Ever since I started reading British classic car magazines in the 70s, I loved Triumph. It seems they had it all: nice styling, open sports cars, closed sports cars, cheap sports cars, expensive sports cars, tiny sedans, medium sedans, large sedans, wagons. I went to the local Triumph dealer and got brochures for the whole range (Spitfire, Dolomite, 2500). When my father’s old rotten Peugeot 404 needed replacing, my brother and myself managed to persuade him in buying a four year old Triumph 2500 (another COAL).
Before I even had a drivers’ license, I went to Triumph club meetings where I saw all the types – many of which were convertibles. It was a dream to own an open car but I knew realistically that these would be outside my world (poor starting student) for years to come. Apart from the Herald convertible, I discovered every run of the mill Herald sedan had its metal top bolted to the windscreen, B posts and rear deck. Which meant the roof would be possible to remove without disastrous weakening of the car because it has a separate chassis.
A 13/60 I saved from the scrapyard on the right
The Triumph Herald was produced from 1959 to 1971. It started with a tiny engine (948 cc) which was enlarged to 1200 cc in 1961. The Herald was available as a sedan, coupe, convertible, wagon and van, all two doors. This was possible because all Heralds had a separate chassis, with the body bolted on. A 12/50 with a bit more power was added to the range, only available as a sedan with a sliding vinyl roof and a different grille. The last 4 years the 13/60 was added, this had a different bonnet (hood), taken from the 6 cylinder Vitesse but with only two headlamps (the Vitesse had four). It also had a slightly larger engine.
If I would have the choice now again, I still would select a 1200 sedan. Not a convertible because I prefer the lines of the sedan (that quirky roof). Not a 948 because it did not have the white rubber strip bumpers and the 948 was really a bit too low on power. And not a 13/60 because I think the original bonnet (hood) looks better, friendlier, not angry.
A Triumph Herald is a happy car. Just the right size and power. It looks like nothing else, but its proportions are good and the lines sharp. A typical 60s (when everything was possible) characterful out of the ordinary design, and that for just a cheap family car!
My old Chamois at the rear. Plus a Peugeot 205, Ford Escort and Opel Kadett. Typical cheap cars in the late 80s.
Because the Herald was the bottom of the Triumph range, I reckoned there should be some available cheap. But Triumph Heralds were pretty rare, just too old to be still on the roads. In those days (mid 80s) you seldom would see a car over 10 years on the road. They existed because I saw them at club meetings, and very nice examples were advertised in the club magazine for too much money (for me). Like my Imp, I never actually saw a Herald on the road.
Then I saw an ad in a Dutch classic car monthly. It was advertised by a Belgian owner. I wondered why that would be, there were almost no Belgian ads. Then it dawned on me that there were no classic car magazines in Belgium! The ad was for a 1969 Herald 1200 Saloon. Wow, exactly the car I wanted! I guess I was lucky, I was the only person that phoned him two weeks later. Not many people wanted to travel far (car was in the south of Belgium) just to inspect a humble Herald. And then having the trouble to import it? For most people that would be too much hassle. Not for me though. Should not be too difficult I thought.
So the week after I again traveled to the south of Belgium, around 350 kms (210 miles) or 4 hours away. Now with the Mitsubishi Galant of my father which did what it had to do admirably. It was not fast with a laden trailer but it did not need to be. I delivered the Herald to my friend’s place. He had a big shed where I could work on the car and repair what was needed.
In the shed I was happy to see almost rust free floors and chassis. I replaced the flexible and metal brake lines and fitted new tires, and the complete exhaust. It was surprising to see the exhaust was still available cheap at a local Car Parts shop (it really is a very simple system: one long pipe from the exhaust manifold to the single silencer, then a pipe to the rear).
