Daimler Straight-Eight engines were eight-cylinder in-line petrol engines made by the Daimler Company to power the largest and most expensive cars in their range. The Straight-Eight engines replaced Daimler's earlier Double-Six V12 engines. Unlike the Double-Six engines, which used sleeve valves based on the Knight patents, the Straight-Eights used conventional poppet valves in the overhead valve configuration. Three series of Straight-Eight engines were built between 1934 and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939; another series, the DE36, was built after the war from 1946 to 1953.