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This page shows happy owners of DS420 Daimlers, together with their cars. See at the bottom of this page if you would like to join.
Please bear in mind that time moves on. All galleries specify the year in which the photos were contributed. But do not assume that the situation (or the people, or the cars) will remain as shown forever. Texts and photos on this part of the site will not be actualized.
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This is my own DS420 (and me): vehicle number 1M2060.
According to its JHT certificate the car was
produced on Dec. 13, 1971. I bought it in 1997.
It is currently registered in The Netherlands as DR-06-17. In our country it is a privilege for classic cars only to have blue license plates. I live in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The first owner of the car was W.Johnson&Son in Southampton (UK), and it was registered in the UK as CBH274K. Then it was owned for many years by Keates Garages in Bradford on Avon (closed in 2006). I am the third owner of this car. |
Don Wright of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA owns two limos, both LHD. Don is well known as a regular submittor of articles to The Driving Member, and as a visitor to American and European DLOC events.
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The dark blue car is VIN number DWATL4AC200423, built in 1983,
and has the Oklahoma license registration VICEROY.
The car was first owned by Kjell Hammond Qvale
(of the San Francisco Jaguar dealership), and Don is the 2nd owner.
It has run 50,245 miles (fall 2001)..
The two-tone grey car is much older: No. 1M20132, built in 1976. Its first owner was the Ministry of Defence of Belgium. It is now registered in Oklahoma as TWN 067. This car has done 49,752 miles (fall 2001). To keep both cars on the road, Don gradually cannibalises a third limo, 1M1155 of 1969. To spare his two running limos, he has a Rolls as his everyday car. Photos contributed in 2000 and 2001. |
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Hans-Jürgen "Moses" Büchel is a former employee of the German distributor
of British-Leyland, where he handled a life-time full of different
models from the BLMC marques, including many older "specials" such as
Jaguar SS100 cars.
He now runs his own company
trading Jaguar and Daimler literature and related collectibles.
He currently lives in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, Germany.
Mr. Büchel sent a series of photographs, telling the sad story of a beautiful 1978 limo he once owned, which I show here in a series of consecutive pages. No more words: just see.... Click Photos contributed in 2002. |
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Greg Lewis and his brother Ted, from Perth in Western Australia, are without doubt the most devoted DS420 addicts on that continent. They currently own five DS420 limos, but have owned some 18 different ones over the past 10 years. Several of these cars were once part of the fleet of the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong (now Intercontinental Hong Kong), which is reputed to have once owned and operated 22 DS420 limos. Greg (right) and Ted (left) were licensed under the Australian Government "Low Volume Vehicle Import Scheme" to import and comply DS420s to the Australian Design Rule. This involved modifications to seatbelts, anti intrusion bars and vehicle emissions as well as various electrical mods. More on this Lewis brothers collection here. Photos contributed in 2003. |
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Jordi Milian, in Barcelona, Spain (or Catalonia, really) runs a
rental company, together with two friends.
You can hire cars for almost any purpose.
As their web site states, this goes from wedding hire
to "cars to burn, crash or explode",
although the latter ones need to be bought rather than hired.
If a film director needs a streetful of cars,
he can choose from their collection of 600.
The DS420 is a special favourite: currently (summer 2006) he owns 14 limos and one hearse. That is a lot to restore, as these pictures (click) show... More pictures of his collection are in the galleries section of this website: engine overhaul, white limousine and Woodall Nicholson hearse. |
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This limousine, car 1M1021 (one of the very first built!), was purchased for £ 220.00 by Jon, James & John. Yes there is a reason for this...! Not in the best of condition and a non runner, a few days work and a spot of welding soon brought her up to scratch.... to breeze through an MOT. The car obviously has been used as a wedding car in a former life. Her original colour was black. Most of her mileage is completed through Europe on "The Monaco Challenge" rally, in London City and to the occasional Jaguar show, and a pleasure it is for her owners to continue its service. Registered in the UK back in 1968, and now on Registration GDZ5021. From left to right: Jon Saunders, James Tziros, John Gregory. The photos were contributed in 2004 and 2005. A few years later this car's life ended. |
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Pravut Kanchanawat in Bangkok, Thailand, owns this shiny 1987 limousine, VIN No. SAJDWATL3AA201012. It must be one of the very first cars with a VIN-number starting with SAJ (for Jaguar) instead of SAD (for Daimler). The car was originally sold in London, but it was shipped to Thailand when the first owner sold it off, and Mr. Kanchanawat is now its fifth owner. The picture shows the car and the owner, standing just behind the person in the wheelchair. He is surrounded by many friends (don't count the ones on the billboard). Photos contributed in 2006. |
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Frans van Oostveen lives in the city of Tiel, The Netherlands, which is only a few dozen kilometers from where I (hjt-webmaster) live. With these photographs he presents his "grey lady": a charming one, but caught in a most embarrassing situation. The lady decided to take a mud bath, and it required some force from specialised third parties to convince her to revert back to normal. Since these photos were taken, Frans had to split up the engagement, because his lady changed too much of her colour from grey to a rusty red. More pictures herePhotos contributed in 2005. |
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George Zdanko from Redditch, near Birmingham in the UK, is a long standing member of the DLOC. Ever since I joined the DLOC myself, in the late nineties, I have enjoyed his many contributions to The Driving Member club magazine, e.g. in his role as the model registrar for the Daimler Majestic Major. This picture shows him with two favourites from his large collection of classics, in which he has many interesting Jensen models, Rolls, Daimler, Jaguar etc. Since George is of Polish origin, he has all the necessary connections to find quality labour in that country at very interesting prices. The following page shows how his two DS420 limousines were restored in a workshop near Nowa Sol in Poland. More picturesPhotos contributed from 2007 to recent (2020). |
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Bob Boston, from Atlanta, Georgia, USA, shows his collection of DS420 cars. Bob owns a company that converts people carrier vans for use by handicapped people, and thus is a professional car converter. He has done a few spectacular conversions on DS420 cars; see the pictures here Most photos contributed in 2011. |
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Craig Talbot from Calgary, Canada has this 1989/1990 limo, VIN 201288. It was originally sold to France, but after a few month it moved on to Japan, which is unusual for a LHD car. Craig bought it there with 37,000 km on it. More pictures, and his interesting story about the Japanese car auctions where he bought it are here. Photos contributed in 2008. |
If you own a DS420, you're invited to join us on this page. Please mail me <hjt@xs4all.nl> for details.
Apart from a picture (showing the car and yourself),
I want the following information:
vehicle ID-number(s), year of production,
and the current license number and country of registration.
Interesting details about the history of the cars (if known) are also welcome.
I do have specific wishes about size and format of the photo scans;
please contact me before sending.
Alternatively, this website has a photo gallery section. That shows collections of photographs contributed by proud owners and other sources, but without putting emphasis on the owner himself.
page.