Recent additions / change log of this web site

• January 2025
  • In my role as DS420 registrar of the Daimler and Lanchester Owners' Club I have contributed nearly monthly articles to The Driving Member club magazine. I have now added all 2024 contributions to the "Registrars" page which is part of my "Driving Member" magazine webpage.
• November 2024
  • I came across a beautiful photo of a hearse chassis in production at VandenPlas, and added it to the hearses page.
  • I also found a photo of a paint dip bath, but it is unknown where it was taken. I added it next to the photo of the VandenPlas paint dip bath.
  • From my visit to the office of the National Association of Funeral Directors in Solihull I brought a small article from their magazine about the introduction of the "group assembly" method at Jaguar. The text was based on a factory Press Release, and I added this article to two similar articles on the Magazine Articles (English) 1968-1999 page.
  • Also from the Funeral Director magazine (1969) came a three page article describing a visit to the Alpe&Saunders hearse production facility in Kew. This article was added to the hearses page of this website.
  • And the final contribution from the Funeral Director magazine is a collection of individual photos and "Company news" articles, all showing DS420 hearses in their contemporary setting. I made up a separate webpage showing this collection and attached it to the "hearses" page
• October 2024
  • A major update: the last Parts Catalogue on paper dates from 1985, whereas the production of the DS420 continued until 1992. Later Parts Catalogues were only issued on microfiche, with the very last one published in 2000. Recently I found a service to get these microfiches scanned, so I could add the year 2000 version of the Parts Catalogue (publ.RTC9887FAG) to this site. Similarly, I added Parts Catalogue RTC9887FAE (1989) and Parts Catalogue RTC9887FAB (1987).
  • The "National Association of Funeral Directors" in Solihull (UK) very kindly provided access to the bound volumes of their magazine from 1968-1992, which were the production years of the DS420 model. I could take dozens of photographs of advertisements for DS420 hearses and limousines from various hearse coach builders and limousine distributors. I have split them into two categories: (1) DS420 hearse advertisements, which I have added as a photo gallery accessible from the Hearses-page and (2) advertisements from DS420 limousine distributors, which I have added as a photo gallery accessible from the page with Various Sales Illustrations. Almost 80 period advertisements alltogether.
  • Also from the bound volumes of the "Funeral Director" magazine I have a handful of advertisements originating directly from Daimler (Jaguar). Some are even in colour. These were added in-line to the page with Various Sales Illustrations.
  • The free on-line magazine 'Xclusively Jaguar' (July 2024) had an interesting article about the last Queen Mother's limousine, by a Jaguar employee who was involved in the preparation and service of the Royal Daimlers. It was added to the English Language magazine articles page.
  • My collection of DS420 scale models grows with approx. one per year, and is now over 80 items. This year I found two: a black over maroon Specialities International limousine, and a gray MiniMarque43 hearse. Both were added to the scale models page, joining the other models of their brands. In my 25 years of collecting I have assembled a list of brands with their (factory) colour combinations, and as many reference photos as possible from sources such as eBay etc. The 1:18 scale in my collection is far from complete, but my list of 1:43 models "still to go" has only two left.
• June 2024
  • I came across a 2-page article in "The Automobile Engineer" of November 1968, full of technical measurement values, names of component manufacturers, etc. Typical literature for an engineering audience. It was added to the page with English language magazine articles.
  • Sandra Mitchell and Dean Reader, well known hearse historians, provided photos of Alpe&Saunders hearses, which I added to the Hearses page. They also contributed a photo of the construction of the first Woodall Nicholson hearse, which was added to the Hearses page as well. Also to the Hearses page I added a pair of photos of a hearse from an unknown coach builder that came up on eBay many years ago.
  • Dave Philpot sent a photo from 1971, showing car PFS12G owned by Funeral Directors Adam Cramond in Edinburgh. I already had a contemporary photo of this car, so this new one was put next to it on the page with contemporary photographs.
  • I found a photo which was probably taken at an Earls Court Motor Show in the early seventies. It was added to the press photographs page. On my "Contemporary photographs" page I already had another photo which seems to have been taken at the same event. I moved that photo to the press photographs page too.