Cute car! With its one-day-valid registration (to drive to the test station)
A first registration test failed but only on a few small things. The Rules stated that hinged front seats needed a catch. These were never fitted to any Herald, not even to the ones sold new in our country. So I made simple brackets from sheet metal. Also the Rules said the drivers outside mirror should be adjustable from the drivers seat, which meant I had to relocate the one outside mirror from the fender to the door. Two weeks later the test was successful and I received a special classic car registration. These were just introduced and it meant I could order old fashioned dark blue number plates (instead of modern yellow plates).
During this time we moved from a students’ flat to a rented new build house, with a garage. What a luxury! I managed to find out how to remove the roof: unscrew two bolts/nuts above the front windscreen, two at the B posts, and four or five (I do not remember) at the rear deck. The rear side windows would fall out if you were not careful. To store the roof, I had nailed ropes to the roof girders of my garage with hooks. So, if I drove the car carefully in the garage to the correct spot I could remove the roof and hang it to the ropes! After some practice this was possible in about 15 minutes. I now had a convertible car! Always with one eye on the weather reports of course because when it would start raining, there just was no roof.
Even with the roof attached, the Herald is a great car to drive. In the UK it was one of the cheapest car you could buy when new (alongside the Austin Mini and Hillman Imp). The Herald always looked a more expensive car. It had a beautiful high gloss wooden dashboard. The seats looked substantial and were comfortable. It was not fast at all but was sporty with its nice exhaust rumble, low seating position, it all had the feeling of a sports car.
Just the feeling of course because the engine was a tad less than 1200 cc and not at all a great performer with its 48 HP. But it made the right noises. Road holding was fine, it had a simple swing axle rear suspension but I never experienced the dangerous-looking pictures you see of Herald or Spitfires going too fast through an corner and the car being jacked up. If fact I believe the one transverse rear leaf spring was maybe set too much, meaning the car sat lower and with a little negative camber. Probably this had an effect on the drive shafts universal joints though, it seemed they needed changing twice per year or so.
I loved its old fashioned details like the big steering wheel, the caps around the head lights, that wooden dashboard, the typical rear lamps. It was also practical, 5 students would fit and a couple of beer crates.
Overall the Herald was pretty reliable, later I used it every day getting to work 10 miles away.
Sylvia and I used the Herald on many holidays in the UK and France. Steep mountain roads were a problem when it was fully laden. But it was nice to have a big luggage compartment, something I was not used to in my Imp. Bulky camping gear was no problem.
Like other British cars, they seem to be made for the gentle flowing hills and bends of smooth UK roads. It liked those roads much better than motorways where it coped but was too noisy, to keep up with the faster modern machinery. I never forget us driving on the outside lane of the M25 around London when a similar Herald 1200, filled with two older couples, flew past us! Heralds were a rare sight in the UK too so we really were surprised to see that. Maybe it got a Vitesse or a Spitfire 1500 engine, who knows, for sure not a standard tune 1200 engine!
At a friend’s house
Then suddenly it was the nineties. We were expecting our first child and a bigger car would be welcome. There would be no real use for the trusty Herald anymore so it was put up for sale.
As with some other cars I regret selling the car. It served us well and was a really nice car overall. However I am happy to say it is still registered (March 2023) and on the road, owned by someone unknown. If it ever comes up for sale again…
Thanks! I enjoyed your story. And it’s satisifiying to know it’s still on the road.
It sure is. But it has its disadvantages as well – a newer owner removed the roof permanently and has added an aftermarket softtop. I saw a picture and did not like it. But hey anyone can do whatever he wants to his car.
🙂 prachtig
I have warmed to the Herald over the years. Yours, in its dark color, looked especially nice. I had forgotten that these were built for so long. And I had never known that the roof was a bolt-on affair.
I understand that terrible feeling when life circumstances change and the adult thing to do is move on from an old, unusual car you love. And it is clear that you loved it, when part of your day during a holiday was spent making clutch cylinder repairs. It is the price we pay for love, sometimes.
One cannot keep everything… but in the case of the Herald I would not mind having that car still in the back corner of the shed. It sure was a favorite of us (Sylvia liked it too)
You took some great photos of your Herald in unusual surrounds.
