When I was 10, our family holiday would see us tramping down from Salford to my auntie's guest house on the south coast at Bournemouth. At the time, my dad had a Daimler 250 v8 that he got cheaply off a family connection. I loved it. I still do. To this day it has the most beautiful engine note of any car I've heard. When I was around 15, as a teacher, he couldn't afford to run it anymore so he traded it in, this beautiful, iconic machine, for a Datsun 120Y. He got £50 for the Daimler. I was gutted.
In 2019 I took the plunge and found one to buy. I went over it with a fine tooth comb. It was perfect - just like dad's in every way, but opalescent blue, rather than grey. Proudly driving it home, the oil pressure took a dive. Big ends worn out. Sake. Tiny big ends on those engines - at 60k miles, apparently, it was recommended they be replaced. Mine had done a well chronicled 64k. Whipped the engine out and took it for new bearings. Then winter hit... then the small matter of a pandemic stopped me enjoying it fir another year or so. Typical.
Anyhoos- once at the south coast my dad's Daimler sat next to my uncle's car. He owned an exhaust business, so he had a jaguar xj6 series 2; another car I have long listed after.
That is until last Saturday when, an hour into my birthday party, without personal inspection, I won one on ebay. It was a reasonable price and less than the total I'd bid. Either way - less than the cost of an average fsmily eurobox that will be worth half of its value next year. A beautiful car, described as solid, 3 prior owners, 20 years spent in a dry, heated garage not bring used, original. Three faults were described, a ding in a bumper, the electric aerial didn't work, nor did the handbrake, for want of a spring that the owner had, but hadn't fitted.
Over the next few days, I'll fill you in on the events as I go to the car, get it home and start addressing the absolute catalogue of bodges that have been inflicted on this beautiful machine and now me also. I'll add that the seller was one of those London City business establishment types, with fragile angry egos behind a thin veneer of civility, who has a passion for old cars, the mechanical ability of Mr Bean and a capacity for bare faced lying that would put Boris Johnson to shame. I saw through every lie, but still wanted the car like a teenager struck in love.
But I have the car, she is beautiful and she's mine!
