Daimler Conquest
Bought and restored in the UK. Owned and driven in Gibraltar.
W hen he acquired the car you see here, the last thing Tony Collado expected to be driving was a 1950s Daimler. He had in fact been thinking about buying a Rover P4 ‘Cyclops’ and eventually had found one for sale in Yorkshire. By the time Tony phoned to confirm his interest, it had been sold but the dealer mentioned that he had a Daimler Conquest Century for sale, so Tony asked to see some photos of the car.
The Daimler appeared to be in pretty good shape and a deal was done involving part-exchanging the Ford Thames lorry that Tony had restored plus his 1970 Mercedes 280SE.
Living in Gibraltar, there were nagging doubts going through Tony’s mind as to whether or not he was doing the right thing. For one thing, Tony had never owned a right-hand drive car before. Furthermore, a Daimler Conquest Century is a pretty rare beast in that part of the world and he was certainly concerned that there could be big problems finding spares as there was likely to be a considerable lack of expert knowledge locally.
Perhaps a Conquest might not be the wisest car for Tony to buy, but after due consideration, he made up his mind to take the plunge and was determined not to let any of those thoughts deter him. However, to be on the safe side, he arranged with the dealer
to have the Daimler checked over thoroughly and put through an MoT before leaving the UK. He also paid for a full body repaint so that he could be sure that there would be nothing further needed to do to the car except take it out on the road and enjoy driving it.
“There was also a good history folder with the Daimler,” says Tony. “So once I was assured all was well mechanically and that the paintwork would be done, I felt a lot more comfortable. I was being very trusting!”
Waiting for the Daimler to arrive from the UK seemed to take an eternity, but when it finally arrived, it looked magnificent and so very elegant. According to the history file, over the previous 1000 miles before Tony purchased the car, it had received a new battery, five new tyres, kingpins fitted with new bushes, new front balljoints and track rods plus a new wiring loom modified with extra fuses.
All the brake slave cylinders had been replaced, a new fuel gauge and sender unit had been fitted, as well as a refurbished temperature gauge. The steering column had been rebuilt and the dashboard was refurbished with new veneer. In the interests of safety, indicator flashers were fitted front, side and rear, and a switch installed behind the dash on the bulkhead, just behind the light switch, to operate the original semaphore indicators if desired.
A very useful and ingenious upgrade fitted is the intermittent wipe relay for the windscreen wipers operated by an unobtrusive switch below the dash to the right of the steering column.
Feeling rather proud of his new gentleman’s conveyance, Tony climbed aboard and started it up for the short drive of a mile or so home. Once on his way, Tony was rather concerned to discover that the car was running very badly. It was well down on power and coughed and spluttered all the way home.
He was not expecting to have to get his hands dirty before he started. Fortunately, things turned out not to be as bad as first feared and probably a result of its long trip by boat.
“Basically the carburettor settings were all over the place,” explains Tony. “Once that was sorted and we gave it a decent tune-up, the car ran perfectly.”
Soon after Tony started using the Daimler regularly, he began experiencing difficulties selecting gears. Eventually he was only being able to get second, third and on rare occasions, reverse! Getting under the car again, he discovered that the problem was simply due to the gearbox mounting failing. Having joined the Daimler Enthusiasts’ Club, he knew just where to go for the new mounting. “I called John Nash at the DEC,” he explained. “John seems to be able to find almost anything for the Daimler; both he and the club have been amazingly helpful. Once that mounting was changed all the gears suddenly became obtainable.
“Whilst under the car however, I realised that it had developed several minor oil leaks, including one from the sump gasket, so that was addressed at the same time. I also replaced the rocker cover gasket around that time.”
Having cured the oil leaks, however, one of the core plugs began leaking, so that was removed and replaced with a new one. After that the water pump began leaking, so that was removed and rebuilt locally. More recently, Tony has been working on repairs to the exhaust system as the rear silencer has been leaking and there was some corrosion to the pipework.
