Doris is a 1969 Daimler V8 250 saloon, in my personal view the best thing that Jaguar ever did to their Mark 2.
Apparently Jaguar weren’t really sure what to do with Daimler after they bought the company. I’ve heard that Lyons (the Jaguar Chairman) didn’t really like the Daimler Dart (the car that first used the V8 2.5 litre engine). Someone suggested squeezing that sublime power unit into the Jaguar Mark 2 body, along with a standard package of options for the body, and selling it as an up market Jaguar.
Edward Turner, one time engine designer at Triumph responsible for, amongst other things, the Triumph Bonneville design, was poached by BSA who owned Daimler and Lanchester. Edward Turner designed for Daimler the superb 2.5 litre V8 engine that went into the Daimler Dart. The engine uses essentially the same pistons as the Bonneville and has hemi style combustion chambers.
Some minor changes (such as redesigned exhaust manifolds) were necessary to shoehorn the V8 into the Jaguar Mark 2 body. The engine shifted the centre of gravity compared to the 2.4 and 3.4 Jaguar iron block engines, resulting in much sweeter handling and road handling.
Externally, the only differences between the Jaguar and the Daimler are the front grille, the rear number plate light and the Daimler V8 logo.
From a specification point of view, Doris has the V8 engine (140 bhp) mated to a Borg Warner type 35 auto gearbox. Wooden door caps, walnut dash and woodwork, leather seats, power assisted disc brakes all round, power steering, rear screen demister, and AM radio complete the set up.
A full engine rebuild in the autumn last year involved a rebore with plus 40 pistons (£ ouch!), crank regrind with plus 20 bearings (£ not too bad), loaded crankshaft dynamic balance (£ very reasonable). Managed to get 2 extra con rods so that all 8 are within 1 gram of each other. Also a bit of welding on one of the heads (corrosion almost rotted into one of the cooling channels). Finally added a screw in type oil filter for ease of use.
I’ve done around 1100 miles since the rebuild at restricted revs to run her in. Next task is to check the head bolt torque settings, readjust the tappets, advance the timing out of running in mode, change the carb mixture settings out of running in mode, change the oil and oil filter and gradually raise the revs over the next few hundred miles until I can let her rip!!
I suspect that most Daimler V8 250 owners will all tell you the one thing that they love about the car, namely the V8 sound track. I unashamedly open the window a bit when I go under a bridge or through a tunnel, the sound is a real head turner and I still get a thrill when I hear it.
Here are a couple more pictures:
Hope you enjoy the pictures,
Best wishes, DaveB
It looks like we have a 2nd one of these magnificent machines on the forum.