Daimler Double Six sleeve valve V12

The colossus of roads

Daimler required an advanced new model to compete with Rolls-Royce's New Phantom of 1925. Though Packard had introduced its Twin-Six many years earlier it was to be a decade or more before luxury manufacturers like Rolls-Royce, Hispano-Suiza, Lincoln, Voisin and Lagonda made their own (and Packard returned to it). In fact by the mid-1930s flexible engine mountings and improved carburation had made so many cylinders unnecessary. What did return them to a certain level of popularity was the push for higher performance requiring higher crankshaft speeds. Daimler introduced their first 26 hp straight-eight in mid-1934 and their last (poppet valve) V12s were built in 1937 or 1938.

From 1929 Daimler Double-Sixes were distinguishable from the six-cylinder cars by a chromium bar down the centre of the radiator. A similar distinguishing mark was placed on the later Jaguar-made versions.

Aside from Daimler only Voisin in France ever attempted production of a sleeve-valve V12 engine. Voisin's production—between 1929 and 1937—was "minimal and spasmodic".

The same Daimler Double-Six name was used for the badge-engineered Daimler V12 engine used in the largest Daimlers between 1972 and 1997. Lofty England, a Daimler apprentice 1927–1932, joined Jaguar in 1946 and became its chief executive. He ensured the Double-Six name was used for the Jaguar V12 when installed in Daimler cars.

Design

This engine was designed by consultant Chief Engineer L H Pomeroy (1883-1941) to achieve high power with quietness and, particularly, smoothness. Pomeroy made the engine by taking the cylinder blocks of two existing 25/85 hp Daimler engines and putting them on a common crankcase. Pomeroy was to be appointed managing director in 1929. The same design was produced in different sizes depending on the different engine displacements.

Engine

Announced 15 October 1926 and observed by The Observer's motoring correspondent to be Britain's first twelve-cylinder car engine.

Bore and stroke 81.5 mm x 114 mm gave a swept volume of7136 cc

Power output 150 bhp (110 kW; 150 PS) @ 2480 rpm.
Tax rating 50 hp

Cylinders arranged in blocks of three

Pistons were of light alloy and split-skirted "like the modern girl"

Double light steel sleeves controlled the inlet of fuel and the outlet of exhaust, they were operated by short connecting rods from their eccentric-shafts

Separately detachable cylinder heads

60 degree angle V

Crankcase aluminium

The big-ends lay in pairs, the right-hand ones forked so that diagonal pairs of cylinders were in the same plane

Connecting rods were H-section

Crankshaft ran in seven bearings and had an external Lanchester-type vibration damper at the front

Two sleeve-operating eccentric-shafts were driven by chain at the rear of the engine each ran in four bearings

Daimler seven-jet carburettor, water-pump, magneto, exhaust pipe and silencer were duplicated, each block of cylinders having its own components

Petrol was supplied to a reservoir by the engine from the rear-mounted tank by air pressure

Each Daimler carburettor had an independent pre-heated air supply and four jets plus a primer which acted as a pilot with a separate air supply

Inlet manifolds were water-heated and mounted on the outside of each cylinder block

With the primer lubricant was passed to the cylinders and with the depression of the starter pedal oil delivered to the lower end of the sleeves

Oil was forced to the main and big-end bearings, the sleeve-shafts and the sleeves

Oil was cooled through a radiator

order of firing: 1b 1a, 5b 5a, 3b 3a, 6b 6a, 2b 2a, 4b 4a

Dual ignition was fitted

Distributors were coupled as were all the change-over switches from the coil to magneto ignition

Magnetos and water pumps were driven through transverse shafts by skew gearing from the nose of the crankshaft

Dynamo operated by silent chain

Two vertical shafts from the same source drove contact breakers and distributors set above the cylinder banks

Belt-driven four-bladed radiator fan

Fuel was pumped from the rear tank by air pressure from a mechanical pump mounted near the carburettor

The exhaust pipes passed through the V of the cylinder blocks and were covered with an aluminium plate to dissipate heat.The engine and clutch were mounted as a unit separately from the gearbox

The result was an engine which idled at 150 rpm and ran with uncanny silence "the only audible sound made by a Double-Six (if you opened the bonnet and went right up to it) was the almost imperceptible tick as the ignition points opened and the faint breathing of the carburettor".

This largest engine faded from the catalogue after 1930

Chassis

Chassis frame was channel section

Gearbox: driven through a single dry plate disc clutch mounted on the engine a separate four-speeds and reverse gearbox was mounted on a very substantial cross-member and controlled by a central ball-gate gear lever.

Hand brake operated shoes in a brake drum mounted at the back of the gearbox

Power was taken by open propeller-shaft with metal universal joints to a (virtually silent) underslung worm-drive to the rear axle

Suspension was by gaitered half-elliptic leaf springs - beneath the axle at the back

Brakes on four wheels were rod-operated with assistance from a Dewandre vacuum servo positioned beside the gearbox. Adjustment could be made by hand

Steering: the width of the engine necessitated mounting the worm and sector reduction box on the scuttle. From there a coupling lever dropped to a bell-crank pivoted on the chassis side-member. A normal drag-link ran to the front axle.

