Shortly after being appointed managing director (Chief Executive) of BSA's Automotive Division in 1956, Edward Turner was asked to design a saloon car powered by a V8 engine.

[9] Adapting the Triumph head design for use in a saloon car engine required much work in reducing friction and improving timing.

[11] Tait had been involved with Donald Healey in the early post war years, working successfully on modified Riley 2½-litre Big Four engines, the final incarnation of which was used in 1953 Zethrin Rennsport prototype, delivering close to 200 bhp with surprising tractability.

[12] The 90 degree V8 engine has a cast iron block, a short, stiff, dynamically balanced crankshaft carried on five bearings, light-alloy heads[3] with part-hemispherical combustion chambers, and two push-rod operated overhead valves per cylinder operated by a single chain-driven camshaft positioned centrally high up in the vee.

[citation needed] The nose of the crankshaft carries a torsional vibration damper, a four or six-bladed fan, and the pulley for the triangulated thin belt drive for the dynamo and water pump.

[14] At the rear the drive is taken from the back of the camshaft for the distributor positioned high above the unit[15] behind the two semi-downdraught SU carburettors.

Westbury won the 1963 RAC Hillclimb Championship in the Felday-Daimler, setting course records at Craigantlet in Ulster and Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire.

[23] By the time of its retirement, the car, using mainly stock engine parts,[citation needed] produced 1400 bhp and ran the standing quarter mile in 7.2 seconds at 180 mph.

BLMC chairman Sir Donald Stokes decided that the production costs of the Daimler V8 engine were too high and ordered its discontinuation.