Daimler Majestic 1961

Description:

For a short video of the vehicle running please click here

A letter from the vendor:

“My Daimler Majestic 3.8 Saloon

Model DF318  3794cc. First registered 01/09/1961 Black and grey (original all black).

Straight six cylinder. Dunlop disc brakes and Borg-Warner automatic transmission. Possibly also  power assisted steering as it’s very light.  Original registration number 781 CXU   Changed to 365 HFJ in about 1964. Vehicle identification number: 99732.  Engine number: 92445  Historic Vehicle V5C  BD 6124370   Doc Reg No. 4244 054 6568

The car’s history

My father bought it second hand in 1964 or 1965 (and, rather eccentrically, swapped the original registration number with that of his Morris 1000 Traveller). The car, first delivered on 1st September 1961, had been supplied by Hughes of Beaconsfield to a London businessman living in the town, who had bought it at his wife’s request. But she had then died so he sold the car with only 6,000 miles on the clock. Shortly after my father bought it he had to put in a new speedometer so the present reading of about 61,000 miles is about 6,000 miles too low.

When I learned to drive in the late 1960s, he would very occasionally let me use it and I remember trying to impress various girlfriends with variable degrees of success.  I went to my wedding in it, Labrador in the back, and it was in attendance at my parents’ funerals and our children’s christenings.

Between November 1980 and April 1981 I left the car with Fred Seaward of Buckland Newton Garage, Buckland Newton, Dorset. Fred thoroughly checked and repaired or renewed a number of mechanical and electrical parts, repaired or rebuilt some bodywork and doors, and welded front splash panels, sill plates, etc. He re-sprayed the car with four litres of black and five litres of silver paint.

In July 1995, on the 50^th anniversary of Labour’s 1945 election victory, Downing Street gave me permission to drive to Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, and have an evening picnic in the grounds. Our party consisted of my wife’s mother – Clement Attlee’s daughter – my wife (Clem’s granddaughter) our two young sons and me. We drove in the Daimler. I was asked to send our and the car’s details ahead, but for Granny the trip was a surprise. When we arrived at security at the Chequers entrance gates, one of the police officers asked, “Can you tell me why in 1964 your father changed this car’s registration number?” I couldn’t, but Chequers’ security background checking was impressive. As we were finishing our picnic, a minion appeared and asked if, we’d like to go up to the house for a drink with Mrs Major (John Major’s wife Norma). We did .She was charming, and delighted to show our two boys, among other things, the secret door in the library and Cromwell’s death mask.

I inherited the car when my father died in 1985. Today the car does only about 100-150 miles a year. Although exempt, it last had an MOT at the start of September 2020.  In 2018 I had some brake pipes replaced and in 2020 some flexible fuel hose, cork seals and windscreen washer hose were renewed.  The car runs well but the radio, the water temperature gauge and the direction-indicator cancelling mechanism don’t work. There is some play in the steering but this does not affect safety. Along with the car come various reports and certificates and the original Owner’s Handbook.”