A successor to the Daimler DS420?

Various "design studies" have been presented for a possible successor to the Daimler DS420 limousine. These were presented exactly as such: design studies, no more, no less. Jaguar Cars Ltd. does not comment in any official way on an actual successor to the DS420.

This page zooms in on studies and speculations that appeared during the production years of the DS420, or shortly thereafter.

Cliff Ruddell worked in Jaguar's drawing office in the seventies and eighties. After the limousine assembly was brought to Browns Lane in 1979, Keith Cambage, the head of the limousine operations, requested many small body changes to the model. But no funds would be allocated to a large scale makeover. In 1983 Cliff spent some spare time sketching a few possible designs: starting from the existing body he first drew a new shape resembling the old design, and from there on he went to a modernised design, based on then current XJ40 technology. Shown with the sketches are Keith Cambage's handwritten comments (click to enlarge).

Cliff's website showing these sketches is at www.cliff-ruddell.co.uk. They are reproduced here in larger resolution with his kind permission. Cliff introduces these sketches on his website as follows: "the Daimler DS420 Limousine was a milestone design, when it was released in 1968. After the construction of a running prototype under Sir William's direction, the lion's share of the body design was completed by Jack Dunnett in Body Engineering".

The next drawing is his "artist's impression" of the new limo as a proud descendant of the Majestic Major and the DS420, with the three spires of the Coventry skyline in the background.  

In 1985 the Autocar magazine (June 19, 1985) published a speculative article (shown right) about a possible face-lift of the DS420 body by designers from Aston Martin in Tickford.

The picture to the left appeared in "Sovereign", the official international magazine of Jaguar Cars, issue 25 (Q1-1999). The text with the picture was:  |  A styling concept for a new Daimler, developed by Jaguar Cars designer Mark Phillips, has been unveiled. Inspired by the Daimler Majestic Major and DS420 limousines, the Millennium model was created using state-of-the-art digital technology. The concept car was designed for Mark's final year project leading to a BA (Hons) degree in Transport Design at Coventry University. The course is seen by Jaguar's director of Styling, Geoff Lawson, as a vehicle to allow Mark to experiment with a new design process and develop his own product ideas. "Although the company has no immediate plans to reintroduce a bespoke limousine, given the company's tremendous growth at the moment, anything is possible," commented Lawson.

The same model was shown in the Jaguar Monthly and in The Driving Member magazines:

Still another design comes from the Coventry University Transport Design - Degree Show 2003. Note that it is not the same model as shown above! This illustration came with the following caption:  |  Also exhibited was a 40% scale see-through display model of an advanced Daimler limousine by Alex Chan and Stefano Canale. The model was developed by the pair while on placement last summer with Jaguar and will be displayed within the company's design reception area in future.

The picture to the right is from Neil Bottrill, free lance designer in Manchester. Click on the image to see his design portfolio (2007) for a DS420 successor.

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