The Daimler SP250 is a sports car built by the Daimler Company, a British manufacturer in Coventry, from 1959 to 1964. It was the last car to be launched by Daimler before its parent company, the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), sold it to Jaguar Cars in 1960.
Shortly after being appointed Managing Director (Chief Executive) of BSA's Automotive Division in 1956, Edward Turner was asked to design a saloon car powered by a V8 engine. The engine drawings were finalised by March 1958, but the saloon prototype, project number DN250, was not available for examination by the committee formed in 1958 to report on the feasibility of the V8 cars. The committee's evaluation centred on the prototypes being tested at the time, which were for the SP250 sports car project.
According to the feasibility study conducted by the committee, the SP250 would generate a profit of more than £700,000 based on a projection of 1,500 cars being sold in the first year of production and 3,000 cars per year for the second and third years of production. Two-thirds of the sales of the car were expected to be in the United States. The study also determined that the body should be made from fibreglass, with shorter time to the beginning of production, tooling costs of £16,000 as opposed to £120,000 for steel bodies, and lower cost to change the styling.
The original version, later called the A-spec, could reach a speed of 120 mph (193 km/h), but the chassis, a "14-gauge ladder frame with cruciform bracing" based on the Triumph TR3, flexed so much that doors occasionally came open, marring its reputation. Bumpers were originally an optional extra. With the basic specification not including full bumpers, the A-spec. cars have two short, chromium-plated 'whiskers' on the body on either side of the front grille and two short, vertical bumpers, or "overriders" at the rear, which were not included if the rear bumper was optioned. Early A-spec. cars had recesses behind the door handles, but these were phased out.
The manual gearbox, the first of the type used by Daimler since they started using the pre-selector type across their range in the 1930s, was reverse-engineered from the Standard gearbox used in the Triumph TR3A.
The SP250 had a fibreglass body, four-wheel Girling disc brakes, and a 2.5-litre Hemi-head V8 engine designed by Edward Turner. The car was described as a 2+2, but the bench-like rear seat offered very limited leg-room unless the front seats were pushed fully forward.
The management of Daimler decided to make a large number of the car's features optional extras because automotive import duties into the United States were not applied to optional extras.
The following items could be ordered for the standard car:
The SP250 was launched as the Daimler Dart in April 1959 at the New York Motor Show, where it was unofficially voted as the ugliest car at the show.Chrysler, whose Dodge division owned the trademark for the "Dart" model name, ordered Daimler to change the name under threat of legal action. With little time to come up with a new name, Daimler used the project number, SP250, as the model number.
Between twenty-six and thirty black SP250s were used by the British Metropolitan Police in London. These were used by the Traffic Department to catch up with speeders, especially café racers. The police cars used the Borg-Warner Model 8 3-speed automatic, which the Metropolitan Police found to be better for town work and high speed chases, and was also found to be more economical, avoiding the clutch wear that a manual car would develop with usage between 18 and 24 hours a day. Traffic police in Bristol, Cambridge, Liverpool, Manchester, Southend and Surrey also used the SP250 for speed enforcement, as did police forces in Australia and New Zealand.
After the opening of the first section of the M1 in 1959, the Bedfordshire police used the SP250 for motorway patrol.
Jaguar bought Daimler in 1960, and were immediately concerned about the chassis flex. They brought out the B-spec. version with extra outriggers on the chassis and a strengthening hoop between the A-posts. There were also other detail improvements, including an adjustable steering column. B-spec. and C-spec. cars do not have the 'whiskers' that A-spec. have and some do not have the optional front bumper, so there is very little front protection for these cars.
The C-spec. version, introduced in April 1963, included a trickle charger socket, a heater/demister unit, and a cigarette lighter as standard equipment.
The DP250 was a sports saloon based on the SP250's chassis. A DP250, built on chassis no. 100571, was exhibited in 1959 at Hooper's stand during the coachbuilder's last appearance at the Earls Court Motor Show.
Daimler had prepared a sales brochure for the DP250, but it did not enter production. Between two and seven prototypes were made. The show car had a steel body, but some of the prototypes may have been made from fibreglass.
After Jaguar Cars bought the Daimler Company from BSA, William Lyons ordered a fibreglass-bodied DP250 prototype to be completed. Upon seeing the finished car he had it scrapped immediately and ended the project. None of the prototypes survive; the show car is believed to have been destroyed while being tested at MIRA.
Ogle Design produced a coupé version called the SX250. It was shown at the 1962 Earls Court Motor Show, but it was not taken up by Daimler and the body design was later used for the Reliant Scimitar.
A car with hard top tested by The Motor magazine in 1960 had a top speed of 123.7 mph (199.1 km/h) and accelerated from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 8.9 seconds. A fuel consumption of 25 miles per imperial gallon (11 L/100 km; 21 mpg‑US) was recorded. The test car cost £1,489 including taxes.
2,654 SP250s were produced in five years of production, far short of the projection of 3,000 per year by the second year of production.
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