Daimler addiction: my fourth, Regency red with magnolia upholstery [page 2]
I have read so much interesting and indispenable comments here [i.e., on the XJ40 forum were this text was first published], I feel it now is my turn to show you my recently acquired Daimler. So here it is. I have to admit it is my fourth Daimler. It is quite a long and illustrated story, so take your time and enjoy. Any comments are welcome! I know several issues have been discussed in threads over here, but I did not want to mix it with this story, which only states the condition in which I found the car. I did not even clean it! But let me start with an introduction on my other Daimlers.
A short history …
I used to love the Rover SD1, the 3500 Vanden Plas of course. I do still have my original 1987 car, but it is not driveable any more. When I had driven 240,000 km with the Rover, it became a little complicated to keep running it. It has 383,000 km on the clock and a head gasket failure and some other things I forgot now. I just cannot throw it away.
At the time the Rover SD1 still ran, I decided to go for an addition of the stable: a Jaguar. An XJ40, being the most beautiful to my taste, outside and inside. A Daimler, being the most luxurious and most beautifully finished, at the same money as a standard XJ6 or Sovereign (I profit from the unawarity of most XJ6/Sovereign buyers). And … I went for the V12 engined Daimler because it is the top of the top and within reach to own (I do not say drive) for reasonable money. In 2008, I bought one in Switzerland by taking the night train to Geneva, meet the seller, inspect the car, doing the Customs stuff to import it into the EU and drive it home. This Daimler Double Six is westminster blue and has a great cream interior. It has now 88,000 km on the clock.
Most of the time, it is in the shed because it is too nice and too expensive to drive often. Although I have to renew the MOT, it would drive immediately, now I have replaced the battery. It is under SORN now (Statutory Off Road Notification, Dutch: geschorst), as most of my cars: I try to own all my great cars maybe not for as little money as possible, but at least within a reasonable budget.
In the meantime I had another Rover SD1 to use as a daily driver. But I sold it (long story) and bought a second Daimler. Why not? It is the famous morocco red Daimler 4.0 Insignia (Insignia prototype or first production car, discussed in the Insignia thread on the XJ40 forum) . I liked the morocco red paint, the red carpets and it being a rather unique Insignia with its incredible extensive leather upholstery, although in fact I do not like grey as an upholstery colour and the quality of the veneer of this car. It is a good car in general but has some serious rust problems on difficult-to-cure spots. It has 304,000 km on the clock now.
Every single piece of grey in this picture is actually made of leather! Yes, everything!
I started to look around for Daimler quality burr walnut veneer and a tow bar and was surprised to find a complete Daimler Double Six at a car company not far away, selling cheap cars or the parts of it after breaking. It looked like this when I visited it.
After I paid for the veneer panels and the tow bar (and came to the conclusion that I did not get all parts necessary to install the tow bar), I realised that with another buy I would have paid what I possibly could have the whole car for. So I bought it – and I did not get discount because I already paid for those parts, that's the way it works. This brooklands green Double Six with parchment interior is in fact way too good to use as a parts supplier. It was owned for less than a year by a boy who seems to have driven it almost as a banger and cut the VIN out and removed the Daimler badges because he wanted to use the license of a Jaguar V12 from 1978 … The engine starts instantly but the gearbox only likes to move the car very slowly if revved to 4000+. Any ideas what's wrong? I bought it without wheels (these Kiwi's were sold in the meantime), so I looked for cheap ones and found a set of Roulette's, but without the alloy hub caps (anyone has them for me?).
So, three Daimlers. That's already more than I can handle, store, repair and drive (do not let my wife read this). But when looking at Marktplaats, the Dutch cousin of eBay, to fulfill my addiction, I came across an at first sight very nice Regency red Daimler 4 litre from 1992 with apparently a magnolia interiour with cherry red piping. It was a pre-MY1993-car and I decided that there was no reason to break my own law to restrict myself to 1993 and 1994 cars – my brain can only handle a limited amount of complexity. I had already spotted a Daimler Double Six in the great colour scheme of Kingfisher blue paint and magnolia leather, it was for sale for a year or so and the price had dropped from € 3,950 to € 2,495. In the Dutch market, that is really cheap. And it was described as a very good car with almost no rust at all.
But why buy a DD6?! I could drive it daily but the fuel consumption of the 6.0 litre V12 prohibits that. After a work meeting I rewarded myself with a nice trip and planned to go to the kingfisher DD6, just to look, research, inspect and image it. 'Aaien', as my wife calls it in Dutch, 'stroke' says the dictionary although that does not sound too tender into my Dutch ears. I phoned and it turned out to have been sold just that morning (by the way, it immediately was offered for sale again, at € 3,250). So that solved my problem. Then I decided to head to another Daimler, the Regency red one and … bought it!
Next page: Buying the 1992 Regency red Daimler 4.0 and driving it home; its history
Overview: Introduction to my fourth Daimler
Page published on xj40.com January 2014, published on my website February 2016
Kind regards,
Rens Swart