Daimler DS 420 from 1970. The Principality of Monaco cortege car. Made in UK. Max. speed 160 km/h, V6, 4.2 L
The Daimler DS420, also known as the Daimler Limousine, is a limousine made by the Daimler Company between 1968 and 1992. The car was designed for official use and it was popular with chauffeur services, hoteliers and undertakers. It was used as an official state car in many countries. No other limousine model has been delivered to more reigning monarchs than the DS420, and the car is still used by the royal houses of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and Luxembourg.
The Daimler Company was purchased by Jaguar Cars in 1960, which itself was bought by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1966 and became part of the larger British Leyland conglomerate in 1968. BMC and Jaguar each had their own limousines before merging operations: the Vanden Plas Princess and the Daimler DR450, respectively.
Rather than build two competing products, they decided to consolidate limousine production to a single model under the Daimler marque.
Most of the engineering of the DS420 would be carried out by Jaguar, the new model to share parts such as the engine, gearbox, and suspension with the Jaguar 420G.
Production of the DS420 was announced in June 1968, with the cars being built at the Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury.
The short designation DS420 was in accordance with earlier Daimler designations where the first letter stood for Daimler, the second letter was part of an alphabetical sequence (i.e. the predecessor was “DR”, thus the successor was “DS”), and “420” referred to the 4.2-litre (260 cu in) displacement of the XK engine.
