Lot 507: 1955 Daimler Regency II Saloon

Daimler maintained its long-established position as royalty’s favourite in the immediate post-war years while grabbing headlines in the popular press thanks to a succession of often-outrageous ‘Docker Specials’, usually on the DE36 straight-eight chassis. For the owner-driver though, the Regency/Empress was the Daimler of choice, the latter featuring a body by in-house coachbuilder Hooper & Co. Power unit was a 3.0-litre (later 3.5-litre) overhead-valve six and the transmission Daimler’s traditional fluid flywheel/pre-selector type. Only a relative handful of the 3.0-litre (DF300) cars were made before the model was upgraded with the 3,468cc engine as the Regency II/Empress 11a (DF304 in Daimler nomenclature) in 1954. The DF304 featured revised styling, with enlarged, squarer tail and headlamps set into the wing tops, and was also available in Sportsman saloon guise and with a 4.6-litre engine as an option. 400 Regency II saloons had been made when production ceased in 1957, by which time the high-performance (137bhp) One-O-Four variant had arrived. Fitted with the 3.8-litre engine, the model lived on into the 1960s as the Majestic.
Little is known of this Regency II’s past history, other than the fact that it has been restored at some time, new body panels being fitted and the interior re-trimmed in red leather to an exemplary standard. The vendor advises us that the odometer displays a total of circa 60,000 miles, and that the vehicle does not smoke and runs very smoothly. Handsomely finished in silver over black, and presented in very good condition, it is offered with owner’s handbook, parts manual, MoT to February 2009 and Swansea V5 registration document.