Since this needed to be dealt with in time for the MoT, Tony opted to repair the current system. It appeared that the interior of the silencers were still in good order, So he cut away the rusty metal skin, welded in new metal and replaced the pipework where necessary in the
same way. In the long term however, the plan is to replace the whole system with a new one, which Tony hopes to get hold of once again through John Nash at the Daimler Enthusiasts’ Club.
“I would venture to say that John is the world expert on these classic Daimlers,” says Tony. “It seems he knows just about everything there is to know about them as well as how to go about repairing them. If there is an elusive spare that I cannot get hold of, I know that so long as it exists, John will know where to find it. He must be the best asset the classic Daimler world has.”
The front seats have been retrimmed, while new carpets and a new headlining have also spruced up the interior. Although the wood veneer trim on the door interiors has been replaced, the new veneer is beginning to show signs of surface cracking so it looks like that will have to be redone in the near future.
When the car was repainted, a new front screen seal was fitted and for some reason it proved very difficult to refit its chrome trim. Tony has the original chrome trim and rubber so that is just another job that will have to be dealt with sometime in the future.
“There’s still work to do to the car,” says Tony. “But I have to admit that I would never have imagined that I would be enjoying owning and driving it as much as I have.” The Conquest Century is simply beautiful to drive and just so elegant to look at. In everyday use, she is easily capable of keeping up with modern traffic and on the more quiet country roads cruises along in serene comfort.
Tony often joins the outings and rallies regularly arranged by the Gibraltar Classic Vehicle Association and drives across the border into Spain where the Daimler gets an amazing amount of attention. People seem to be drawn to the Daimler like bees around a honey pot and always want to talk to Tony about his car. “One chap offered me a straight swap for an ’80s Bentley in perfect order,” laughs Tony. “But I wasn’t tempted!”
The Conquest The Daimler Conquest was built between 1953 and 1958 and replaced the earlier Consort, the chassis of which evolved from the Lanchester 14, Lanchester being owned by the Daimler Motor co. The Conquest Century MkII was in fact available with either a pre-selector gearbox or an Borg-Warner DG automatic box. I suppose it would be true to say that the automatic box pretty much made the preselector system obsolete.
That might be so, but I recall the first time I drove a car with a pre-selector gearbox, how impressed I was with that system; today, my opinion still remains unaltered.
Tony’s Daimler starts instantly
and the 2.5-litre straight six ticks over smoothly and quietly. Instead of manually selecting gears or, in the case of an automatic, moving the gear selector into D for Drive, with the pre-selector gearbox one selects ratios via the quadrant conveniently mounted on the steering column.
To begin with you simply move the lever into position ‘1’, then, when you are ready to move off, you press down on the clutch pedal and bring up the pedal to engage first gear. Once on the move you immediately select second. Once you reach the speed at which you feel you should be in second gear, you then press down on the clutch and bring it up once again to engage the gear as before. Again, you then select the next ratio required and then top, engaging when ready. Once you get your head around the system, it is not at all complicated and is a most relaxing system to use.
The Conquest’s chassis is lubricated automatically from oil held in a reservoir under the bonnet. Engine heat expands the oil and delivers it to 21 points on the chassis. Although compared to modern machinery, the car certainly rolls on corners, the roadholding is rather good. At sensible speeds there is no hint of the rear about to break away and the ride is exceptionally good. Bearing in mind that the Daimler engine is only 2433cc, for a sizeable luxury saloon the Conquest is surprisingly lively once on the move. Tony relined the front brakes soon after he got the car and obviously did a first-class job, because on the road the hydraulically operated front brakes and mechanically operated rear brake system seems to work excellently.
The Century MkII had the benefit of four inches of extra legroom so there is plenty of space in the car front and rear. The comfort of the leather interior, combined with the wood veneer door furniture and dashboard exude an atmosphere of ’50s opulence and upmarket luxury.
Cruising at around 60mph or so seems to suit the car well, and with a top speed of 90mph it’s quite capable of keeping up with modern traffic. A Daimler Conquest may not be the most economical car to run, but for a classic car of this pedigree, an average of 20mpg is well worth putting up with in return for owning a gentleman’s conveyance of this calibre.