When I was in college in the early 1960s there were a few new-ish Heralds in Adelphi’s parking lots. As I walked past them they seemed to be attractive and simple alternatives to my big, clumsy, rusty, and leaky 1953 Chrysler.
Seeing a Herald today reminds me of those busy (almost frantic) college days filled with the excitement of a unknown future along with concerns over current financial worries and the combination of both work and college studies.
The Herald looked just right for its time – and it still looks good to this day.
Thank you. I was, and still am not, a good photographer but am glad I took the pictures I have.
That 80s Dutch street scene could any 50s social housing street in the UK.
I’d never realized the Herald when new was priced the same as Imp and Mini, it does seem like a more expensive car from a bigger size class. If I remember correctly they have big panel gaps due to their bolted together construction. There was a very pretty coupe version in the early sixties. Charming cars.
A friend, Rob, who also owned a few British classics, owned a Herald Coupe for a couple of years. A really nice example. Here it is on front of my house
Genuinely impressed, how well you have documented, and maintained the cars you have owned. As a little kid, I remember seeing many unique UK and French cars here in Ottawa, back in the ’70s and ’80s. A fleeting moment in time, really. Such a contrast to the 93% Detroit iron. Sincerely wish, I had appreciated and photographed more of them, at the time.
Renault 16!
Hmmm my documentation is not really much. I am happy to have kept the pictures I took. Digitalizing was a nice thing to do. And the maintaining thing is/was always a worry. I felt sorry for cars that got worse during my ownership, especially because of the rust.
It is better and easier now that the classics are not kept indoors!
Dion, as usual the story is great and the wonderful range of pictures really complete it, well done.
In one of the most extreme bouts of the CC effect that I’ve experienced, a predictive one in this case, just yesterday fellow CCer Dave Skinner and I came across a 1962 (?) Triumph 1200 sedan, also in black, in a local junkyard. Your post now saves me the trouble of doing a post on it…:-) . What could I add beyond showing one at the end of its rope?
We also discovered for ourselves about twelve hours before your post ran exactly how the top is bolted to the windshield, sides, and rear of the car and were discussing how it was sort of like a Jeep Wrangler hardtop in that respect. We also marveled at the diameter of the exhaust pipe at the manifold, measuring about the diameter of a quarter dollar.
The chassis number on the passenger side is GAT42053 which places it around 1962 I believe, not sure what the T in the sequence means, the GA seems to indicate the 1200.
Thanks for your kind comment Jim. Sorry to see this car in a scrapyard! Looks pretty saveable. I see rust free front wheelarches and door bottoms. These were always rusted on European cars. I once toyed with the idea of buying a rust free Herald and ship it over to here (where most surviving Heralds have received must rust repair / welding / restoration by now).
Not sure of the Jeep Wrangler hardtop, but on this scrap Herald the B post only have one bolt, and the rear is bolted with just three (I think) bolts.
There were lots of decent parts on it as it was just placed there within the last day or two but it was sort of bent in the middle, or at least the doors got nowhere close to being able to close which may be something that happened in the yard forklift and jackstand placing process. The engine was more or less complete, and some interior panels were in very good condition, others not so much. The wood dash board looked to have used up half of Nottingham Forest, as opposed to the veneers of today it seemed to be about a 3/4″ thick plank all the way across.
My only other experience with these is the TopGear episode with James May attempting to sail one across the English Channel, humorous as it was your story makes the car far more interesting as a potential “usable” vehicle.
Indeed, it looks too far gone. That roof panel has a dent in the middle too it seems.
Still amazed that these cars are taken to scrap yards in this day and age. Would there have been no takers for scrap money? Maybe owners do not want the hassle / dealing with advertising and prospective buyers. Calling the scrap yard is much easier.
It was most likely sitting in someone’s barn for a few decades before they passed on and the heirs cleared it out…too hard to deal with a non-running beat up car that doesn’t have much value in present condition. And likely would cost more to make right than just to buy a decent one in the first place now.
