FLYING THE FLAG

The Daimler ute operated by the Daimler, Jaguar & Lanchester Owners in New Zealand Spare Parts Club Inc., to give the group its full name, is quite a distinctive vehicle, and was even when it was common for tradies to hack the back off saloon cars and stick a deck on them.

Taking a saw to a piece of British heritage such as a Jaguar-bodied Daimler was not exactly looked on with approval by traditional owners of the brand, even then. However, the driving force behind the setting up of the separate parts division of the car club in Christchurch, the late Gordon Somerville, was a man ahead of his time, pre-empting the modern fashion for creating quirky marketing vehicles