Can anything good come out of a car crash? In most cases, no. But, if it happens to be a classic Daimler SP250 C Specification, that answer might be a yes. This car is owned by British-born Derek McConnell, who knows a lot about this rare breed of British sports cars. His example has just 76,000 miles on the clock ... thanks to a front-end crash that saw the car in pieces and sidelined for 36 years.

When he lived in England, Derek owned a stable of classic cars including a similar SP250 C Specification for more than 20 years, a Jaguar SS100, Jaguar XK 140 roadster, Triumph TR4, Triumph Stag, Triumph TR8, Triumph GT6 and MG Midget. Since coming down-under he's slowed down to just a Daimler SP250 and a Triumph TR4.

After settling here he began a search that took 18 months to find a C Specification replacement Daimler SP250. That search led him to this car which had just been restored by a Sydney engineer. “The car was sold new in Sydney in 1963 and in 1973 was involved in a crash that resulted in some damage to the front end of the car,” said Derek. The car was dismantled by the owner with the intention of restoration. However, that did not happen and the car changed hands as a `kit of parts' to the engineer, who stored the vehicle in a barn for many years until he got around to restoring the vehicle to it's former glory, just a few years ago.

Derek purchased the vehicle in 2008 and since then has undertaken minor modifications to make the car more driver-friendly, calling on his knowledge bank from the previous SP250. “I love driving it, it's great, “ he said. Changes include going from a gear steering mechanism to rack and pinion, wider tyres, a brake servo, generator over to alternator and changing the position of the oil filter to make it more accessible.

Many of the changes were made easy by the purchase of a kit from British firm Autotec, that upgrades the car. Derek's choice of the C Series was made for obvious reasons to anyone who does a moment's research on the SP250. The original car, to put it mildly, had some problems. Derek's car is an extremely low mileage car, thanks to the crash it had back in circa 1973. Daimler started as an offshoot of the German company now known as Daimler-Benz, manufacturers of Mercedes Benz. But it has always been a British company. In the 1950s it was owned by BSA and was best known as a manufacturer of up-market, but ultra-conservative sedans and limousines.

A shake-up in management saw a change of direction. The new chairman was Jack Sangster and well-known BSA engine designer Edward Turner was brought on board to design new engines, which resulted in a line up of new V8s – along with plans for a Daimler two seater sports car. At that time the name `Daimler' and `sports car' were a rare linkage. It was the halcyon era of Jaguar XKs, MG, Austin Healey and Triumph. Daimler was about as sporty as Big Ben.

Daimler designed the Dart, as it was called for a while, but according to Derek could not afford the tooling to bring the car to production. Looking at options it decided to appoint a boat builder to construct the car's body from fibreglass – similar to the American Chevrolet Corvette. It was to be powered by a compact 2.5 litre V8 adapted from one of Turner's designs, similar to his more recent motorcycle engines.

Testing took place in 1958 and apparently did not reveal the flaws that owners would later complain of: simple things like the doors flying open during hard cornering, the bonnet opening under stress. This gave a new meaning to body flex. Visually, the SP250 is a love-it-or-hate-it design. It is simply so un-British as to defy its heritage. Obviously Daimler saw the car's market as being the US, so the fins, prominent drooping bonnet way ahead of the wheels and gaping grille were designed for American taste. By 1960 though, fins were well on the way out.

Underling the American influence, the SP250 was revealed at the March 1959 New York Motor Show and badged as the Daimler Dart. Someone had not done their US home work as this was a familiar name in the US and owned by Dodge for a vehicle that would later become known in Australia as the Valiant. So the Daimler Dart was renamed the SP250: SP – for Sport – 250 being a tenth of the cubic size of the Turner V8 engine.

The chassis and suspension design were borrowed from Triumph TR3, as was the idea of a four speed manual gearbox. So both in style and suspension mechanicals the SP250 was a hybrid, or what we might call in Australia a `mongrel' with somewhat confused parentage. To us, and looks are always subjective, we really like the design. There is no other sports car that looks remotely like it as an overall package, although it is easy to see Triumph and MG at either end.

The car went on the market in 1960 and before too long the body flex problems surfaced, as did the ordinary handling characteristics. There's an old saying that you don't get a second chance at a first impression, and sales were thin on the ground for the SP250. Soon after launch BSA sold Daimler to Sir William Lyons and Jaguar – which was preparing to launch the successor to the XK 150, the XKE or iconic E-Type. The poor SP250 had little hope against the Jaguar that changed the sports car landscape..

 But, the car was revised in April 1961 in what was called the B Specification with body stiffeners added to reduce the flexing which caused the doors to open at inconvenient times, like during heavy cornering. Front and rear bumpers were added also. Then came the 1963 variant, the C Specification with further improvements. But, the damage was done with the first car and the SP250 really never recovered sales, despite the second and third specification models being vastly improved. The car was dropped in 1964 and not replaced. Less than 2700 were built of which there are 48 known examples in Australia.