You touched on something below – the bumpers. There were chrome caps at the ends, but the middle (largest) section are white rubber? We were wondering it that was under a missing chrome shell or is that just how they were?
Early Heralds had no rubber bumper strips. The rubber is attached to the bumper by a steel profile, the rubber (when new) slides over the profile. Impossible to take off when it sat there over a period, because the rubber became rock-hard over the years. Also a bad design because water got entrapped between rubber and the profile, so the profile rotted away. It was not unusual to see Heralds with parts of the rubber hanging loose or rusted off the main bumper body.
The ends of the rubber were capped with a shiny aluminium cap. New rubbers are still available.
The Vitesse (6 cilinder) had no rubber strips but got a stainless steel profile instead.
From being lifted I suspect. Years ago I raced to scrap yard after a friend told me that there was a Heard just in that was better than my daily driver! Only to the yard had run a rope around the roof to crane lift it. Let’s not the roof just bolts on.
Quite the find indeed! Yes, it looks to be structurally compromised, but as usual in that dry part of the world, quite corrosion-free.
Spotted in the 90’s in a wrecking yard in Tilbury, Ontario.
That looks like an early Herald (948) – handle on the bonnet, no white rubber bumpers, light colored steering wheel. Pretty rare.
I think I’ve seen more Heralds in the last decade, thanks to car shows, than Vega’s. By the way, count me as one who has always preferred the 13/60’s “angry” front styling; more modern to my eyes than the original, not as pretentious (four headlights on such a small car?) as the Vitesse. Like a lot of Triumph’s low-budget style updates at the time, it was done well.
Hi DMan, I agree the 13/60 nose looks more modern. But “more modern” is not always a good thing in my view 🙂
Michelotti, the designer of many Triumphs of the sixties, also was responsible of most Mk2 versions of his designs. Indeed somewhat low budget: keep the middle section and graft on new front and rear ends. But he did it expertly, if you would not know the earlier versions you would never know the Mk2 versions were an update.
Hey, what wrecking yard was that? I found a bumper for my 72 Matador in the 90’s at a wrecking yard in Tilbury that had a LOT of old cars. I got door hinges for my girlfriend’s 79 Datsun and a friend got a B-W automatic transmission for his 70 Rebel there.
I can’t imagine it’s still there 30 years later.
Doug
Cedar auto wreckers…It was a junkman’s junkyard, with cars everywhere and located on wet ground, so anything underneath was quickly toasted. They crushed everything about 15 years ago and retired, and now a new yard is there. The new owners like the old iron, so usually keep anything unusual around and don’t crush. I don’t recall seeing the cars you mentioned, but must confess they weren’t in my wheelhouse, so I possibly walked right by them. The only picture of an AMC that I took at the time is shown below.
Yep, that’s the one. I remember it was Cedar now that you mention it.
Is there such a thing as “junk yards” in the “USA” anymore? Can’t say last time I spotted one..
H’mm..
The Herald “borrowed” the 1956 Chrysler 300’s taillight design. Making the best part of the Triumph.
There was a TV show “Last of the summer Wine” where an old lady who didn’t drive very well drove a Herald
Hurrah!!! Was just getting ready to post about the show and “Edie Pegdon’s” car!! Loved that show!!
“Thora Hird” was the actress that portrayed “Edie”.
Dion: I wanted to let you know that I enjoy your whole series a lot even though I don’t comment much. Back in the eighties I visited with a family in Utrecht and one of the guys had a Herald convertible in red. Yes, they were incredibly cute and the guy just drove it the way it was intended: a runabout. In Germany one associated Triumph with the Spitfire.
I hope that you catch it when it gets released by the current owner!
Thanks Wolfgang for your kind comment! That red convertible would already have been fairly unusual in Utrecht in the 80s.
