From the time that constables drove Daimlers

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No less than 124 cars will make it to the next Historics at Brooklands sale coming weekend, so it’s impossible to tell you about our favourites here (there are simply too many). But we’ll present you two of our personal highlights. First there is the beauty above, a V8-powered two-seat sports car with body made of the wonder material of the 1950s – it must have seemed like ideal ingredients for chasing the baddies in the early 1960’s. That the SP250 had a bit of a mystic grin on its face, an unusual mix of swoopy and straight lines ending in tailfins plus the unexpected Daimler-badging – well, the Metropolitan Police didn’t care. They bought 26 SP250s for use as pursuit cars and one of them is now offered for sale at Brooklands. It is number 13 of 26, has just been lovingly restored and includes a working Wrinkworth bell, Police speedometer, two interior mirrors, original radio in the glovebox plus all the signs and lights.

But how about an ex-Works Austin 1800, which finished the London to Sydney marathon back in 1968? Please do realize that this car was built in BL’s exact same competition department where all the big Healeys and Mini Cooper ‘S’ works cars came from. It’s 35- to 40,000 GBP estimate is a fraction of what these cars make nowadays. And the car comes in a beautiful (rebuilt in ‘85) state while it hasn’t lost any of its charm from its chequered past. It was driven by the Royal Navy and thus the only one in white rather than red and came 31st overall in the rally.

Which one would you choose?

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy Historics at Brooklands)

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