Daimler-Jaguar DS420 (Great Britain, 1990). Mosfilm studio museum (Moscow). Took part in the Russian series “Brigade”
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.
Description
The DS420 was built on the floorpan of Jaguar’s 420G flagship model with the Jaguar wheelbase extended 21 in (533 mm). The front styling was like the current Daimler Sovereign with the traditional Daimler fluted grille and the headlights of the Jaguar 420G. The new limousine also shared the 420G’s twin ten-US-gallon (38 L) fuel tanks set in each of the rear wings, each with its own electric SU pump selected by a dashboard-mounted switch.
Engine: 4235 cc Jaguar XK straight-six.
