Are Daimler Darts becoming more widely appreciated?

[Allan L]

rovermorris999 said:

Perhaps it's the pond life that seems to surface when a car is advertised.

Quite so: in the 1970s I advertised one of my SPs for sale.
Man on phone: "is there much fibreglass in it?"
AL: "yes, there's a lot of fibreglass."
Man on phone: "Oh, I don't want one with any fibreglass"
AL: "well you don't want a SP250, then. Goodbye"

[v8250]

roscobbc said:

Allan L said:

roscobbc said:

10,000 rpm may have been a reality

Perhaps if you read my post to the end you will not think so.

I did read your post to the end. Can't quite see why it make any difference to my comments - they were simply stating what I had read some 20+ years ago in (I think) Hot Road magazine. Make up your own mind as to whether it was factual, practical or otherwise. Thinking back on it didn't the midget racers use alky for fuel? - irrespective of whether the Daimler engine could run up to 10000 rpm or or not - if ever used in a Midget raceer it would have been a 'grenade' engine and probably requiring a total re-build after every race in the same way a 'fuely' Chryster Hemi dragster would.

Edited by roscobbc on Sunday 16th August 02:53

The V8250 Edward Turner engine is one of the most underrated engines of all time. Some of you may be aware of Russ Carpenter and the V8250 engined Glacier Grenade dragster. Whilst Jaguar doubted the engine would hold together much beyond 250bhp, Russ Carpenter and Tony Anderson built and developed the Grenade which by 1980 was pushing out 1400bhp running a 1/4 mile in just 7.20 seconds at a speed of 179.9mph; it was even recorded accelerating 0-100mph in 1.2 seconds. It's no wonder William Lyons and Jaguar killed off the SP250 and V8250.

More info' here

https://www.facebook.com/russcarpenterracing

http://www.russcarpenterracing.co.uk/

Yours, v8250

[lowdrag]

Catching up on some reading from 1961 and came across this:-

[roperrich]

Did anyone see the Chris Evans SP250 at Bonhams, looked to be in very good order from the description, must be a record price at £82,140 including premium?

[roscobbc]

Haven't seen this around for a while (Daimler 2.5 + blower)

[Dand E Lion]

Yertis said:

IMO these are some of the ugliest cars ever built.

And apparently they handle appallingly, though I admit I've never driven one so am happy to be corrected on that score.

I'd prefer to describe the look as 'quirky''eccentric' or 'stand out' As for the handling, original steering a little heavy at low speeds, but otherwise pretty good. Well, mine is.

[Allan L]

Dand E Lion said:

Yertis said:

IMO these are some of the ugliest cars ever built.

And apparently they handle appallingly, though I admit I've never driven one so am happy to be corrected on that score.

I'd prefer to describe the look as 'quirky''eccentric' or 'stand out' As for the handling, original steering a little heavy at low speeds, but otherwise pretty good. Well, mine is.

They were not the best-looking cars of their time, but there were worse! I always pointed out that they looked o.k. from the driver's position and that big boot between the fins was excellent.
They handled well enough for their time, enabling us to get the most out of the modest road-holding without being killed. Quite a chuckable car, whereas the more deeply technical cars (e.g. Lotus Elan) required more skill to get the best from them.

[RichB]

roperrich said:

Did anyone see the Chris Evans SP250 at Bonhams, looked to be in very good order from the description, must be a record price at £82,140 including premium?

Here's a link http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22725/lot/311/

[ToneyCaroney]

roperrich said:

Did anyone see the Chris Evans SP250 at Bonhams, looked to be in very good order from the description, must be a record price at £82,140 including premium?

I saw it. As expected it was absolutely immaculate. Nothing I could fault but £82k still looks insane....