The name Daimler is Sorta gone, but it was always confusing: an explainer

When my servant interrupted my morning immersion in hot spider milk to inform me that the Mercedes-Benz controller will no longer be DaimlerI was so furious that I held his stupid face under the spider’s milk until he peed himself. I regretted it almost immediately because at the moment I only have one pair of pants and he was wearing them. Furthermore, I realized that this could be the perfect opportunity to clear up some of the confusion about the Daimler name that some of you may be afraid to ask. So, let’s do it.

What happens with cars called Daimler is that I know that many car enthusiasts have known for a long time that Mercedes-Benzes really Daimler-Benzes, and that they probably also saw pictures of some cars with the Daimler emblem that look suspiciously like Jaguars.

I suspect that many young enthusiasts not specifically in vintage things for old people may have noticed this in passing and wondered about a connection, but then it was kind of weird to ask, like when you forget someone’s name at a party, but you’ve been talking with them for almost 20 minutes and now it seems strange to ask again.

Don’t worry, though – Uncle Torchy takes care of you.

The root of all Daimlers out there is our old friend, Gottlieb Daimler, the famous automotive pioneer who has worked with four-stroke engine father Nicolaus Otto since 1870 and ended up developing his own high-speed gasoline, capable of accelerating engines.

Daimler installed its engines on two-wheeled cycles and then a real four-wheeled automobile in 1886. Daimler did not partner with Benz until 1926, and in the decades before this famous partnership, Daimler was producing engines and impressing people by everywhere in Europe, which led to the licensing of Daimler engine designs all over the place, including here in America, where a The Daimler Manufacturing Company was creating “Daimlers” from 1898 to 1907, including a so-called “American Mercedes”.

In Europe, Daimler licensees included Peugeot and Panhard et Lavassor in France, Austro-Daimler in Austria (where Ferdinand Porsche started) and the Daimler that I suspect causes the most confusion, the British.

It is also important to note that part of the reason why Daimler-Benz started marketing its cars under the name of a specific model named after a Jewish girl, Mercedes, it was because so many Daimler licenses were available that people were getting confused.

The British Daimlers started with an engineer named Frederick Simms, who found Daimler engines on some of the cars he saw in Germany in 1889, and in 1891 he secured British rights to Daimler patents and in 1895 he founded Daimler Motor Company Limited to build cars.

There were a lot of complicated comings and goings with partners, and in 1896 the company was renovated and started building cars in 1897, starting with some with a Panhard engine and moving on to cars with a Daimler engine.

Also notable is that in 1899 Simms developed the Motor Scout, considered the first armed gasoline-powered vehicle ever built. In addition to the iron panel behind the Maxim machine gun there, it looks like most of the armor on this thing is layers of tweed and skin, which doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Simms later did a real Armoured car, The Motor War Car, which I’ve written about before.

Daimler soon became a respected British automaker, arguably the oldest British automaker to manufacture cars in large quantities. In 1902, they received a Royal Warrant to supply automobiles to the British Crown, and Queen Elizabeth still had a 1984 Daimler Double-Six until 2019.

Now, even if you know Jack Squatingshire about Daimlers, I bet you’re noticing some things about Queen’s up there: specifically, he looks like a Jaguar from the same era, but has a funny fluted grid.

That’s because Jaguar bought Daimler in 1960, and right after that, Daimlers were all based on Jags, usually just more sophisticated Jaguars. Although the style changes were minimal, one change that was always present was the ribbed grille, which was a trademark of Daimler since the early days, when it was a visual styling of the first radiator tanks, which were fined to further dissipate heat effectively:

In the United States, we never had Daimler-Jaguars, but sometimes we had ribbed rails in the Jaguars that had the latest Vanden Plas finish.

So, I hope this helps the next time you see a car called Daimler, but you are sure it looks like a Jaguar, but it is not very clear how it is related to the company that built the Mercedes-Benzes.

This was a very quick overview, but I definitely suggest delving deeper into the history of these companies, preferably raiding your local library and just starting a new life there, reading about old German and British automakers until the police drag you out, screaming .