1 of 56: 1955 Daimler Conquest Roadster
The 1950’s was a time of exploration in automotive design, with some of the most beautiful cars designed during the era. One of the more interesting ones has to be the Daimler Conquest Roadster. The Conquest was Daimler’s attempt to build an affordable, yet luxurious car. The company introduced the Roadster in 1954 as a competitor for the Jaguar XK120, but production was stopped in 1955 as the cost to hand-build the car grew too high. During that short period only 56 of these beautiful cars were built and only a handful ever made it state-side. This one has been in the same family for the past 40 years and is now being offered by Gullwing with an asking price of $34,750.
The seller claims that the car just needs a cosmetic restoration, which we hope is the case. Given the amount of parts sharing that Daimler did between all the Conquest models, we are sure most parts can be found. The interior looks to be complete and in decent shape for its age. We wouldn’t expect rust to be an issue, as the majority of the car is made of aluminum. However, this could make straightening the body out rather difficult. The use of lightweight materials helped to keep the weight down and made the Roadster considerably faster than its Conquest stablemates.
It appears that all the Roadster specific pieces are with car and in good shape. We wonder what condition the engine is in though. The Roadster was powered by a tuned version of Daimler’s 2.5 liter inline 6 Century motor. The tuned Century engine produced 100 hp and around 130 pounds of torque, which allowed the Roadster to achieve a top speed of 100 mph. This car is an extremely rare and important piece of British sports car history which has been hidden from the public for decades. Hopefully whoever ends up buying this one will clean it up and share it with the world instead of stashing it away again.
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Comments
How do cool cars like this end up in the wrong hands ?
This dealer used to deal with old Mercedes until he did not make enough money on those alone.
He usually just buys them let’s them sit or rot and then sells them for more than he bought them for, BUT invariably always in worse condition.
No matter how cool I don’t even want to look at them once a person like that is involved, it just annoys me, endlessly.
Oohh, and it’s a shame for the previous owners to let the car go to waste after they’ve kept it out of harms way for decades.
One more thing: this guy always uses the P.O.’s photos, as if he wants to deceive the buyer or is too lazy to take his own photos.
Needless to say they do not reflect the CURRENT STATUS of the car…..
For 34 grand they should be able to buy a camera.
For lord’s sake for 34 large, wash it and put the hubcaps on it. Does the lawn chair in behind the left seat come with it?
Er, that’s the convertible top cage, not a lawn chair. :~)
Someone needs to buy this and put a new Hemi in it !!
Looks like a steering column mounted pre-selector gearbox.
So, since Daimler was spending too much money making these, they decided to opt for making the Daimler SP 250 instead?? What were they thinking?
A very nice car of which 65 were built by Daimler. The price here in England is around £30,000 for a good restored example. I am the Joint Registrar for this model with the Daimler and Lanchester Owners Club in the UK.. If a future owner gets in touch we can help him with information re Spares etc. In return we would like to know the chassis and body number for our records.
Dennis