Daimler SP250 (Dart) History

Unveiled at the 1959 New York Motor Show as the 'Daimler Dart', the car had to be hastily renamed when Chrysler's Dodge division — which owned the 'Dart' trademark — threatened legal action; Daimler adopted its project number, SP250, as the production name. It was a glass-fibre-bodied two-seat open sports car, an unusual departure for a maker known for stately saloons.

Its strength was the engine: a 2.5-litre (2,548 cc) hemispherical-head V8 designed by motorcycle engineer Edward Turner, producing about 140 bhp and giving the light car strong performance. The chassis, derived from the Triumph TR3, was prone to flexing, and about 26–30 examples served with London's Metropolitan Police as traffic-pursuit cars.

Jaguar bought Daimler in 1960 and chose not to develop a planned replacement (the SP252), instead using Turner's V8 in saloon form. Only about 2,654 SP250s were built across five years, making surviving cars sought-after today.