I love herald sedans and especially Vitesse sedans. My ideal Herald would be one with a Spitfire 1500 engine swapped in. I have raced a Herald for a friend when he broke his elbow at a race weekend, and it was insanely quick in race trim. Great look back on your ownership!
Swapping other Triumph engines into the Herald was frequently done, and still is. And why not, there is lots of easy access. The six cilinder from the TR250/TR5 or Vitesse/GT6 fits, as do Spitfire engines.
A Rover V8 fits in too and a 302 Ford but the backbone style chassis isnt really up to the torque of a V8 and the body panels begin to separate.
Another great chapter. I’ve always had a soft spot for Heralds; there were several around when I was a kid, both in Iowa City and in Towson. I always stopped to look at them closely, especially the interiors, which were so appealing for a small cheap car.
Yes, there’s a quality about them that makes them look upscale and dignified than the typical small, cheap import back then. The convertible version even more so.
I just put my finger on it: they remind me quite a bit of the Peugeot 404. Obviously so in certain stylistic aspects, such as the front end and the fins in the rear. They were both rather narrow and a bit upright. And both had a dignified quality that allowed them to look attractive for much longer than almost any other car back then. And they both had coupe and cabrio versions, which enhanced their qualities further, although the 404 coupe and cabrio had a unique body.
Both really were enhanced by adding a couple of driving/fog lights to the grille.
Of course they were quite different under their skins. But the appeal, to me anyway, of both of them is very strong. They managed to transcend their basic utilitarian purposes and became something of classics in their time, and well after.
Exactly, these Herald always had a quality ring to them – even if they were only cheap basic UK transport. And not often assembled with great quality.
I remember reading an old Autovisie (Dutch car magazine) road testing a new Herald. They commented that at one point the brakes failed completely “but was easily repaired”. Amazing that they found these kind of dangerous faults acceptable.
There was one on Piccadilly Rd, 2 doors down from us, owned by a divorced woman and her late teen-aged daughter, when I was about 13-14. They also had a BRG ’65-ish MGB, I think the Herald was baby blue. The lady was, according to neighborhood rumor, a bit racy, and I guess the cars sort of matched her lol! The house next to us in-between had a ’60 bug-eye Sprite also baby (Iris?) blue at the time, so I was well provided with cool Brit cars to ogle.
Here’s a Triumph Sports 6, which is what they called the Triumph Vitesse in the US, that was for sale a few years ago. The owner had swapped a 2.5-liter Triumph six into it. I wonder how the swing-axle rear suspension copes with that.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1964-triumph-sports-6/
Very rare. Look at those panel gaps – mentioned by someone else in his comment.
I’m into two minds about the Vitesse. As a design I prefer the Herald but the Vitesse is not looking bad either. And I would not mind trying out one to see how they drive – much different than a much slower Herald.
That rear suspension would not cope very well, might need to upgrade it to GT6+ specs with Rotoflexes.
the Triumph taillight has an uncanny resemblance to 1956 Chrysler, obviously on a smaller scale
Indeed it does.
The Herald was designed by Michelotti in Italy in 1957. The world then was very different, could Michelotti have seen a 1956 Chrysler? How – in a magazine? I do not think USA car magazines were sold in Italy. At a dealer or the importer? Car show?
Just curious how it would have happened.
US cars were all displayed in European car shows so its likely Michelotti saw them in the metal.
He could very well have subscribed to American car magazines.
Wonderful post Dion! Despite being a Triumph fan I did not know that all Heralds had a removable roof.
I don’t think I ever saw a Herald in Canada, and I’m sure the first Vitesse I ever saw was at the British Motor Heritage Museum in England.
I’m noticing a pattern here, that old cars tend to leave your ownership in better condition than when they came into it. That’s quite an admirable thing, most people seem to do the opposite. Well done, and cheers for Grolsch beer!
Please do not say that Doug. The Herald was in a good mechanical condition but more rusted at the time I sold it. Same for another Triumph I owned in the 90s, and I had to scrap my Chamois which I had been driven for a couple of years because of the advanced rust.
