THE DAIMLER DE-REGISTER

Main differences between the "DE36", the "DE27", the "DH27" and the "DC27"

• The obvious difference between a DE36 and a DE27 is the engine (a straight eight for the DE36 and a 6-cylinder for the DE27/DH27/DC27). In addition a DE36 has two side mounted spare wheels. The DE27 usually has just one spare, located in the boot. Both the DE36 and the DE27 usually have bonnet side vents (not to be confused with the pre-war situation, in which the light straight eights had bonnet side vents, and the normal straight eights had not. Pre-war bodies look quite different from post-war bodies however).

• DH27s were specially built for Daimler Hire Ltd. They had air-conditioning, efficient heating, electrically operated partitions and special "sight-seeing" windows. DC27s were proper ambulances.

• The DH27 has usually no bonnet side vents (DE27's and DE36's usually have). However this is not a strict rule of thumb.

• The DH27 has usually two side mounted spare wheels (like the DE36. DE27's have one spare wheel in the boot. There exists one DE27 with one side mounted spare wheel). Again not all DH27's have side mounted spare wheels.

• The DC27/DH27 had one single Solex carburettor instead of the twin SUs on the DE36 and DE27.

• On the DH27 a modified distributor was fitted

• On the DH27 there were variations to the transmission

• On the DH27 two propellershafts were mounted in series, the forward one being supported by a rubber mounted centre bearing. The shafts were fitted with needle roller bearings and transmitted the drive from the gearbox to the rear axle.

• On the DH27 the rear axle was of the hypoid bevel type albeit that the differential was located in a housing offset to the nearside.

• On the DH27 the engine was not only inclined backwards but also positioned slightly diagonally to make room for the transmission.

Then now the statistics up to now (for DE27, DH27 and DE36 together).

• Out of the 299 chassis we have 145 DE36's, 103 DE27's and 51 DH27's. There is however a debate about 2 DE36's. They could be DE27's in disguise (chassis 51074, 51111).

• 133 bodies have an (still existing?) owner. Names have been identified, but not all confirmed yet. This will require some phoning. They consist of 71 DE36's, 46 DE27's and 16 DH27's. Two experimental DE36 ambulances (see below) are included in these numbers.

• Two chassis's burnt out (51707 and 51713) and nine have been scrapped, are being scrapped or are probably unrestorable (51098, 51158, 51193, 51221, 51230, 51238, 51702, 51715 and 52929; all nine have above been counted as still having an owner. Also 51707 has been counted as still having an owner, but 51713 has not).

• Green Goddess chassis 51754 belonging to Jim Walters in Canada was destroyed in a fire early 2004, but is still included in the statistics.

• DH27's, which are specially built DE27's for Daimler Hire Ltd., were built on chassis number 52900 to 52950 inclusive, in total 51. Chassis 52950 is with a hearse body, the others are limousines. The factory also sanctioned chassis numbers 52951 to 52959 inclusive to DH27's, but none were actually built.

• Theoretical survival percentages: DE36=33%; DE27=22%; DH27=31% or overall 28%. But in what state these are, is still unknown.

• A preliminary overview of the surviving bodies per country is below. See for details on Australia the web-site of the DLOC Australia branch (http://www.dlocaustralia.org/.

        Country         DE27    DE36    DH27    Total   Owners

        UK              25      28      9       62      34
        Australia       6       10      1       17      14
        USA             3       11      3       17      15
        South Africa    0       4       0       4       2
        Germany         2       2       1       5       5
        Canada          0       2       0       2       1
        Sweden          4       1       0       5       5
        New Zealand     0       3       0       3       3
        Thailand        0       1       0       1       1
        Malta           0       1       0       1       1
        Ethiopia        0       1       0       1       1
        Denmark         1       0       0       1       1
        Ireland         1       0       1       2       2
        Italy           0       0       1       1       1
        India           2       1       0       3       2
        Belgium         1       1       0       2       2
        Netherlands     1       1       0       2       2
        Spain           0       1       0       1       1
        Jamaica         0       1       0       1       1
        Peru            0       1       0       1       1
        Unknown         0       1       0       1       1

        Total           46      71      16      133     96

The 40 on the road cars consist of 6 DH27's, 13 DE27's and 21 DE36's. UK has the lead with 13, then Australia with 8, the USA with 5, and Germany and Sweden with each 3. The Netherlands have 2, and India, Malta, Thailand, South Africa, Italy and New Zealand have each 1.