page_title: Daimler Company
section_title: Owned by Jaguar Cars (1960-1966)
hierarchical_section_title: Daimler Company / Owned by Jaguar Cars (1960-1966)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Daimler DR450 Majestic Major first reg Dec 1967 4561cc
context_page_description: The Daimler Company Limited, prior to 1910 The Daimler Motor Company Limited, was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H. J. Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The company bought the right to the use of the Daimler name simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cannstatt, Germany. After early financial difficulty and a reorganisation of the company in 1904, the Daimler Motor Company was purchased by Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1910, which also made cars under its own name before World War II. In 1933, BSA bought the Lanchester Motor Company and made it a subsidiary of Daimler.
  Daimler was awarded a Royal Warrant to provide cars to the British monarch in 1902; it lost this privilege in the 1950s after being supplanted by Rolls-Royce. Daimler occasionally used alternative technology: the Knight engine which it further developed in the early twentieth century and used from 1909 to 1935, the worm gear final drive fitted from 1909 until after the Second World War, and their patented fluid flywheel used in conjunction with a Wilson preselector gearbox from 1930 to the mid-1950s.
context_section_description: In May 1960, the Daimler business was purchased from BSA by Jaguar Cars for £3.4 million. William Lyons was looking to expand manufacture, wanted the manufacturing facilities and had to decide what to do with the existing Daimler vehicles.
  Jaguar had been refused planning permission for a new factory in the area in which it wanted it to be. Daimler had shrunk to representing just 15% of BSA group turnover in 1959–1960 and BSA wished to dispose of its motoring interests. Jaguar stated publicly that it would continue production of the existing range of Daimler, that it would continue normal research and development for future Daimler products, and that it would expand Daimler markets in Britain and overseas.
  Jaguar put a Daimler 4.5 L V8 in a Mark X and tested it at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA). With an inefficient prototype exhaust, the car went up to 135 mph on MIRA's banked track, faster than the production Mark X.
  Jaguar discontinued the six-cylinder Majestic in 1962 and the SP250 in 1964, but Daimler's core product, the old-fashioned, heavy but fast 4.5 L V8 Majestic Major, was continued throughout Jaguar's independent ownership of Daimler. In 1961 Daimler introduced the DR450, a long-wheelbase limousine version of the Majestic Major. The DR450 also continued in production beyond the end of Jaguar's independent ownership of Daimler. 864 examples of the long-wheelbase DR450 were sold, as opposed to 1180 examples of the Majestic Major saloon.
  The 4.5-litre saloon and limousine were the last Daimlers not designed by Jaguar.
caption: Daimler limousine DR450 1967 example
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