Wheelbase:

Tyres:

Dimensions of standard saloon de luxe:

Prices

Chassis prices: Type O £1,850, Type P £1,950, Type W £1,950

Standard saloon de luxe by Daimler £2,450

Standard enclosed limousine by Daimler £2,800

3.7-litre Double-Six 30

Announced 1 August 1927. Formed around a pair of 16/55 cylinder blocks

Bore and stroke 65 mm x 94 mm gave a swept volume of3744 cc

Power output 100 bhp (75 kW; 100 PS),
Tax rating 31.4 hp

Design change

Petrol was lifted to a reservoir by the engine from the rear-mounted tank by Autovac

Wheelbase:

Tyres:

Dimensions of standard saloon:

Prices

Chassis prices:

Standard saloon by Daimler £1.300

Production ended in 1932, none with fluid flywheel and pre-selector gearbox.

5.3-litre Double-Six 30/40 or Light Double-Six

Announced October 1930 and matched with the new Daimler fluid flywheel and Wilson pre-selective half-automatically changing four-speed gearbox.

Bore and stroke 73 mm x 104 mm gave a swept volume of5296 cc

Tax rating 40.18 hp

In November 1930 a car was shipped to Edsel Ford with the new Daimler transmission. It aroused so much interest Cadillac's chief engineer, Ernest Seaholm, came to the following Olympia show and bought another for technical investigation. It inspired Earl Thompson, who invented syncromesh, to develop the Hydramatic transmission.

This light double-six was one of the first cars designed using ergonomics. Switches buttons and stalks were all placed within finger tip reach of the driver and accessible without taking hands from the wheel. The cars would run up to 40,000 miles (64,000 km) before requiring engine decarbonisation.

Design changes

Engine

Cylinder block a one-piece light alloy castingDistributors were moved to the back of the engineCover plates provided in the crankcase which could be removed to reveal the sleeve-eccentric linksCarburettors moved forwardLubrication by two submerged helical-gear pumps, one feeding all moving parts, the other circulating oil through the oil radiatorOil radiator to maintain a constant 130 °F (54 °C)Cold viscid oil forced open valves allowing oil into troughs below the big-ends to provide cold-start splash lubrication of the sleevesHand-operated oil cleanerWater pumps on outside of each cylinder bank mounted in tandem with dynamos

This model was usually supplied with a taller and more slender radiator.

Chassis

Grouped chassis lubricationBack axle incorporating dip-stick cum oiling syringeHydraulic shock absorbers

Wheelbase:

Prices

Chassis prices: Short £1,100, Medium £1,200, Long £1,350

Short wheelbase standard saloon by Daimler from £1,600

Medium wheelbase limousine by Daimler from £1,900

Long wheelbase limousine by Daimler from £2,300

6.5-litre Double-Six 40/50

Announced October 1930 and matched with the new Daimler Fluid Flywheel and Wilson pre-selective half-automatically changing four-speed gearbox.

Bore and stroke 81.5 mm x 104 mm gave a swept volume of6511 cc

Tax rating 49.4 hp

Cylinder block a one-piece light alloy casting

Double-Six 40/50 with poppet valves

From 1935 to 1938 nine Double-Six 40/50 engines were made with poppet valves - possibly to use surplus components.

Performance

The Autocar reported in April 1927 the big cars needed no other gears once they were rolling, even climbing a hill. Petrol consumption was not so savage as might have been expected at 10 miles per gallon. "2 to 82 mph in top gear in the highest degree of smoothness and quietness" said The Autocar ". . . fortunate beings will leisurely survey the moving surface of the earth through the windows of their Daimler Double-Sixes as they pass onward in silent dignity".

A letter from Tony Bird in the January 1967 issue of Motor Sport recounted how Double-Six models could develop violent front axle "wheel wobble" which could only be overcome by stopping the car.

Bodies

Bodies were all mounted after the Daimler pattern on a separate frame flexibly held.

Presence

A contemporary press report remarked that "when the Double-Six arrives at the door there is no obvious pomp and circumstance. Here is a car that looks clean-cut and aristocratic in its speckless grey paintwork. It is not until one comes close to the car that its great size is realised. The Daimler bonnet is nearly level with the chin of the observer." Autocar

Difficulties

William Boddy of Motor Sport commented that the difficulty with sleeve valves was lubrication. So much oil near the combustion chambers led to a gummy engine prone to seize if left standing for any length of time. Attempts to tow-start invariably led to sleeve-driving link breakage if not damage to the sleeves. There was also difficulty in timing the sleeves once pistons had been out of the block and also synchronising carburation and ignition between the two banks of cylinders.

Daimler introduced their new Straight-Eight in 1934 and Double-Sixes slipped slowly from the catalogue.