Daimler - Daimler SP250 Dart
Immediately following the unveiling of the new Daimler Dart at the 1959 New York show, Daimler had to change the name of their car to it's prototype code name of SP250. This was because the Dart name had been Trademarked by Dodge. This Daimler SP250, or Dart, had the lovely new 2.5 litre V8 designed by Edward Turner giving a useful 140bhp at 5,800 which, when you consider the BMW V8 all alloy 3.2 litre engine of the time, was a very impressive result! With disc brakes to all 4 wheels, the SP250 Dart had a glass fibre body fitted on a conventional ladder steel chassis which was said to be loosely based on a TR2, and it could reprtedly flex enough in use to sometimes allow the doors to open! When Jaguar purchased Daimler from its parent company BSA, they inherited the Daimler SP250 so production continued under Jaguars ownership while they sorted out the chassis flex issue as well as making some improvements such as adjustable steering column. These later Daimler Dart models are known as the "B Specification" cars. I can imagine William Lyons may have had issues with the styling at the front end in particular, because the optional extra bumpers were no longer on offer. Production of the Daimler SP250 Dart ran to 1964.
This smaller of Edward Turners V8 engines, as built for the SP250, was also utilised in the Jaguar Mk2, making the Daimler 2 1/2 litre V8 model.
Tyre size for the Daimler Dart / Daimler SP250 - the SP250 was specified at the factory with 5.90x15 tyres and also later 165R15 - the 165R15 being in any case the radial equivalent of 5.90x15. However, most Daimler SP250 / Dart owners ask for the wider version 185/70VR15 tyres, as well as the full 80 profile 185VR15 tyres, so we list all three of these high speed rated steel belted correct period trad pattern tyres - details below. But our Blockley 165VR15 is the original tyre size, although we have yet to see a car running on this size! So far we would say that 99% of customers ordering bttyres for the SP250 / Dart have fitted the 185VR15 tyre size.
