The Daimler Motor Company Limited (GB) 1896 - 2011
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The Daimler Motor Company Limited (GB) 1896 - 2011 Daimler Motor Company The Daimler Motor Company Limited (GB) 1896 - 2011 Daimler (GB) 1896-2011.doc 2 / 22 Daimler Motor Company The Daimler Motor Company Limited The Daimler Motor Company was a British motor vehicle manufacturing company, founded in 1896, and based in Coventry. The company became a subsidiary of Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) in 1910, and was acquired by Jaguar Cars in 1960. Ownership of the Daimler marque stayed with Jaguar Cars through subsequent mergers with British Motor Holdings and British Leyland, remaining with Jaguar when the company regained its independence in 1984. In 1989 the Daimler badge transferred to the ownership of the Ford Motor Company when Jaguar Cars became a subsidiary of the American giant, and was subsequently incorporated into Ford's Premier Automotive Group. In March 2008 the Daimler brand was included in Ford's sale of Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Motors of India. As of 2006, the use of the Daimler brand was limited to one model, the Daimler Super Eight. As of 2011, the brand appears to be dormant. Origins of the name Confusingly, the name Daimler is used by two completely separate groups of car manufacturers. The history of both companies can be traced back to the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler who built the first four- wheeled car in 1889. This was the origin of the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which is translated as Daimler Motor Company (aka, Daimler Germany), which has manufactured vehicles since the 1890s. Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900, having sold licences to use the Daimler name in a number of countries. The licence granted in 1891 to the British F R Simms & Co included the right to use the Daimler name in Great Britain and in 1896 the British Daimler Motor Company was founded. The aristocrat car dealer Emil Jellinek had legal problems selling German Daimlers in France and put it to Daimler Germany that he would place a large order if they would make a car for him that would bear his daughter's name Mercedes. Daimler Germany now realised the problem of having sold licences to use the Daimler name, and to avoid any further confusion and licensing troubles, the name Mercedes was adopted in 1902 for all the cars built by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft itself and the name Daimler was last used for a German-built car in 1908 but was kept for the cars built by the British company. In 1924, the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft merged with Karl Benz's Benz &Cie. to form the Daimler-Benz car company which built Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks and agreed to remain together until 2000. In 1998 Daimler-Benz merged with the Chrysler Corporation to form Daimler-Chrysler. During 2007, Daimler- Chrysler split itself again, to become the new Chrysler LLC and a renamed Daimler AG. Through all of this, Ford - via their 1989 purchase of Jaguar - assumed and retained the sole rights to sell automobiles under the Daimler name. However, during 2007 it was revealed that Ford intended to sell off the remaining British-derived portions of its Premier Automotive Group (PAG) (consisting of both Land Rover and Jaguar holdings, which include the Daimler franchise). The new suitor in this plan was reported to be Tata Motors of India, though Ford preferred to refer to Tata as the „preferred bidder“ while negotiations continued. The deal was then finalized in March 2008. The Austro-Daimler concern has survived as Steyr-Daimler-Puch, despite being absorbed by General Dynamics in 2003. History of the British company Company origin The UK patent rights to the Gottlieb Daimler's engine were purchased in 1891 by Frederick Simms, who produced them at his company F R Simms & Co. In 1893 this was renamed the „Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd“ and supplied engines to boat builders. In 1895 Harry Lawson (a yet to be convicted fraudster) bought the company for £35,000 and changed its name again to the British Motor Syndicate, a company mainly trading in patents. In order to capitalise on some of the patents he had bought, in 1896 he founded the „Daimler Motor Company“ based in a disused cotton mill he bought in Foleshill, Coventry. Here, from 1897, he built Léon Bollée cars under licence as well as MC and Daimler cars. The first Daimler left the works in January 1897, fitted with a Panhard engine, followed in March by Daimler engined cars. Lawson claimed to have made 20 cars by July 1897 making the Daimler Britain's first motor car to go into serial production, an Daimler (GB) 1896-2011.doc 3 / 22 Daimler Motor Company honour that is also credited to Humber motors who displayed its production models