Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Daimler SP250 Dart

The Daimler 2.5L V8 is a superb engine designed by the motorcycle engineer Edward Turner. Very much underrated and very tuneable.
The SP250 or Dart is and oddity which in the past I have been tempted to own one and then I’ve looked at them and had second thoughts.

Me too. Very nearly bought one many years ago but came over all weedy about the fibreglass issues. Silly really, should have bought it. Lovely engine and values have escalated wildly too.
Nick

I could live happily with this one too - a next door neighbour had one of these a few years back when I had the Scimitar and I longed for another V8 when I heard his purring along V6's are just not the same I found out. I was still mourning having to leave my Holden Monaro behind in South Africa at the end of my contract out there hindsight tells me I should have shipped it back.


A lot better value with the same soundtrack : - 250 V8 saloon

This looks like a good car for beer money - I wouldn't get a 4th car past higher authority though...

Daimler Dart, ugly yet desirable at the same time - I love these

Must admit to having a soft spot for the D Dart

I quite like the styling

This is one of my specialist subjects. The reason being that there were 2 Morgan +4s that were fitted with that Daimler V8 engines.

The first was XRX 1 which of course is one of the original Lawrence cars from the 60s. The V8 engine was installed when it was in the ownership of Basil Fielding. His team had the cut the frame front at the top in order to mount the engine as far forward as possible in order to clear the steering column, and there were large scallops taken from the valences in order to clear the cylinder heads. It went well but was never as fast as the best of the TR engined cars at the top end BUT it produced loads of torque low down which gave it a real advantage out of slow corners like the hairpin at Mallory. It was later taken to S Africa by James Henderson, and it was sold to Steve Spencer on his return. All this while it was Daimler V8 engined.
However when the Kremer Brothers acquired the car in the 2000s they found it was ineligible for any FIA Historic events so BHM re-engined it back to a TR based power unit. It still competes today in the guise.

The other +4 with the same engine was a +4 that I owned in the early 70s. It was originally registered MGY 701 , and was actually a 1950s flat rad. When I bought it is was converted to a cowled car with fibreglass wings , ultra-light one piece bonnet, doors and some very crude bucket seats. It was campaigned on the hills in Cornwall and Devon in the early 70s. The engine installation was to put it mildly , very crude. The whole unit was canted over to the left in order the clear the steering column. As the HD6 carbs had fixed float chambers this meant one bank ran rich , while the other was lean. Perhaps as a result of this the engine was very worn and the oil consumption was measured in gallons not pints. After trying hard and learning race craft in it I eventually threw in the towel and
installed a hot TR4 from John Mac and my lap times fell by at least 5 seconds per lap at most circuits.

OK the 4 cylinder TR4 did not have anything like the sound track , or charisma of the V8, but the results on paper spoke for themselves.
I agree the engine design was great , hemi-headed combustion chambers, nice short stroke , and all alloy to save weight. It really was a work of art, but it needed to be correct , well installed, and some decent exhaust manifolds before it would give the performance to match.

Every day is a school day - thank you very much for that history lesson there on the Daimler V8's fitted to Morgan's fascinating I'd never read nor heard anything about these cars.

+1
Nick

I wrote Tiger I should have wrote SP250 .

That looks rather nice Rich!


Wow, never knew any of that. Thanks for the info. Andy