Majestic

The Daimler Majestic 101 was introduced by the Daimler Motor Company of Coventry in 1958 and was in production until 1962. The six cylinder, four door saloon, with new three speed Borg Warner automatic transmission, power steering and four-wheel disc brakes, vacuum-servo assisted, was very mechanically advanced for its time, but it had an outdated heavy body and engine with separate chassis which kept the car's mass well above more modern designs and made it difficult to manoeuvre, despite the modern steering. The styling was already somewhat outdated when the car appeared and became increasingly dated as lighter bodies with monocoque construction appeared during the Majestic's production run.[3]

Construction

Like all previous postwar Daimlers, the "Majestic" was designed around a massive cruciform-braced box-section chassis equipped with coil-sprung independent front suspension, with a well located 'live' rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs. Four-wheel servo-assisted disc brakes were regarded as a first for a British production car[4].

The engine was an inline six of 3.8 litres (3794 cc), based on previous Daimler sixes with pushrod operated overhead valves and retaining the 107.95 millimetre (4.25 inch) stroke, but with the bore increased to 86.36 millimetres (3.4 inches) from the 82.55 millimetres (3.25 inches) of the 104, giving a power output of over 147 brake horsepower (110 kW) at 4,400 rpm and produced 209 lb•ft (283 N•m) of torque at 2,800 rpm[5]. The Majestic had a maximum speed of around 180 km/h (112 mph). To help with the increase in the bore, the cylinder block was considerably enlarged to allow for the fitting of completely new liners: dry liners as present on the 104 were absent on the Majestic.

The styling of the Majestic was similar to, but wider and with smoother lines than the short lived 104 model it replaced. The body was massive and the doors were quite high with narrow windows and a rounded rear window. There were two small headlamps at each end on the front side and two fog lamps just above low-set bumpers. There were plain disc wheels.

Performance

A car tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1958 had a top speed of 100.6 mph (161.9 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 14.2 seconds. A fuel consumption of 19.3 miles per imperial gallon (14.6 L/100 km; 16.1 mpg-US) was recorded. The test car cost £2495 including taxes of £832. [1]

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