Tunnels and ... Daimlers

Today's little Sunday drive was a jaunt to Yarra Glen, Yea and the Cheviot Tunnel.

The keen-eyed may note that the white car to the left isn't a Daimler, it's a Jaguar 240. (You may now play spot-the-difference.) It belongs to David and Aimee, who are friends of our friend Ann (keeping up?). David has only just bought his Jag (partly from his winnings from a 30-minute appearance on a TV gameshow!) and aside from a small issue of getting up hills (likely to be due to some fuel pump &/or distributor problems) I think he enjoyed tagging along with a bunch of Daimlers on a mad 150-mile jaunt!


Ian and Joyce's SP-250 heading toward the maw of the Cheviot tunnel ... it's an impressive all-brick tunnel, built in the late 19th century for the railway that serviced the growing pastoral and logging industries in the area. Actually, the scene reminds me of one of the classic Heidlberg School paintings ... is it a Tom Roberts? ... of a the entrance to a mine. I won't claim to be any great shakes with a camera, but this shot captures the colours of a hot Australian summer day in the bush ... set off nicely by the British Racing Green sportscar, of course!















Marilyn and Dennis in Marilyn's SP half way through the tunnel. Needless to say, the SPs sounded fabulous in the confined space!

Misty mountain hop

July's monthly DLCV Sunday run took us into the Yarra Ranges north-east of Melbourne. It was a cold, foggy, drizzly day... and as we climbed higher into the mountains toward the Upper Yarra Reservoir, it was like driving straight into the clouds. The picture shows Michael's V8-250 and Marilyn's SP250 at the top of the climb.

The reservoir had benefited from the recent rain, but was still well under capacity.

An escape from the cold and damp was promised at the Reefton Hotel, an old pub that was built to serve the lumberjacks who would cut down trees, have some lunch, etc, etc in what must have been incredibly rough and remote country way back when.

Having missed the start of the run, Keith Vaughan raced to the meeting point in his 1948 Special Sports, then promptly raced back down again when the word 'lunch' was mentioned!

You make me dizzy

It seems like ages since I've updated - actually, it is: over two months. In that time Dame Zara has been behaving nicely (on the whole - see below), and we're now showing (1)59,910 or so on the odometer, meaning that we've covered over 8200 miles since February 2006.

Another nice day in the country

A few weekends ago we joined the monthly DLCV Sunday run and headed off with a strong contingent of cars (nine Daimlers, including Keith Ashworth's rare Regency Sportsman, in the centre of the lower pic) into central Victoria to visit experienced restorer Roy Shelton, who's currently working on a 1930s Daimler 15. It looks like a massive job, but Roy's well on the way and is confident he'll have the 15 back on the road before to long - to join his nice blue Daimler V8 saloon, Ford Model T, Delahaye (or was it a Darracq?) and 1931 Chev ...

Dizzy spells

It's well and truly winter now, and I'd been noticing that Dame Zara was a bit reluctant to start from cold, needed the choke on for longer and had a tendency to miss, hesitate and 'chug' a bit under load until she was warmed up.

Poking around under the bonnet, I thought to check the distributor and found that the central brush of the dizzy cap was completely worn down and had no spring left whatsoever. Whether or not that's the cause of the problems (and I suspect it might be), it needed sorting out and I thought I might as well track down a spare cap, even if mine is repairable.

The distributor used on the Daimler V8s (Lucas 20D8) is shared only with the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and its Bentley equivalents, so spares are rare and expensive. Luckily, a bit of ringing around found me a complete spare distributor for the price some places are asking for a repro cap! So I pootled out to darkest Ringwood this morning and picked it up from Jag Prestige Spares. A quick clean-up of the contacts and I put the 'new' cap on, and even though all I've done is a quick test-blast around the park, she seems to start more easily, idle smoother and pull better.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the spare distributor - perhaps I should get it set up with an electronic ignition system, and keep the original one with points for 'best'? Anyways, I've got it now and it can be raided for bits if needed - the vacuum advance widget on mine is very dodgy (it's held in place - poorly - with a short woodscrew!), and the one of the spare is perfect, so that's one thing I might swap over when I get the chance.

Keeping the green goo in

Ever since I bought Dame Zara she's lost coolant. I've tried both 4lb and 7lb radiator caps, fitted all new hoses, and had some weepy core plugs replaced, but still I have to top up the radiator on a regular basis. I've long thought of fitting an overflow container, but never got around to it. Then, a clever SP250 owner posting on the Daimler Forum said that he uses a cyclist's water bottle - cheap (mine was $8 at Big W) and easy. For the moment it's just held on with cable ties around the radiator drain lever, but if it proves successful, it came with a bracket that will be easy enough to fit.

I've been to Smeaton ... have you?

Daimler custodianship has certainly taken me to some interesting places—terrifying credit card debt, for one, after paying Ralph the suspension doctor’s bill the other day … But on a more positive note, now that finally I have Dame Zara back, she and I and Kathy joined a goodly number of our DLCV buddies for a little Sunday pootle out towards Ballarat to the historic Anderson’s Mill, near the charmingly named hamlet of Smeaton.

Anderson’s Mill is a handsome and substantial building dating from the early 1860s, and is centred on a very impressive (and still functional) cast iron water-wheel.













Arrayed in front of it is the Coventry-built portion of our touring party: (from left to right) three 2.5 litre V8s, three V8-250s, a Conquest Century, a Consort, a DB18-based special, XJ6 SII Sovereign and early SP250.

A very successful Display Day - even without Dame Zara

So, the Daimler Display Day I'd been doing so much work helping to organise went off pretty much without a hitch on Sunday. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but not too hot (even though I did get a very sunburnt neck!)

We had over 40 Daimler and Lanchester cars, and about a dozen 'visitors' (including a good showing of Rovers, a Triumph Dolomite Sprint, a Wolseley 6/110, V12 E-type, lovely late 60s Mercedes convertible, 1924 Buick, MG TC special ...) . There were also plenty of general public visitors wandering by, so I'd say well over 100 people attended.

Among the very special Daimlers were a 1936 Straight-eight limo with Edward VIII lineage; two DS-420s from the Carwood wedding fleet; the 2nd prototype Special Sports, owned by Keith Vaughan (bottom picture); an Empress; and a Conquest Roadster. There were also about 10 SP-250s, a strong turnout of V8 saloons, plenty of DB18 varieties and a fine smattering of Majestics, Majestic Majors and Regencies (well, at least one of each, and two Majors - that's a big showing for these big and now rare cars!)

Richard Bowen's Conquest Roadster (driven on the day by Tony Porter as Richard couldn't make it) won the People's Choice award (top picture); a recently restored pre-war Lanchester was Ladies' Choice and the DB18 register took out the Best Registry Display prize (abve, showing Peter Towns' Empress and Russ Monger's Consort).

Just a few photos here - but I've put the full album up on my Flickr account and Steven Rowlandson has posted his pictures here.

Daimler (and Lanchester!) Display Day, 18 March

Come one, come all!

Jag display day

Five DLCV members accepted the kind invitation of the Victorian Jaguar Club to attend their annual Display Day, held in the grounds of Wesley College just off St Kilda Road.

Long-time DLCV member Keith Ashworth has an amazing collection - today he chose to come in his Regency Sportsman: the only example of this rare model in Australia, as far as he's aware.


There were a number of Daimlers among the Jags - this 420 Sovereign caught my eye.


Dame Zara had had a good wash and polish, and sparkled in the sunlight.