  • From another collection I received a scan of a Daimler Press Release about the stand at the Earls Court show in October 1970. This was added to the press photographs page. That same collection provided a scan of a Press Release announcing a drive day for journalists at the Silverstone race circuit in October 1971. It was also added to the press photographs page.
  • My good friend Bill Eltringham passed away in 2022. This website has a photo gallery about Bill and his beloved DS420. At many DLOC International Rallies Bill and I were the only DS420 owners among the attendants. His daughters sold the car and I lost track of it. But quite unexpectedly I was contacted by the new owner who lives in the French Pyrenees. He sent a photo of the car at its new home, and I added it to Bill's photo gallery.
  • Around 1984 Jaguar issued a large series of showroom posters showing a model in a "creative" background. One of these posters was for a DS420, and it has been on my page with Various Sales Illustrations since the start of this website in 2001. However, it turned out that a second poster, even larger than the previous one, was printed with the same illustration although in a different cutout. I had never seen that before, but fortunately I was able to buy one. It was added next to the other poster on the Various Sales Illustrations page.
• April 2024
  • I met J.F. Massuelle, who owns a French DS420 with a very special divisionless interior, factory original, and I got permission to make photos for a photo gallery.
  • Also from Mr. Massuelle I received a copy of a 1974 brochure of Hertz/Daimler Hire, and of a 1973 brochure by the French branch of Avis car hire, Both brochures are showing a chauffeur driven DS420 with prices. They were added to the Various sales illustrations page.
  • A Daimler-relevant selection of Jaguar-Daimler Parts Technical Information bulletins from the 1974-1979 period was added to the "Service and Parts Catalogue bulletins" page
  • Also a Daimler-relevant selection of Jaguar Daimler Service Bulletins from the 1979-1983 period was added to the "Service and Parts Catalogue bulletins" page
  • Users of the two DS420 Facebook groups (see my weblinks page) regularly ask where the VIN/chassis number and/or the engine number are located. I have added a description plus photos on the "Production, prices and options" page.
  • Tim Enloe provided a brochure from 2016 by Wilcox Limousines, presenting steel repair panels for the wheel arches and sills of the DS420. I added it to the page with Various technical illustrations.
• February 2024
  • I came across a very interesting series of nine photos made in 1981 in the Limousine Shop at Browns Lane. They are copyrighted, but on my "Production, prices and options" page I have added links to the website of the copyright holder where the photos are shown.
  • I received some 20 photos from the DS420 meeting in Gaydon. They were made by Andrew Taylor. Photos were added to the Gaydon Meeting gallery page (photos 40-60).
  • David Taylor brought his newly acquired "Earls Court 1977" show car to the Gaydon meeting. Plus I got permission to use the photos that he made when he went to London to pick up the car from its 6-year storage. The amount of pictures now is such that I could devote an entire photo gallery to this car.
  • I dug through the Driving Member magazines from 2023, copied all DS420 related items and added them to the Driving Member page and its various "snippet" subpages.
  • With the August 2023 update of this site came an article in French language with an interview of Cliff Ruddell who, as a designer at Jaguar's, worked on a possible successor of the DS420. I have now added an English translations of the two text pages in that article.
  • Georg Dönni from Dönni Classic Car in Switzerland sent an old photo of two very early Woodall Nicholson DS420 hearses that he imported in Switzerland many years ago. I added it to the hearses page.
  • I found a video from the French Television Channel 1 (TF1) showing the Salon Automobile 1986 in Paris, where Jaguar France introduced the DS420 for the French market with 13 seconds of video fame. I already had a press photo from this event available. I added both to the page with contemporary photographs.
  • With the August 2023 "new additions" I announced that a collection of Daimler Service Bulletins from the 1963 to 1972 years had been added to the site. This collection now has been expanded with Service Bulletins from 1972-1979, and Spare Parts bulletins from 1964 and from 1968-1973. Access of all these is via a top level page.

The files for this web site are maintained on a computer at my home. At irregular intervals a batch of new and/or modified files is transported to the computer that serves the domain www.myDS420.info. Minor changes and corrections are not listed. Maintenance to the page "Limo&Wedding Hire Companies" is not recorded.

This web site currently has over 12000 unique pages, generated from over 40000 files (3.01 GiB). The majority consists of the four Service Manuals (1492 pages), five Parts Catalogues (3500 pages) and eight Owner's Handbooks (800 pages). But one of the photo galleries also throws in a lot of weight with some 3000 photos.

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