This is a very early article. Near the end, it lists the UK dealers appointed as limousine distributors in the UK:
Stratstone (London), Kennings (Manchester), Henleys Western (Bristol), Central Garage (Bradford), Reeve and Stedeford (Birmingham), Rossleigh (Edinburgh), and Thompson-Reid (Belfast).
Elsewhere on this web site we show a 1988 dealer list, which has only one of these names left after 20 years.

The "books" section of this web site shows the book Daimler Digest by Daniel Young. This book is a compilation of articles, road tests etc., including this article from Autocar.

The Autocar magazine was famous for its cutaway drawings. These drawings have been republished separately in various ways. One of these can be seen on the page with various technical illustrations of this web site.

Every technical writer mentions the fact that the DS420 was built with many steel pressings taken from the Jaguar 420G, most notably the bottom plate to which only an extra section was added.
This article is my only piece of documentation which has this 420G heritage in picture.

Car MDU808F, shown in the previous article and in this one, was the second car from the production line, and was used as a Company Car within Jaguar. More on this car is on the "Press Photographs" page.

Note that the picture is taken during the same photo session as the one in the article Sweet Luxury for Eight below (compare the trees in the background). There are more photographs from that session on this web site, e.g. on the press photographs page, and on the earliest page with sales brochures. This article is mainly based on the introductory press release.

The American Road & Track magazine devoted this small article to the introduction of the Daimler Limousine. This is remarkable, since the initial cars were not up to US specs, and thus could not be sold on the US market. This article is mainly based on the introductory press release.

The Australian Wheels magazine published this article when the Commonwealth government had bought five limousines for Queen Elizabeth's visit to Australia in 1970.

Most of the article is a description of "standard" details of a DS420 limo. Little is said about the specific cars of this special purchase batch. But the author has probably not been close to the real cars: according to his article the chauffeur of these 1969 models enjoys the comfort of a "fully-adjustable driving seat".

The article mentions that the passengers in the rear compartment have "fluorescent lighting": a rare option consisting of two small "camping-style" fluorescent lamps fitted above the division window.

This article describes how armour plating was added to DS420 cars, "as a result of customer enquiries".

The pictures show a left hand drive limo, with the pre-1972 rear bench arm rest shape. During the first two years after the introduction of the DS420, the British Ministry of Defence bought almost 10 left hand drive cars, which was half the total LHD production. Their very first LHD was car no. 1M20005, in October 1969, for the Military Governor of Berlin. So, in all probability, the Ministry of Defence was "the customer" as referred to in this article.

Photocopy contributed by Bryan Peebles, archivist of the VandenPlas Owners' Club.

Sweet Luxury for Eight
A remarkable Daimler for the man who wants a limousine
Robert Glenton
Sunday Express, 11th January 1970

This article comes with a large photo, which is "identical" to one that appeared in a 1970 sales brochure. However, this one is unretouched, which reveals a nice insight in how a car photo was "beautified" for sales purposes. Click here for a "spot the differences" experience.

This article is from an internal publication for British Leyland employees. It describes a limousine equipped with an exceptionally rich interior, which included (probably) the very first cocktail cabinet for the DS420. Brian Smith's "Daimler Days" book shows this cocktail cabinet photo on pg. 877.

The license number 1CGO identifies this car as vehicle 1M1655, produced in fall 1970. The articles mentions that is was built for the Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (renamed Zaire in 1971) in London.

Photocopy contributed by Bryan Peebles, archivist of the VandenPlas Owners' Club.

This article shows a picture taken at the same location
as a picture in a 1972 sales brochure (car EWK1L,
which was a September 1972 car registered for Jaguar Cars Ltd).

This article describes production of three luxury car lines at the Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury, N. London. Specific coverage of the DS420 is limited to the text on the last page.
A few press photos exist showing the same collection (but with VandenPlas 1300 changed to 1500).

An interesting photograph is on page 3: the insertion of a bullet-proof shield in the door of a limousine.

This article gives a rare insight into the VandenPlas factory and its workers, including the man who made the first generation of cocktail cabinets!

The "British Leyland Mirror" magazine was published for the employees of the British Leyland Motor Corp. The article mentions the price of the Limousine to be £6400,-, which was the case between August 1973 and February 1974. It also mentions that the VdP 1300 was "soon to be replaced" by a 1500 model, which happened in September 1974.

Photocopy contributed by Bryan Peebles, archivist of the VandenPlas Owners' Club.

This 1/3 page article describes the two factory built landaulette cars; one for the Governor of Jamaica (photo), and the other "for use in Africa". They cost GB£15,000.- (est.). A standard limousine was £6900.- In the same magazine a Rolls Royce Corniche was listed for £15,000.- and the cheapest Ford Escort for £994.-

This web site has an entire page devoted to the landaulette pictured in this article, also showing the text of the Daimler press release where the text of this article was taken from.

The article features car SHP292N. This was a 1974 car, property of Jaguar Inc, and in their books described as Royal Household Demonstrator. The same car (with the same remarks) was used for an extensive Dutch language magazine article.

These two articles appeared after Daimler distributed a Press Release, in which the introduction of a "Group Assembly Technique" was described. Press photos C345 and DA1286 that came with it can be seen in more detail on our "Press photographs" page.

The 1984 "Executive Limousine", nicknamed "the office car", was a good publicity generator. Here is the first of several articles on this well equipped car.
Note that there is an entire web site page devoted to it.

Keeping in with the Old Lady
Roger Bell
Car, February 1984

This article has many interesting details, directly from Mr. Keith Cambage, the manager in charge of the limousine operations. Quality, inflation and price are discussed in an exceptionally open way. The car features limousine 1PMG. This stands for Patrick Motor Group which was the parent company of Birmingham's Daimler distributor Reeve&Stedeford.

Note that, near the end, the author mentions a demonstration video on the Office Car limo. Has anybody ever seen it? The photographs in the German "Zeit ist Geld" article may be related to this video.

An article with stories and photographs of car A930KHP (the "office car") and of the production at the limousine shop at Browns Lane.