 6-cylinder engine of 7.8-litre capacity. Five body styles were listed, including a limousine at $4.000. The rear springs were of the platform type.

US, 1910

Standard Gas Electric Power Co, Philadelphia, Pa.

This Standard car had a 4-cylinder, 3.7-litre engine with a 3-speed sliding-gear transmission and shaft drive. The only feature of interest of this Standard car was electric starting. The single model Standard car for 1910 was a four-seater torpedo which weighed 2.000lb.

D, 1911 – 1912

Standard Automobilfabrik GmbH, Berlin-Charlottenburg

This German Standard car was characterized by the use of Henriod rotary-valve engines, but the system proved unsuccessful and production of Standard cars was not on a large scale. Two 4-cylinder Standard car models of 10/28PS and 13/35PS were listed.

US, 1912 – 1915

Standard Electric Car Co, Jackson, Mich.

This electric Standard car used Westinghouse motors and was claimed to have a range of 110 miles on a charge. The Standard car was operated from a tiller on the left-hand side. The controller on the Standard car gave six forward speeds, the maximum speed being 20mph. The Standard Model M, a four-seater closed model, cost $1.885.

US, 1912 – 1923

(1) Standard Steel Car Co, Butler, Pa., 1912 – 1923

(2) Standard Auto Vehicle Co, Butler, Pa., 1923

For most of its life the Standard car was built by a firm whose main product was steel and composite railway carriages and wagons. Up to 1916 the Standard car was a conventional 38hp 6-cylinder car built in touring an closed models, at prices up to $3.600. In 1916 an 8-cylinder Standard car model was introduced which was to become the staple product of the Standard car company. Smaller than the six, this Standard car was rated at 29hp (50bhp) and cost only $1.950 for the most expensive model. For 1917 it was increased to 34hp (80bhp) and by 1921 prices of the Standard cars were up to $5.000. In 1923 a new company acquired the design from the Standard Steel Car Co. They assembled a few of the V8 Standard cars, but did not introduce any new models, and were out of business the same year.

US, 1914

Standard Engineering Co, Chicago, Ill.

This Standard car was a cyclecar powered by an air-cooled 2-cylinder Spacke engine. Transmission was by friction discs, and final drive by single chain.

US, 1920 – 1921 

Standard Engineering Co, St. Louis, Mo.

The Standard Steam Car was equipped with a Scott-Newcomb 2-cylinder, horizontal paraffin-burning steam engine and the Standard car was advertised as being able to raise a head of steam in less than 60 seconds. The Standard car carried a Rolls-Royce-type condenser and closely resembled the then well-known Roamer. A touring model was the only body style available. The Standard car was sometimes known as the Scott-Newcomb.

D, 1933 – 1935

Standard Fahrzeugfabrik GmbH, Ludwigsburg

This Standard car firm, owned by Wilhelm Gutbrod, obtained the licence for the production of a small car designed by Josef Ganz. The car appeared under the name of Standard Superior. The Standard car had a 2-cylinder, 2-stroke engine of 396cc developing 12bhp or of 494cc and 16bhp. Special features of this Standard car design were an aerodynamic body, rear engine, centre tubular chassis and independent suspension. Production was given up in 1935, but vans and estate Standard cars were built until 1939. Another car built to Ganz designs was the Swiss Rapid.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, GMN, GNG, HON, KM

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com