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1957 Daimler Majestic

by Ernie Warrender

Just to prove that a car can be removed from long term storage, fiddled with and driven to the garage.....read on.

I knew of the whereabouts of this extremely rare car (app 15 left on the road) and eventually prised it from the hands of a fellow Daimler collecter, mainly due to the fabulous condition of the interior. Driven into warm storage in 1973 (tax disc to prove it) after the brakes failed it was one of those "roundtuit" projects that never was.

I restored the brakes (new discs, caliper rebuilds etc) rebuilt the twin SU's thanks to Burlen fuel services of Salisbury (just like a lady, give them your credit card number and the goodies arrive next day!), replaced 2 steering joints, one exhaust gasket, one tyre and a coil and off to the MOT.

It is almost always inevitable that 45 years of largely servicing free life leaves certain bits bunged up and under performing. The Radiators are a classic example. Almost without exception take it out and send it off to a local Radiator specialist (yellow pages). This one was 50% clogged up and a new core means she runs nice and cool.

These seriously underrated cars were the first production 6 seater to have power discs fitted as standard and could easily top the ton, steer and brake to the same standard and, or but, were so good that, largely unmodified, accepted an extra 100bhp to become the ubiquituos Majestic Major that so p.....ed off Sir William Lyons.

The development of these cars largely mirrored the Bentley of the time with the Majestic representing the last of the post war sixes bored out to 3.8 litres and 147bhp/217lb/ft torque and giving a very smooth performing luxury car vis a vis the S1, and the Major with its raucos, sporty V8 equating (or surpassing) the S2/S3 with their V8 offerings albeit low revving thirsty, american units.

Whats she like on todays roads......... very good. Powerful brakes with a lot of feel, good steering and very firm suspension with the unique Daimler/Andre Girling combination coil and torsion bar ifs and well located rear axle combine to give uncharacteristic confidence building roadholding. No need to leave those large gaps for braking only to see some twonk in a mondeo zip in front. The engine delivers its power smoothly and progressively and is so smooth you strain to hear it at tickover. The superb smoothness of the large counterbalanced 6 even endows the Borg Warner DG 3 speed box with uncharacteristically smooth and silent changes. Fuel disapears at between 20-22 mpg and the cavernous interior is tailor made for the occasional wedding to supplement the income.

Buying one

The chassis never rot on these cars, The spares are reasonably easy to get once you know what you are looking for as they share masses of bits with a lot of other 50's cars and the Land rover!! The interiors are the expensive bit as all those dead cows can add up to a few grand. Mechanics are very strong and unstressed (147bhp from nearly 4 litres is never going to wear out that quick and a gearbox/chassis that took an extra 100bhp comes with a lifetime guarantee) Bodies can get frilly around the lower inch but the metal is thick and paint the lower half in a light colour (NOT black) and even the most amateur repairs go unnoticed.

This car is now for sale to the first £2750 offered and complete with a spares car and copies of all the road tests and original sales brochures and its original log book must represent superb value as nice examples are valued at £7,000 and actually change hands for £6k+. This leave a lot of slack to repaint the body and rechrome the bumpers and a few bits of trim.

Then its off down the M4 frightening the natives.

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