This is one of the Bargains of the Year! This is a 1964 Daimler SP250 Dart, Series C, Finished in Black with Red leather, Possibly genuine 45k Miles from new! Bought a couple of years ago for £50k and then a further £30k spent on servicing and upkeep, she is one of nicest out there and the asking price is simply unrepeatable!

One of the oldest and most aristocratic names in motoring history, Daimler was long famed for producing a string of worthy but unremarkable cars aimed at satisfying the conservative tastes of the upper-middle-class motorist. How extraordinary, then, that they should suddenly spring one of the most outlandishly-styled sportscars ever to grace the highway onto an unsuspecting public. Aimed squarely at the American market, the Daimler Dart was launched at the 1959 New York Motor Show but was soon renamed the SP250 after Chrysler asserted that they had already trademarked the Dart name for a forthcoming Dodge. It featured a truly wacky glassfibre body that combined a bewildering assortment of curves, bulges and fins with a face that came straight from a grouper fish. Like Marmite, you either love it or hate it, but you certainly can’t ignore it.

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 had modern disc brakes all round and a four-speed manual gearbox with synchromesh on the top three speeds. But what really grabbed the attention of anyone who drove it was the magnificent V8 engine. Designed by Edward Turner, this 2.5-litre ‘hemi’ is unquestionably one of the most charismatic engines ever made, a lightweight marvel of unparalleled refinement and flexibility that also produces a most fabulously fruity exhaust note. Producing 140bhp and 155lb/ft of torque, it could throw the Dart to 60 in 8.2 seconds on its way to a top speed of 125mph, but was flexible enough to burble around town in top. No wonder it proved an immediate hit with the police who ordered a small fleet as high-speed pursuit vehicles, all painted black. Drag racers also loved the engine and it became a favourite on the strip where the top fuel boys ultimately managed to extract well over 1,000bhp from this heroic V8.

In initial ‘A’ series form the car was criticized for an over-flexible chassis and when Jaguar took over Daimler in 1960, they promptly brought out a ‘B’ spec version with a much-stiffened frame, thicker bodywork and other detail improvements. In 1963 the car was improved still further as the ‘C’ series, featuring more sumptuous trim and luxuries such as a heater. Production finally came to an end in 1964 by which time just 2,645 examples had been sold, the vast majority in America. Survivors are now surprisingly rare and good ones have shot up in value recently and are highly prized by collectors.

First registered in May 1964, this ‘C’ spec example is an absolute peach of a car that looks simply stunning in its original black and red colour scheme. It has had just six owners from new, two of whom kept it for 39 years between them. The car is showing just 45k miles on the clock, a total which is believed to be genuine and is largely backed up by the history file and the superb condition of the interior, wonderfully unrestored apart from a new set of carpets. In 1998 the engine was totally rebuilt with new pistons etc. after a spark plug disintegrated into a bore and it has covered less than 5,000 miles since. The suspension and braking systems were also fully overhauled in the same year and a custom-made stainless steel exhaust fitted, using blueprints obtained from the old factory drawing department. The car drives beautifully and sounds superb. Unusually for a Dart, it is also remarkably tight and rattle-free and certainly has well above average panel fit.

The car comes with a large amount of history virtually from new, including the original green log book and many old MOTs back to 1970 when the mileage was 28k. It also retains all its original handbooks plus some lovely contemporary sales literature and later road tests. It is ready for immediate action and must surely be one of the nicest examples around. Bought from Robin Lawton in 2020 for nearly £50k the owner then embarked on a process of upkeep and improvements totalling over £30k which amount to a full recomissioning of the car again! Call me to go through the invoices! Available for a fraction of these costs, we expect this is to sell cvery quickly indeed! The nicest one in the coolest colours for sure!