Triumph Herald

Wednesday 8 October 2014
The Triumph Herald is a small two-door car introduced in 1959 by the Standard-Triumph Company of Coventry. Body design was by the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti, and the car was offered in saloon, convertible, coupé, van and estate models.
Total Herald sales numbered well over 500,000, and Heralds are still seen on British roads in the early 21st century. The Vitesse, Spitfire and GT6 are all based on modified Herald chassis and running gear with bolt-together bodies.
Towards the end of the 1950s Standard-Triumph offered a range of two-seater Triumph sports cars alongside its Standard saloons, the Standard 8 and 10, powered by a small (803 cc or 948 cc) 4-cylinder engine, which by the late 1950s were due for an update. Standard-Triumph therefore started work on the Herald. The choice of the Herald name suggests that the car was originally intended to be marketed as a Standard, as it fits the model-naming scheme of the time (Ensign, Pennant and Standard itself). But by 1959 it was felt that the Triumph name had more brand equity, and the Standard name was phased out in Britain after 1963.
Giovanni Michelotti was commissioned to style the car by the Standard-Triumph board, encouraged by chief engineer Harry Webster, and quickly produced designs for a two-door saloon with a large glass area that gave 93 per cent all-round visibility in the saloon variant and the "razor-edge" looks to which many makers were turning. As Fisher & Ludlow, Standard-Triumph's body suppliers became part of an uncooperative BMC, it was decided that the car should have a separate chassis rather than adopting the newer monocoque construction. The main body tub was bolted to the chassis and the whole front end hinged forward to allow access to the engine. Every panel – including the sills and roof – could be unbolted from the car so that different body styles could be easily built on the same chassis. Accordingly, in addition to the original coupé and saloon models, van, convertible and estate versions were on offer within two years.
The Standard Pennant's 4-cylinder 948 cc OHV engine and 4 speed manual gearbox was used with synchromesh on the top three gears and remote gear shift and driving the rear wheels. The rack and pinion steering afforded the Herald a tight 25-foot (7.6 m) turning circle. Coil and double-wishbone front suspension was fitted, while the rear suspension, a new departure for Triumph, offered independent springing via a single transverse leaf-spring bolted to the top of the final drive unit and swing axles.
Instruments were confined to a single large speedometer with fuel gauge in the saloon (a temperature gauge was available as an option) on a dashboard of grey pressed fibreboard. The coupé dashboard was equipped with speedometer, fuel and temperature gauges, together with a lockable glovebox. The car had loop-pile carpeting and heater as standard. A number of extras were available including twin carburettors, leather seats, a wood-veneered dashboard, Telaflo shock absorbers and paint options.
In late 1958, prototype cars embarked on a test run from Cape Town to Tangiers. An account of the journey was embellished by PR at the time. However only minor changes were deemed necessary between the prototype and production cars. The new car was launched at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 April 1959 but was not an immediate sales success, partly owing to its relatively high cost, approaching £700 (including 45 per cent Purchase Tax). In standard single-carburettor form the 34.5 bhp (26 kW) car was no better than average in terms of performance. A saloon tested by The Motor magazine in 1959 was found to have a top speed of 70.9 mph (114.1 km/h) and could accelerate from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 31.1 seconds. A fuel consumption of 34.5 miles per imperial gallon (8.2 L/100 km; 28.7 mpg-US) was recorded.
The rear suspension was criticised as yielding poor handling at the extremes of performance though the model was considered easy to drive with its good vision, light steering (smallest turning circle of any production car) and controls, and ease of repair.


Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 1147 cc
- horsepower: 39 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 130 km/h

Triumph TR3

Monday 2 August 2010
The Triumph TR3 was a car built between 1955 and 1957 by Standard-Triumph in the United Kingdom, during which time 13,377 cars were produced, of which 1286 were sold within the UK while the rest were exported mainly to the USA. As of 2002 there were only 893 registered TR3/3a's on UK roads.
Although the car was usually supplied as an open two seater, an occasional rear seat and bolt on steel hard top were available as extras.
The car was powered by a 1991 cc straight-4 OHV engine which initially produced 95 bhp (71 kW; 96 PS) increasing to 100 bhp at 5000 rpm. The four speed manual transmission could be supplemented by an overdrive unit on the top three ratios electrically operated and controlled by a switch on the dash. In 1956 the front brakes changed from drum to disc becoming the first British series production car to be so fitted.
In 1957, it was replaced by an updated version, the TR3A.

Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 1991 cc
- horsepower: 96 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 170 km/h

Triumph Spitfire III & Stag

Tuesday 15 September 2009
The Mark III, introduced in March 1967, was the first major facelift to the Spitfire. The front bumper was raised in response to new crash regulations, and although much of the bonnet pressing was carried over, the front end looked quite different. The rear lost the overriders from the bumper but gained reversing lights as standard (initially as two separate lights on either side of the number plate, latterly as a single light in a new unit above the number plate); the interior was improved again with a wood-veneer instrument surround. A folding hood replaced the earlier "build it yourself" arrangement. For most of the Mark III range, the instrument cluster was still centre-mounted (as in the Mark I and Mark II) so as to reduce parts bin counts (and thereby production costs) for right-hand and left-hand drive versions. Starting in 1969, however, US-bound models were produced with a "federal" dashboard design which moved the gauges in front of the driver, a layout that would be adopted for all markets with the Mark IV. The 1147 cc engine was replaced with a bored-out 1296 cc unit, as fitted on the new Triumph Herald 13/60 and Triumph 1300 saloons. In twin-carburettor form, the engine put out a claimed 75 bhp (56 kW) and made the Mark III a comparatively quick car by the standards of the day.

Technical data:
- engine: 4 cylinders
- capacity: 1296 cc
- horsepower: 75 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 170 km/h

Envisioned as a luxury sports car, the Triumph Stag was designed to compete directly with the Mercedes-Benz SL class models. All Stags were four-seater convertible coupés, but for structural rigidity - and to meet new American rollover standards at the time - the Stag required a B-pillar "roll bar" hoop connected to the windscreen frame by a T-bar. A removable hardtop was a popular factory option for the early Stags, and was later supplied as a standard fitment. The car started as a styling experiment cut and shaped from a 1963-4 Triumph 2000 pre-production saloon, which had also been styled by Michelotti, and loaned to him by Harry Webster, Director of Engineering at Triumph from the early to late 1960s. Their agreement was that if Webster liked the design, Triumph could use the prototype as the basis of a new Triumph model. Harry Webster, who was a long time friend of Giovanni Michelotti, who he called "Micho", absolutely loved the design and spirited the prototype back to England. The end result, a two door drop head (convertible) had little in common with the styling of its progenitor 2000, but retained the suspension and drive line. Triumph liked the Michelotti design so much that they propagated the styling lines of the Stag into the new T2000/T2500 saloon and estate model lines of the 1970s.

Technical data:
- engine: V8
- capacity: 2500 cc
- horsepower: 100 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 170 km/h