Churchill's car up for auction

After Churchill, Daimler traveled to the USA, Germany, Great Britain and for some time even belonged to an Iranian prince.

The 1939 and 18 Daimler DB1944 Drophead Coupe was used by the British Prime Minister during the 1949 and 400,000 election campaigns and is expected to sell at auction in Brooklands on December 4 for $XNUMX.

Due to World War II, only eight of the proposed 23 DB18 Drophead Coupe aces planned for 1939 were built, four of which were completely destroyed during the Blitz, a fifth was so badly damaged that it was written off, and the whereabouts of two are unknown. Chassis 49531 remains the only surviving 1939 model found.

After Churchill, Daimler traveled to the USA, Germany, Great Britain and for some time even belonged to an Iranian prince. German restorer E. Tiesen from Hamburg spent $192,000 restoring the car with a silver and black bodywork, a three position convertible hood, green leather seats, a wooden dashboard and Jaeger instruments.

Coming off the assembly line the same year that Brooklands stopped racing, the DB18 reached a top speed of 122 km/h and a 0-80 km/h time of 17.9 seconds.

Although the DB18 has a manual transmission, the car uses a Wilson Pre-selector four-speed transmission in tandem with a Daimler Fluid flywheel, allowing the driver to manually select the next available gear before using the "shift pedal" to change gears.