Africa's only Daimler 'Century' drophead coupé

A 1957 Daimler Century drophead coupé, the only in Africa.

MIKE Smith, former fuel station owner in Maritzburg now residing in Strand, saw this 1957 Daimler Conquest Mk II “Century” Drophead Coupé — which had been languishing for eight years on blocks in a workshop Somerset-West — and offered to buy it on the spot.
A Daimler nut, he knew it had to be rare, but was pleasantly surprised to learn the 4,5-metre barge is
one of only 47 surviving from the original 54 made between 1956 and 1957 (excluding two prototypes); and the only one in Africa.

Not at all ropey -- in the 1940s, people knew what fun it was to fold reverse lark’s and knot macrame art like this door handle. And its renewable!

He said the car received some indifferent rust treatment in what was then Rhodesia and he has spent the past few months getting the classic back to spec.

Bakelite knobs just baked harder in  63 hot African summers -- don't try that with modern plastics.

“It was really tatty when I got it, but all the parts are now in and working and the restoration are now at cosmetics, like rechroming.
The Conquest “Century” Mk II was fitted with a 2 433 cc six-cylinder petrol engine in Coventry.
The old block was reportedly good for 160 km/h, making 74 kW (100 Bhp ) at 4 400 rpm and 176 Nm at 2 500 rpm, which was impressive back then but is very inefficient today.
For comparison, VW’s 1,6 "vanilla four-cylinder" makes 77 kW at 5 250 rpm and 155 Nm at 3 500 rpm, while Indian Motorcycles' latest engine, a 1,770 cc V-Twin, makes 122 Bhp at 5,550 rpm and 173,5 Newtons from 3,800 rpm. 

2,5-litres of not exactly raw power behind the Daimler badge, but my, she burbles nice.

Like all veteran car restorers, he has a vague aim to recoup his five-figure investment at some point and if he can ever part with this a rare find, Sotheby’s listed one for over R1,1 million in 2015.

PRESELECT GEARS

The preselect gear unit -- and brownie points for anyone who knows what the T was for.

Never fixing what ain’t broke, Daimler used its four-speed preselector gearbox with fluid flywheel in the Conquest Mk II. This clunky system was popular in the 1930s for then offering some of the benefits of an auto box in a simpler manual box.

From left are the to gear selector, note, NOT the clutch, the go slower pedal and the go faster pedal.

The driver pre-selects the gear and then stomps on what looks like a beautifully decorated clutch pedal (pictured above) but which is actually a foot control to engage the gear, and keep selecting the next gear and stomping the pedal to engage it as required.

‘SIDE SADDLE’ THIRD SEAT

A second unique feature of the Drophead Coupe is the side-facing third seat tucked in behind the driver. Previous models of the coupé had four seats and why Daimler’s engineers went with ‘side saddle’ third seat (pictured below) is not clear.

A dickey seat with a difference. Daimler dropped the fourth seat and positioned the third like so in the drophead coupé, which does create a legroom all round.

Smith told Wheels what he misses most about Maritzburg is the network of fellow vintage car enthusiasts who could help source parts and answer such questions, or just provide a shoulder to cry on at “the Klink”, where the members of Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) gather most Friday nights.

The steel in this rear bumper is so thick, if you melt them down you can make at least one modern vehicle.

(Written for Witness Wheels.)