This limousine was the first of three 57 HP Daimlers acquired for the fleet of the British Royal Family. Regal, indeed, its Hooper-built coachwork ensured that it stood a remarkable 17 feet long and 7.5 feet tall, while being propelled smoothly and quietly along by an enormous 9.7-liter Knight sleeve-valve six-cylinder engine. The car is included in the roster of Royal Daimlers published in Brian Smith’s The Daimler Tradition, identifying it as chassis number TD 6314, a 57 HP model with limousine bodywork. Mr. Smith notes that it was delivered in June 1910 as one of three such cars delivered to King George V, who had ordered it while still the Prince of Wales. It has also been noted that King George and Queen Mary actually utilized the Daimler’s jump seats during official events, to better be seen by crowds of eager spectators.

Per the 3 April 1925 edition of The Autocar, the limousine was “purchased by Mr. Charles Y. Knight, the inventor of the type of engine with which the car is fitted, and…shipped to America for exhibition purposes.” Willys-Overland, the foremost American promoters of the Knight engine, used the car as a factory promotional vehicle, claiming in brochures that it had been “driven by King George V of England from 1910 to 1924” and covered over 177,000 miles—an excellent advertisement for the durability of the engineering in the Willys-Knight.

In 1930, Willys-Overland donated the Daimler to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, at the time a burgeoning storehouse of early automobiles, preserved for their technical interest. The Daimler remained with the museum for two decades, then was traded in 1950 to another pioneer collector, Lindley Bothwell, joining his collection at Rancho Rinconada in Woodland Hills. Paperwork related to the trade remains in the file, specifically noting the car as 6314. The Daimler was a standout in the Bothwell stable until it was acquired in 2006 by Robert E. Petersen, eventually joining the collection of his namesake Petersen Automotive Museum, from which it is now offered.

Having been scrupulously cared for in Royal use and then spent nearly 100 years in the dry and mild Southern California climate, the Daimler remains in remarkable, almost totally original and unrestored condition, including three of the original leather fenders and, remarkably, the coachbuilder's nameplate recording its Royal warrants. Following Petersen's acquisition, the Daimler had new engine heads fitted, while the originals still accompany the car. It was memorably shown by the Petersen Automotive Museum at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in the Prewar Preservation class. It is accompanied by a fascinating history file, including correspondence between Bothwell and the Los Angeles County Museum.

Among the most impressive and certainly historically significant Brass Era motor cars offered in recent memory, this is a superior sleeve-valve Daimler, of titanic proportions and power to match—remarkably preserved and with regal presence.