More Daimler Literature

Motors Of Today

I continue to collect related literature, since you never know when it will come in handy. While on holiday in 2003, in a museum in a small town on the south island of New Zealand, I came across a copy of "Motors of Today", a comprehensive set of books describing the technical details of various cars available in 1927.

The volumes were intended for garages who had to deal with whatever brand of vehicle happened to come their way. With many more makes of vehicle than today, an engineer could hardly be expected to know the details of them all.

The relevant pages were photocopied by the kind staff for a nominal charge. to see the Daimler pages.

The book contained information not included in our owner's manual, such as the correct method of setting the ignition timing. Very useful!

C1-20 Parts Manual

This parts manual is from an earlier, 1924, model, before four-wheel brakes and a servo became standard.

Bought on eBay in 2014. to see the pages.

M20 Parts Manual

This parts manual is from a slightly later, 1929, model. By this time a fuel gauge was standard.

Bought on eBay in 2016 to see the pages.

Daimler 16/20 Instruction Manual

This is a Daimler 16/20 Instruction Manual from 1931. There are a few significant changes; This was the period in which Daimler were moving from the 'crash' gearbox to the Wilson Pre-selector with a fluid flywheel. Daimler did not make a car with a 'traditional' synchromesh gearbox until the late 1950s.

Bought on eBay in 2014. to see the pages.

Double-Six 30 & 40 Instruction Manual

This is an instruction manual for the Daimler Double-Six 30/40 and 40/50 from 1931. This car had a 6.5 litre engine with the Wilson Pre-selector and a fluid flywheel. Daimler did not make a car with a 'traditional' synchromesh gearbox until the late 1950s.

Bought on eBay in 2014. to see the pages.

TT 4-20 Instruction and Parts

The TT 4-20 chassis was introduced in July 1921 and dropped just over a year later. It is believed that two chassis of this type still exist.

In November 1983 BP8769, a Doctor's Coupe with a dickey seat, was featured in "The Automobile" magazine It was last heard of at the Hellenic Motor Museum in Athens in 2011. The chassis is 18598 and the engine 39720.

Another TT 4-20, with a body described as a Berline, chassis 6982, engine 8937, was advertised for sale by someone in Plzen, Czech Republic, in 2015.

A third chassis was reported to have been destroyed in a bushfire in Australia in 1967.

Reports of both the surviving chassis mention original manuals. With another copy of the manual advertised by a book dealer in the USA, that means there at least twice as many owners' manuals as the Daimler model they describe.

The parts list in this volume actually quotes prices for most of the items.

Bought on eBay in 2017 to see the pages.

Motor Commerce

Motor Commerce was a publication aimed at garages and others in the motor trade.

This copy, from April 1927, was found on eBay in 2003, and had been flagged up because it has an advertisement for Daimlers.

It has adverts for lots of other car-related things too, along with car prices, an analysis of Winston Churchill's recent budget and all sorts of other things. It's a snapshot of the motoring Britain of the time.

to view the 59MB pdf file in a new window.

Download scans

You can now download all the page images of each manual in a ZIP. This feature may be of use to owners, restorers and those just interested in motoring history.
Note that the ZIP files may be quite large.

The owner's instruction manual:

The catalogue:

The 20/70 model Q parts manual:

The 20/70 model V parts manual:

The C1-20 Parts Manual:

The M20 Parts Manual:

The 16/20 Owner's Manual:

The Double-Six 30 & 40 Owner's Manual:

The TT4-20 Manual: