Daimler's main claim to fame at the time was the Royal Warrant, in other words they were official suppliers of the Queen's limousines. Which is nice but you can't make a living selling one car every ten years to the Queen of England. This also appealed to the country aristocracy and the kind of upper middle class people who are impressed by the Royal Warrant, but for years the government had been slowly destroying and impoverishing this class of people. At the same time the government adopted their "export or die" program which was exactly what it sounds like. All car manufacturers had to export most of their production if they wanted government controlled supplies of steel, aluminum, and other materials and bank loans. Daimler never had much of an export market . This meant Daimler was being squeezed on all sides. They could not compete on price with bigger mass producers like Austin and Jaguar and did not have the international reputation of Rolls Royce or Bentley. The Docker Daimlers, or Docker Shockers as they were sometimes called, represented a shrewd publicity stunt to put Daimlers in the news around the world and build their reputation as a glamor product. With hopes of making Daimlers fashionable in Paris, New York, Hollywood and foreign markets generally. Looked at in this light the cost was not excessive. All car makers build special show models for publicity. Many of them don't even run, and are scrapped when their show career is over. The Dockers used their cars for one year then sold them, recouping a large part of the cost of building them. When you look at the world wide publicity vs the cost in pounds, shillings and pence they look like a bargain. Daimler did manage to stay in business until taken over by Jaguar who continued offering various models for many years. So you would have to say the Docker Shockers achieved their goal.
We had at my childhood home a roulett wheel that came from the sale of contents from Glan Dyfi Castle which had been the weekend retreat in of Sir&Lady D. She I think put him in queer street? as they used to say in those days!
They are buried in the church of St James the Less in Stubbings near Maidenhead. A tiny cemetery.
Daimler's main claim to fame at the time was the Royal Warrant, in other words they were official suppliers of the Queen's limousines. Which is nice but you can't make a living selling one car every ten years to the Queen of England. This also appealed to the country aristocracy and the kind of upper middle class people who are impressed by the Royal Warrant, but for years the government had been slowly destroying and impoverishing this class of people. At the same time the government adopted their "export or die" program which was exactly what it sounds like. All car manufacturers had to export most of their production if they wanted government controlled supplies of steel, aluminum, and other materials and bank loans. Daimler never had much of an export market . This meant Daimler was being squeezed on all sides. They could not compete on price with bigger mass producers like Austin and Jaguar and did not have the international reputation of Rolls Royce or Bentley.
The Docker Daimlers, or Docker Shockers as they were sometimes called, represented a shrewd publicity stunt to put Daimlers in the news around the world and build their reputation as a glamor product. With hopes of making Daimlers fashionable in Paris, New York, Hollywood and foreign markets generally.
Looked at in this light the cost was not excessive. All car makers build special show models for publicity. Many of them don't even run, and are scrapped when their show career is over. The Dockers used their cars for one year then sold them, recouping a large part of the cost of building them. When you look at the world wide publicity vs the cost in pounds, shillings and pence they look like a bargain.
Daimler did manage to stay in business until taken over by Jaguar who continued offering various models for many years. So you would have to say the Docker Shockers achieved their goal.
I did not that
😎😗🏂🛷🎯🎱⚾️
We had a R
We had at my childhood home a roulett wheel that came from the sale of contents from Glan Dyfi Castle which had been the weekend retreat in of Sir&Lady D. She I think put him in queer street? as they used to say in those days!