Note that back then I kept the cars parked in the open all the time, and that in the Netherlands roads were salted in winter which surely accelerated the rust.
A local electrician still runs a Herald estate for his daily drive. They seem so small nowadays!
Glad you enjoyed your Herald, Dion!
My first cars were Vitesses – with overdrive a 2ltr. Mk2 would cruise happily at around 90-100mph. I was a member of the Sports 6 Club which introduced me to a great bunch of people.
My last one took me from the UK to Germany to become a designer at Opel. This car is apparently still around, although color was changed from Valencia Blue to white.
Here is a picture taken of it still fully laden after arriving at the Opel Wohnheim in Ruesselsheim.
BTW, convertibles do have extra catches in the doors – essential to stop them rattling and/or opening…
Wow, 90/100 mph! Unattainable in any Herald.
Regarding those extra catches – it seems they are the same as used in the TR7.
I can fully understand the need for them. The Herald (and Vitesse) is a very flexible car and I can imagine a door flying open in a corner 🙂
About 1984 I was attending the local “British Car Day” event in Bowie, Maryland, and had entered my 1954 Bentley Mark VI “R” type in the show field. While browsing the flea market, looking for various items I might need for my growing collection of British vehicles, I spotted a very nice, low-mileage Herald 1200 convertible for sale. The little light blue car with dark blue interior had been garaged all it’s life, and had no rust.
I chatted with the owner and discovered he had inherited the car, and his wife didn’t feel safe riding in it because it tended to fishtail at higher speeds. So he brought the car to the event and put a For Sale sign in the windshield, but no price was listed. We were talking about the car I was looking it over, so I asked him how much he wanted for it. Turned out I was the first person to even ask about it, much less ask the price.
$100.00. That’s what he was asking for the Herald, so I pulled out 5 $20 bills and exchanged them for the signed title. The only problem with the car was it took forever to start, and it took me a while to figure out the ground strap between the block and frame was missing. Once the ground strap was replaced, the car started fine.
Running the Herald around town was fun, plenty of thumbs-up and smiles, especially on sunny days when the top was down. However when I drove the car at higher speeds, about 45mph or faster, the back end of the car began to fishtail severely, so I ordered all new rear suspension bushings and found replacing them didn’t make much of a difference. At higher speeds the back half of the car seemed to be trying to pass the front half of the car.
I ended up trading the Herald for another vintage car, and it wasn’t until years later I met a guy who ran an Austin-Healey and TR shop tell me some of the early USA versions of the 1200 convertibles were built with the coupe rear spring. He said the convertible was supposed to have a lighter rear spring because of the weight difference. That made sense to me, as I always thought the rear of the car sat up too high unless there were 4 people riding it it.
I think I was at that show, and some years later my best friend bought a beige ’59 Jag Mk I 2.8 that was a low mile (34k?) mint original rhd car that was on sale there. IIRC that show moved to a different location, then went away completely in more recent years?
Great post Dion! As a former Spitfire owner I have lots of respect for the Herald, given how little the basic platform needed changing to become a pretty competent sports car. We had quite a few of them over here, but of course they were never as plentiful as minors, minis and so on, so there are very few survivors now.
A guy I know has been doing a multi year restoration of an early convertible, must talk to him and see if it can be featured here on CC.
Would love to see any extra Herald content here!
The Herald had a particular slot in the British market. Better, as in more expensive, a bit of luxury and claiming some more class and prestige, than a Morris Minor or Ford Prefect/Anglia, bigger than a Mini or an Imp and in the UK at least significantly more expensive. The (apparently more) sophisticated fashionable Italian styling was part of this.
