The Green Goddess

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The cars built by Daimler between the two world wars were some of the largest and most impressive ever seen in the United Kingdom. Ignoring the recession-led 'poverty' models of the 1930s, Daimlers were almost exclusively the preserve of the chauffeur-driven. Wheelbases were enormous, with engine sizes to match, but the cars were never performance-orientated or outlandish in their manner. 

Post-war, the cars followed the same pattern set by their predecessors. Their flagship DE36 limousines could claim to be the largest of any British car, both in length and engine capacity, at 18ft and 5460cc respectively. The DE36 displayed on the Hooper stand at the 1948 London Motor Show violently broke with the Daimler tradition, being a rakish drophead coupé of unusually modern lines. The headlamps were concealed behind perspex covers that followed the curvature of the front wings (although this was not true of all subsequent examples, nor the car featured in this factory brochure), the radiator was angled, curved and chromed and the coachwork finished in a striking pastel green. The colour scheme was to lend the car, and the six replicas that followed it, their unofficial nickname: the Green Goddess.

There are few who can claim to have had a hands-on experience with one of these rarities, but art critic and Daimler aficionado Brian Sewell was lucky enough to sample one in the early 1960s. The real-world experience didn't quite live up to the fantasy, however, as he explains in the latest issue of The Automobile, which is out now.

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