at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1896. The Daimlers had a twin cylinder, 1526 cc engine, mounted at the front of the car, four speed gearbox and chain drive to the rear wheels. Known as Britain's oldest marque, Daimler became the official transportation of Royalty in 1898, after the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, was given a ride on a Daimler by John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. The Royal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had, like Daimler, also obtained their name from Germany, but changed this to Windsor during World War I. Scott-Montagu, as a Member of Parliament, also drove a Daimler into the yard of the British Parliament, the first motorized vehicle to be driven there. Every British monarch from Edward VII to the current Queen have been driven in Daimler limousines although, in 1950, after a transmission failure on the King's car, Rolls- Royce was commissioned as the Royal Primary Carriage, Daimler being reduced to 'second fiddle'. Since 1907, the fluted radiator grille has been the Daimler marque's distinguishing feature. The company acquired a Knight Engine licence in 1908 to build sleeve valve engines for its automobiles. BSA take-over From 1910 it was part of Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) group of companies, producing military vehicles as well as cars. In addition to cars, Daimler produced engines for the very first tanks ever built in 1914 („Little Willie“ and „Big Willie“), a scout army vehicle, engines used in aeroplanes, ambulances, trucks, and double-decker buses. In late 1920s, it, together with Associated Equipment Company, formed the Associated Daimler Company to build commercial vehicles. In 1930 Daimler, through BSA, took over Lanchester Motor Company. Although at first the marques produced separate ranges of cars with the Daimler badge appearing mainly on the larger models, by the mid 1930s the two were increasingly sharing components leading to the 1936 Lanchester 18/Daimler Light 20 differing in little except trim and grille. The Daimler range was exceptionally complex in the 1930s with cars using a variety of six and eight cylinder engines with capacities from 1805 cc in the short lived 15 of 1934 to the 4624 cc 4.5 litre of 1936. During World War II, Daimler production was geared to military production. A four wheel drive scout car , the Daimler Dingo, had a 2.5 litre engine, along with a larger armoured car powered by a 4.1 litre engine and armed with a 2pdr. were produced, both with six cylinder power units. These military vehicles incorporated various innovative features including all-round disc brakes. The original Sandy Lane plant, used as a government store, was destroyed by fire during intensive enemy bombing of Coventry, but there were by now 'shadow factories' elsewhere in the city including one located at Brown's Lane, Allesey, now itself destroyed, but which was for several decades the principal Jaguar car plant. After that war, Daimler produced the Ferret armoured car, a military reconnaissance vehicle based on the innovative 4.1 litre engined armoured car thes had developed and built during the war, which has been used by over 36 countries. Daimler was a proponent of the preselector gearbox. This was used in passenger vehicles and military vehicles. Sir Bernard Docker was the Managing Director of BSA from early in WWII, and married Lady Norah Collins in 1949. It was Lady Norah's third marriage, and she had originally been a successful dance hall hostess, already having married well twice, and already wealthy in her own right. The Lady Norah took an interest in her husband's companies and became a director of Hooper, the coachbuilders. Lady Docker could see that the Daimler cars, while popular with the royal family, were in danger of becoming an anachronism in the modern world. She took it upon herself to raise the company's profile, but in an extravagant fashion, by encouraging Sir Bernard to produce show cars. The first was the „Golden Daimler“, an opulent touring limousine, in 1952, „Blue Clover, a two door sportsmans coupe, in 1953 the „Silver Flash“ based on the 3 litre Regency chassis, and in 1954 „Stardust, redolent of the „Gold Car“, but based on the DK400 chassis. At the same time Lady Norah earned a reputation for having rather poor social graces when under the influence, and she and Sir Bernard were investigated for failing to correctly declare the amount of money taken out of the country on a visit to a Monte Carlo casino. Norah ran up large bills, and presented them to Daimler as business expenses, but some items were disallowed by the Tax Office drawing further attention. The publicity attached to this and other Daimler (GB) 1896-2011.doc 4 / 22 Daimler Motor Company social episodes told on Sir Bernard's standing, as some already thought the cars far too opulent and perhaps a little vulgar for austere post-war Britain.