Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas car colour guide – October 1972
The Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas is a very special version of the Daimler Double Six. Essentially it is a Daimler Double Six that was sent to the Vanden Plas coachbuilders to be hand trimmed with a unique interior that was to Rolls Royce levels. The cars also had special chrome trim, a vinyl roof and other improvements over the Standard Double Six. The Double Six basically being a slightly more upmarket version of the Jaguar XJ12.
The Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas was offered with a set of distinctive special colours that was different to the rest of the XJ and Daimler range. These colours started for the series 1 cars and continued into the early series 2 period. The colours on offer had changed somewhat by the mid 70s. During this period a base coat was done at Browns Lane and the rest of the paint and trim was done at the Vanden Plas Kingsbury works in Northern London.
I’m not aware of any statistics for the most popular colours. However, looking at various cars for sale over the years (mostly in the UK), Silver Sand seems to be the most popular. This is interesting as its probably the most understated, especially when paired with Chamois leather, as they always seem to be.
The next most popular would appear to be Morello, and then I’ve seen a few cars in Caramel and Coral. Aegean Blue I’ve seen quite a few times in the series 2, but it doesn’t seem to be as common in the series 1 cars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in Aubergine, and Sage seems to be very rare.
For the leather colours, it seems like nearly all the cars I’ve seen for sale have chamois leather. Tuscan is definitely in the minority and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car with Deep Olive. I personally like the boldness of Tuscan. Chamois is lighter in real life and cream leather tends to show marks that other colours do not. Its probably not too surprising that Chamois was by far the most popular, it works with all of the colours. I think Tuscan would probably clash with Caramel or Coral. Sage is the only one I would probably pick to go with Deep Olive.
I personally really like the Daimler Double Six Vanden Plas colours. They are all striking and pair really well with the black Vinyl roof and the extra chrome. The colour range for the regular Jaguar and Daimler saloons was more extensive, but the exclusive colour range added something special to the Vanden Plas model.
Were it late 1972, I would have chosen a car in either Morello with Tuscan or Aegean Blue with Chamois.
