In 1929, Eric's need for a better paid job drew him just five minutes down the road to Sunbeam in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, after seeing the company's advertisement for workers. He was offered a position in the plywood flooring division, of the ash framing and seating department, along with his far more experienced carpenter brother Bob. He worked under the manager of the department Percy Jones, whose family home was in Welshpool. Percy Jones had served an apprenticeship in the seating and leather work department of a carriage company. The company manufactured high quality horse drawn carriages, but he moved on to work with Daimler Motor Company (1904) Ltd in Coventry.
The Daimler Motor Syndicate Ltd, as it was originally called, was formed in 1896 by F. R. Simms to exploit Gottlieb Daimler's motor patents, of the German Daimler Company, (Daimler Motoren-Gelleschaft). The Coventry factory eventually became part of H.J. Lawsons empire. In 1899 to1900, King Edward VI1, while still The Prince of Wales, took delivery of the first Daimler to be in the Royal Family's collection of motors, and started to forge the connection with the reigning house, which included the Royal Double-Six models of the 1920's.
Daimler of Coventry, as good if not better than Rolls-Royce motor cars, had taken over Lanchester Motor Company of Birmingham. Daimler and Lanchester were later taken over by the Birmingham Small Arms Group. The 1905 Daimler 28hp landaulette was the type of car that Percy Jones would have worked on with his seat making and leatherwork covering, (number 1b,.)
Lack of direction in the 1950's brought about the short-stroke Daimler 2.5 litre 'Conquest' saloon and its 100 mph 'Conquest Century' variant. On the Daimler stand at the London Motor Show in 1952, there was Lady Docker's own car, she was the wife of the Chairman of Daimler at the time. It was a 'Conquest' convertible, painted in a beautiful pale blue, with a pigskin hood and seats, white-wall tyres, with a luxurious walnut instrument panel, and all the chrome work was treated with a plating of gold. Connie Morrey (my mother) absolutely fell in love with the car, but we had to drag her away. She kept talking about that gorgeous car for a year. Daimler were feeling the constraints of finance by this time, in 1958 they introduced the 3.8 litre 'Majestic' saloon. A 6 cylinder engine, with automatic transmission was available, as an alternative to their fluid-flywheel gearbox.
In 1959 along came the new 2.5 litre SP 250 sports car, with the Turner-designed V-8 engine, capable of 120 miles per hour, and with the most unusual style which accommodated only two seats. I was, in 1960, working at Cyril Williams Motors Ltd, the dealership for Daimler in Wolverhampton. They were also dealers for Aston Martin and Standard-Triumph. Daimler had been taken over by Jaguar Cars Ltd of Coventry, to relieve the company of then- cash shortage. I was one of six sales assistants employed by Charles Attwood Group, who owned Cyril Williams, and we were taken to Coventry once a fortnight to fetch new Jaguars, Standard Triumphs, and occasionally Daimler cars.
(photo of a Daimler 2.5 litre V8 engine, within its engine bay, number 1c.)
On one such occasion, two of us were dropped off at the Daimler works to collect two of the new SP 250 sports cars. What a peculiarly unusual shape of body that was, but the V8 engine was particularly good and powerful. Rumour has it that the engine designer, Brian Turner, took the idea of the famous Norton motorcycle racing engine, and used a similar design of the piston and cylinder. Bearing in mind that Norton's engine was air cooled, and this engine would have to be water cooled, the design was done so that it would be cast in two blocks of four cylinders, making eight cylinders within the block. The bore and stroke were calculated so that each cylinder would have 312 cc., the eight cylinders making the total of 2.5 litres. We set off from Coventry in our respective Daimler SP 250's, with me in second place, heading for Wolverhampton. By the tune I had covered fifteen miles, just coming into Birmingham, the car was spitting and coughing, so I pulled to the side of the road and stopped. The fuel gauge was showing a quarter full, so I could not imagine what the problem was; but I twisted the fuel filler cap off, it took a lot of twisting, and there was a terrific influx of air into the fuel filler. I had a good look at the filler cap, and it had no air breather built into it. I started on my way again, and by the time I had done another fifteen miles having reached the Wolverhampton end of the Birmingham New Road, the engine had started spitting and coughing again. So I stopped, took off the petrol filling cap, once again letting in the air, and I set off again to finish the journey. I pulled in to the garage at Wolverhampton, and parked immediately behind the other SP 250, and went into the Service Managers office, only to hear the tale end of my colleague's story of woe about his return journey. It was exactly the same as mine.
The Daimler company was taken over in 1960 by Jaguar Cars Ltd. Shortly afterwards the expanding company of Jaguar took over Guy Motors Ltd of Wolverhampton, and the proprietary-engine firms of Coventry Climax Ltd of Coventry and Henry Meadows Ltd of Wolverhampton. Quite a group of company's.
What a perfect engine that Brian Turner V8 design was. In fact it was better than the old 2.4 litre Jaguar engine. A Mkl 1 Jaguar body was supplied to Daimler, in which they placed their V8 engine from the SP 250. It was announced in 1963, and sold much better than the SP 250.