Dart again

Dear Classic American,

I thought that Simon Oldroyd’s contribution to the letters column was a tad forthright, there again he is from Lancashire – I can say that because my dad was from that county! He would do well to heed his own advice about sorting ‘yourselves out’ as the Daimler SP250 was launched as the Dart. I remember it well and it was always known colloquially as the Dart in this country. Daimler launched the Dart in the US at the 1959 New York Motor Show, whereupon the Chrysler Corporation, which owned the trademark ‘Dart’, threatened legal action. Daimler later renamed the car SP250, which was the original project number.

Re the Silverstone Auctions description, the Daimler V8 engine is not the Rover V8. The Daimler engine had a cast iron block and a displacement of 2574cc. The Rover V8 was the all-aluminium (should that be aluminum?) Buick V8 first used in the early Sixties Skylark – I know, I used to work as a design draughtsman and was involved in designing the fitting of an overdrive to that gearbox and well remember the Americanism

‘Top Dead

Center’ moulded on to the rocker covers. The Rover/Buick V8 initially had a displacement of 3528cc.

The Metropolitan Police and several other forces, both here and in Australia and New Zealand, used the cars for speed patrol purposes.

As for John Bates’ comment about featuring pictures of women in your pages, when I see the picture accompanying his letter and some of the others that you include, I begin to wonder how long it will be before some feminist reader complains of the ‘offence’ caused by the magazine’s ‘objectification of women’! Malcolm Hayes Southam Warwickshire

Well Malcolm, thanks for clearing that up, it’s always good to hear from readers who know their stuff and are willing to share it with us and the other readers. As for the model used in the 1965 Buick Wildcat shoot last month… we’ve had nothing but positive

comments!