1931 Daimler Double Six Coupe
Now here’s a car to drool over. A seven-foot long hood and a cozy four-seat cab sit within its 150″ wheelbase and eighteen foot overall length. A seven liter, sleeve valve, V12 engine (hence, the double six), generating a reported 150 hp, lies underneath. The sleeve valve engine was noted for its high revving ability, but also for its unfortunate penchant to create a significant exhaust cloud as a by-product of the sleeve valve design.
In 1929 a custom underslung chassis designed by Reid Railton at Thompson & Taylor was commissioned by Daimler chief designer Cyril Simpson. Cyril Simpson, chief designer at Daimler, had directed Railton to produce a “low-slung touring car” using “mainly existing standard components” of the company’s standard Double Six, a chauffeur driven car. Daimler was a direct and formidable competitor to Rolls Royce, and the Double Six was their flagship.
It was first bodied in 1929 in a drophead coupe style. Some sources attribute its first bodywork to Thrupp & Maberly, but Ralph Beauchamp, who worked on the car’s design, claims it was Gurney Nutting. It turned out this car had three owners in quick succession. Why the original owner, a Captain Wilson, parted with the car isn’t clear. The second owner immediately commissioned a different fixed-head body to the car, only to turn the vehicle on its side in a ditch trying to avoid a careless Austin driver who had pulled out from a side road. His wife henceforth refused to ride in the car, so the car, not the wife, moved on.
Repairing the car subsequently gave way to it being outfitted with this beautiful Corsica body. Corsica was an interesting choice, as they were a small firm with no design department, meaning this body was conceived and fabricated entirely by artisans. Because the three body styles came in such quick succession, it was long assumed there were three of the underslung Double Sixes. But, alas, that was not the case. This Double Six turned out to be a unique, one-of-a-kind car.
Robert Lee purchased the car in sad condition in 2004 and proceeded to spend a reported five to six million dollars on its restoration. It was originally believed two or three of these underslung Daimler Double Sixes were built, but newer research indicates this to be the only one ever made.
Robert’s investment bore fruit by winning his first Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2006. The pictures you see here are from its Pebble Beach showing in 2021.
The car sits on huge 23-inch wire wheels, in part to keep the underslung chassis from setting the car too low. For those of you wondering, an underslung chassis is one whose frame is mounted below the rear axle and suspension, rather than the normal process of putting the frame on top of the axle. In the days of body-built-on-chassis and frame construction, this means the body sits closer to the ground, as is readily visible here.
That low stance makes this masterpiece of melding body and chassis construction look like a car constantly in motion. The short windshield, the low profile, chop-top style roofline and the long, continuous chrome accentuated waistline further enforce that irresistible feeling of sporting power and speed. Suicide doors add panache. Magneto magazine, issue 31, recently featured this car, inspiring me to sort through my photos from the 2021 Pebble Beach Concours. I wish I had more of this car to show you.
It may be of some interest to note the chassis’s designer, Reid Railton, also used the inspiration from this car to design the Invicta S-Type, another great British car.
Robert passed away in 2016 but his wife, Anne Brockington Lee, continues to curate their automobile collection with the same enthusiasm. I can’t wait to see this car again. Simply a fabulous example of transforming a staid luxury car into a heart-stoppingly beautiful and exciting vehicle.
