1957 Daimler Conquest Century MkII saloon  … Sold

Believed low mileage with 5 owners to date. Just emerging from extensive restoration following 40 year lay up. New body panels, new engine rebuild, professionally resprayed, re-chromed, brakes, new exhaust, cooling system, all attended to by enthusiast DLOC member who has spent many thousands and hundreds of hours bringing this car up to a very high standard. Reputedly only 58,000 miles from new. Inside has new carpets, doorcards, woodwork, headlining. New white wall tyres with new hubcaps. The engine and respray alone cost £6,000! Flawless coachwork in Conifer Green with nicely mellowed deep green leather upholstery to tone.

It is hard to imagine that a better example exists.

To arrange viewing, test drive, call/text John on 07909 231414. Car located in Lytham St Annes, Lancs. Transport arranged at £1 pr/mile (one way)

Marque History

The Conquest saloon was released to the public in 1953, as a replacement for the Daimler Consort, but was shorter and lighter, with better performance. The Daimler Conquest was meant to be an affordable Daimler, priced at £1066. (That price may well be linked to the name Conquest) It was pedigree with pace, at a reasonable price. They still had luxurious, well-appointed traditional wood-grain and leather interiors. Actual construction was by another BSA subsidiary, ‘Carbodies’.

The open 2-seater Conquest Roadster was first shown to the public at the Motor Show in 1953, with the tuned engine later known as the Century engine. The Roadster was not available to the public till 1954.

The Daimler Conquest Century, released in 1954 was the best seller of the range with 4818 of them produced. A hundred-horsepower, hence the Century name.

The Conquest Roadster was dropped from production in 1955. The dropheads having outsold them by over 3:1. There followed a new drophead 4-seater and a drophead coupé version of the 2-seater Roadster, introduced at the 1955 Motor Show. This Mark II Conquest Roadster drophead coupé had a sideways-facing single rear seat, making the car a 2- or 3-seater and with wind-up side windows in place of the clip-on side-curtains of the continuing Mark II open 2-seater Conquest Roadster.

In October 1956, Conquest Century buyers were offered the choice of an automatic transmission or the traditional preselector system. Times were changing and preselector gearboxes faded away, as modern automatic transmissions took their place. Currency restrictions had meant that until Borg-Warner built a British plant, automatic transmissions were only available on export cars.