Yahoo Finance Building on tradition: your chance to own this updated 1964 Daimler V8 Vicarage Convertible
There was a brilliant story a few years back about a Spanish pensioner that looked at a 19th-century painting of Jesus and decided that the weather-beaten fresco needed “improving”. With the best of intentions she decided to undertake the improvements herself, and set about the work of art armed with nothing more than a paintbrush and a notable absence of talent. When she stepped back to admire her handiwork, it looked like a monkey had taken a brave first stab at a self-portrait.
Attempts to improve cars are often just as misguided and poorly executed. Most of the things that people think will make their cars better - bigger wheels, lowered suspension, giant wings on the back - actually make them worse. Aesthetically that may be a matter of taste, but in monetary terms things are less open to interpretation. Most buyers prefer a used car to be as close as possible to its original state, rather than modified according to the whim of a previous owner.
There are, however, some under-the-skin modifications that make sense, particularly with older cars. Most sports cars more than 40 years old, for example, are exhausting to drive - heavy pedals and steering mean that negotiating traffic involves so much effort that you long for air conditioning to cool your brow. So it is tempting to get all of that kind of stuff updated, even if future buyers will punish you for wanting a car that you actually enjoy driving, rather than one that you just gaze at admiringly.
How about radical alterations to the look of a car? It is not generally a good idea, especially when the car you started off with is a highly regarded classic. For example, if you convert your Lotus Cortina from a saloon car to a sporty little pick-up truck, your reception at the next owners' club meeting is likely to be frosty.
But sometimes getting a bit creative just works, as is proved by the beautiful Daimler pictured here. The V8 came out after Daimler was bought by Jaguar in 1960. It was the first Daimler to have a Jaguar body, and outwardly it was pretty much identical to the Mk 2 Jag, save for the characteristic Daimler fluting on the top of the radiator grill. On the road it went even better than the equivalent Jaguar due to a cracker of an engine that was first used in the Daimler Dart sports car.
This particular example has been converted from a four-door saloon to a two-door drop-top. That might sound like a daft idea but the result begs to differ - everything just looks perfectly proportioned, as though that was how the car was designed in the first place. The conversion was the work of the Wolverhampton restoration specialist Vicarage LTD, which also carried out various sympathetic modifications, including stronger brakes and a more rigid chassis.
So improving an already lovely car is possible provided it is done in good taste by people that know what they are doing. It can even boost market value, as the estimate on this car suggests. This Daimler also boasts a celebrity among its former owners. The could potentially have an effect on the value, but that depends on whether or not it is seen as a plus to have a car once owned by the former Top Gear host Chris Evans.
The 1964 Daimler 2.5-Litre V8 Vicarage Convertible is Lot 235 in the Goodwood Festival of Speed sale on Friday 30th June 2017. Estimate £70,000 – £100,000
