Wait a minute….isn’t that a Jaguar Mark II? With a hemi? Well, almost. According to Wikipedia, in 1960, Jaguar purchased Daimler from BSA. From 1962 to 1969, they produced a variant of the Mark II, with Daimler badging, and a Daimler engine with, yes, hemispherical combustion chambers.
This one in “saloon” configuration, is offered for sale in middle Missouri, in the town of Columbia. It’s here on craigslist, and the asking price is $3,500.
The ad text is sparse on useful information, but the photos show what might be a fairly nice original car, which appears to be priced realistically. At least that’s my take on it, and I always look forward to reading the comments on that, which usually vary quite a bit.
It certainly doesn’t look like new, but for some reason the interior on this car looks considerably better than similar vintage non-restored cars. And I enjoy seeing this car as right hand drive.
The instrument panel seems to have held up exceptionally well, particularly given the fact that the seller says he has “kicked it out the garage to the elements for other projects”, which hopefully means he’s looking for an offer.
Here’s a shot of the hemi. The seller says it’s “not stuck” and that he has an open title for the car. I must profess I have little knowledge and no experience with a Daimler engine. What are they like? Can any of our readers help educate the rest of us?
I didn’t know the Daimler story. This, I believe, is the same 2.5 litre engine that powered the sports model SP250. Perhaps a Chrysler expert can tell us what, if anything, this motor shares with the almighty Chrysler Hemi. It’s a small motor, only 155ci., but still put out a respectable 140hp. I bet it was a smooth runner. I suppose, if parts can be found, it would sure be different than a regular Jag, but SBC’s go so nice in these. Cool car.
It is the same engine as the sp250. It has nothing to do with chrysler. Go to youtube and check out the jay leno garage with his sp250, one of the best exhaust notes i have ever heard! I live in lawrence, ks, if i had the money i would be on my way to buy this awesome machine.
All Jaguar I6s with the DOHC of the ’50’s, ’60’s and ’70’s and ’80’s are Hemis.
I owned one of these for about 10 years. They are great cars, the V8 sound is fabulous. They were prone to rust like all English cars of the era, but other than that it was a fun car. Not very powerful of course but with leather, wood, old smiths gauges and the V8,it was a a fun cruiser. Easy to work on, Borg Warner 35 trans I think which are cheap to fix.
I look at this as an answer to a question that was never asked. I cannot imagine a 2.5 pushrod V8 being as driveable as a bigger 6 with OHC. The OHC gives much flatter torque curve as well as higher overall hp.
the Daimler 2.5 V8 is a very cute engine, but in a moderately heavy chassis, you need a high performance TRUCK engine.
Al
That car looks to be the same one that used to be in a salvage yard in Goodman Mo (J&M Salvage). The yard crushed out a few years ago when the owner (Jim) got bone cancer and sinced passed away. He told me that it was a Chrysler cast Hemi and the parts are available. to rebuild it. He said it was a 354 and it ran when he got it. The paperwork story was interesting as it was originally licensed in England and brought over in the late 60s. The car was owned in a southern state and not driven because it was not titled in the US. He could not sell it to me at the time because he was attempting to get a title and MO can be difficult at best. The next time I was there it was gone. (Jim told me he got the title and sold it) If this is the same car and the odds are good, it should be nearly rust free and very restorable. Best Wishes!
Greetings All,
Definitely not a Chrysler variant!
Wonderful engine, reliable, beautiful sound too. It performed better in the Mk. II body than Jag’s 2.4-liter six. It had more useable power and was lighter, which improved weight distribution and helped handling. Still kicking myself for not buying an extremely rare LHD 4-speed manual version that came up for sale a few years ago.
I had a 1968 Daimler mk II v8 back in the early 80s – brilliant car – smoother than a Rolls Royce. Sadly caught fire after a petrol pipe came loose. Write off.
Hi
No, this has no connection at all with the Chrysler hemi engines. Chrysler used the name hemi for their engine but they weren’t of course the only, nor the first, auto company to produce an engine with the “hemisphperical” combustion chamber with the valves angled to suit. Jaguar XK engines were “hemis” and Rudge motorcycles used radial four-valve hemi heads as far back as the 1920s.
This engine is the basically same as the one in the SP250 sports car. it was designed by Edward Turner who also designed the Triumph “Speed Twin” motorcycle engine around 1948. If you are into classic motorcycles, the Triumph Speed-Twin was a very significant motorcycle because it set the fashion for the vertical twin layout that came to be the default for big capacity British motorcycles through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Think of all the iconic bikes like Triumph Bonnevilles, Norton Dominators, Commandos, BSA A10 and A65 – all variations on the theme started by the Speed Twin 1948.
The relevance of Turner’s Speed-twin to this car here is that the Daimler V-8 shares a lot of similarities in the “hemi” cylinder head design.
My understanding of these V-8 Daimler engines is that they were considered a good engine, smooth and refined. Being only 2.5L they could not match the power of their Jaguar peers in the 3.4 and 3.8 versions but they weren’t marketed that way. The Jaguar MkII was sold as the brash sporting car for younger drivers, the Daimler 2.5 was usually sold with the auto transmission, more luxurious trim and marketed to a different, more mature classy owner…
Interesting, this engine also had a 4.5 liter big brother version. This was used in the Daimler Majestic Major model before Jaguar bought out Daimler. It was a relatively powerful engine (by Brit/European standards at that time) and the Majestic Major was a bit of sleeper. it was a classy, upright, sedate looking car, almost limo-like, but was surprisingly fast. I read somewhere that after the merger went ahead, there were some development mules built with the big jaguar sedan bodies powered by the 4.5L Daimler engine – and the legend goes, Jaguar engine guys were slightly embarrassed that this Daimler-powered hybrid might leave their Jaguar-powered models in the dust….the Daimler engine was quietly retired…!
My wife’s 2013 Sonata is a hemi.
The v8 Daimler exterior is the Flute Grill & Fluted boot license light surround.The interior was full leather split bench style front seats 3speed auto very few manual cars made . Smooth drive nice rummble from the exhaused too .