Hendrik-Jan Thomassen: more pictures

Many years after it all started, Brian Smith asked me to contribute an article for his book "Daimer Days" Volume 3. So I wrote down how my DS420 hobby began way back in 1997. Read it here.

On June 17, 2000, my eldest daughter Maayke married to Eric Weggeman. Both are very fond of the limo, on which they have spent many hours of cleaning and fixing. So the choice of a wedding car was not difficult at all. Photographer Ron Moes shot this beautiful picture near Kleve in Germany.

But there were more limos as stage pieces at this wedding: Ben Kolvenbach, who runs a fairly large garage specialised in the maintenance of old Jaguars and Daimlers, was very kind to loan his maroon limo to us. And there is another limo in the town where we live: Ron Disveld had this white limo for his full package wedding service business Trouwwens. Once again, the pictures are by photographer Ron Moes.

Around the Easter weekend of 2000, the DLOC arranged for a tour to the French Champagne region, organised by Len Huff and Barry Pladdys. We stayed in the city of Laon. The Classics magazine (GB) ran a four page illustrated article on this trip in its June 2000 issue.

At one point during this visit we had all cars parked in front of the beautiful mediaeval cathedral of the town, were Bob Cantwell made this picture of my car.

You can imagine how surprised I was when I saw this DLOC club merchandise mouse mat at the next club event.

I am still ashamed to see how my car is shown to the world without the proper chrome trim around the front window, and without the chrome rimbellishers on the wheels....

An overview photo, in color, at the cathedral square appeared in the Classics magazine, but unfortunately it was cropped through my car at the bottom. The Driving Member if August 2000 did a better job, albeit their publication was in B&W. Click on one photo to see both.

On June 2nd, 2002, the Daimler and Lanchester Owners' Club held its International Rally in The Netherlands. For the first time in club history, it was a truly International rally day. My family team did the local organisation for this event, and we held it at the De Haar Castle in the village of Haarzuilens near Utrecht. De Haar Castle is one of the largest castles in The Netherlands, and probably the most splendid one as well.

To my great pleasure, five DS420 limos showed up at the event, which is more than I had ever seen "live" before. From left to right are the limos of Bill Eltringham (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK), Michael Hohlmann (Neuss, BRD), Ben Kolvenbach (Beneden Leeuwen, NL), Aaldert Koster (Hoogeveen, NL), and my own. The picture at the right was shot by Thomas Ulrich from Mülheim. The one at the left by my wife Ilona Thomassen. Both pictures can be enlarged by clicking.

In March 2007, approx. 10 years after my first limo, I bought my number two. Since I prefer the old type, with third wind-down window and with lots of interior wood, and I also wanted a brown leather interior again, it took a while to look around. Suddenly, an occasion came up and I bought car no. 1M2062, an almost identical twin to my first car no. 1M2060. The previous owner was a funeral director in Shrewsbury, and its UK license number was YWY603.

I know my own "How to buy" webpage very well, and this purchase did fit the book exactly. The car was bad at every place where these cars tend to be bad, it had lots of water in one fuel tank, etc. etc. An extra complication was that it had been "restored" before, to a -let's say this politely- not very high standard.

When I started scratching away the underbody coating near the jacking points -read: where the jacking points had disappeared during a previous restoration-, and under the bottom of the boot, it was clear that this car would never pass the Dutch MOT test in its current state (it had a fresh UK-MOT....). Where one of the jacking points once had been, the underbody coating just covered a hole of 3×6 inches. And this was by far not the only large hole. Also, Dutch MOT testers would definitely not be happy with a fuel line spraying hair-thin jets of liquid through rusty pin-holes. I probably was lucky to make it home without too much complications. But, I knew very well what to expect with these cars, and I am happy with this one.

After the purchase I have invested in its restoration. Engine and steering rubbers have been replaced, and the restoration of the body has been finished to an acceptable level. The car now has the Dutch license number: AM-65-97. The initial purchase price was soon topped by the additional costs.

More photos of my two limos (and myself) are in the photo gallery section of this web site.