But beneath the skin it was an outlier. Build on a separate chassis as Triumph had no bodyshop and no one would build a monocoque for them – Fisher and Ludlow had been absorbed by Austin, Briggs by Ford and Pressed Steel was fully committed to Morris/BMC, Rootes and Vauxhall. Hence, it was made in a very complex manner industrially, with pressings from various places bolted together on a chassis, giving Triumph the option of a saloon, convertible, estate, van and the awkward coupe, as well as the Vitesse, Spitfire and GT6 on the same basis, and letting Dion have his personal convertible option. Yes, it had a smarter interior than a Ford or Hillman, and yes, it did rust in the UK.
But it did well enough to enable Triumph to sell itself to Leyland and kickstart the ultimate consolidation of the UK industry.
Great to see those period shots as well
Hi Roger, I am quite sure I read in Autocar or Motor that, at least in its last years, the Herald was one of the cheapest cars for sale in the UK.
Thank you for your further addition regarding the construction of the Herald. Being a COAL article I did not go much into detail about the Herald history. There are much better articles about that.
“Road holding was fine, it had a simple swing axle rear suspension but I never experienced the dangerous-looking pictures you see of Herald or Spitfires going too fast through an corner and the car being jacked up.”
I’m glad you thought road holding was fine. I recall reading reviews of the first Spitfires where the reviewers were not impressed and one of them cheekily wrote, “Hark! The Herald axles swing!”
That’s a bit of a problem generally. Car journalists experience things and write them up, and it is picked up by the readers. Nothing wrong with that of course. However a car journalist is not Mr Average and will test a car right to its limits, something that a normal user will never do.
To put it differently – I know the Herald (and early Spitfire / GT6 / Vitesse) were criticized about their rear suspension but usually this was no problem in day to day driving. I know I vastly preferred my “bad handling” Herald over an Opel A Kadett (competitor when new) I once had the “pleasure” of driving. That thing wanted to shift its rear axle immediately if a corner was taking just a little too fast.
Ridiculous as it may sound there are still quite a few live Heralds in NZ, I had two a 61 1200 sedan and a 63 coupe which I unbolted the roof from I put it back thanks to wet weather and using that car for work both mine had the 1200 actually 1147cc engines but the coupe had twin SUs so it went moderately well but both were rust buckets a common failing in Heralds, The end of the sedan came when it put no2 rod out the left side of the block and the coupe I swapped for a boat.
By the way they were not all two door cars in India they put a 4 door version out under the Standard brand Triumphs parent company
Hi Bryce – yes I know but these were made/sold in small numbers only and even in India they are very rare. They also did a 4 door Wagon version. Someone in the UK had imported one of these.
Nice looking sedan when new and today .
-Nate
Great post Dion, you rightfully got a lot of comments here. In my family there were a number of Triumphs, among them my grandma’s late model Stag V8 with the targa roof. She got the last one she could find, it was bright green. After a short time she was tired of the color and got it repainted white! The sound of the Stag is fondly remembered by my mom and grandma.
A few years before that in 1971 my father bought a 1955 Triumph Speed twin motorcycle and a year later the same bike from 1949 with a solid hard tail frame. The ’55 was sold to his brother who still owns it and sadly refused to sell it back to me or my father. My old man is still a bit angry about that I believe haha.
The 1949 is still around too and I guess that I’m the owner since about two years now? Its sadly far away in northern Norway and I haven’t picked it up yet, but I intend to do so this year if I get the chance because its the only vehicle family heirloom left besides my grandma’s Saab 9-5 turbo which I’d like to get someday and keep until I pass away or until I give it to one of my future kids.
Same goes for the Triumph of course, maybe one vehicle for each kid, time will tell!
As for the Herald, I did see plenty of them around in the early 2000’s until the early 2010’s. Nearby my house in South Amsterdam there used to be a sort of scrapyard-ish place which had one behind a fence. Faded red paint but it did seem easily restorable. I wish I knew where it went because the place is gone. A hotel named the Olympic hotel stands there now.
Thank you for your comment. Always good to hear from fellow Triumph owners!
When I got my motorcycle drivers license seven years ago, I wanted a bike so I got a fifteen year old Bonneville.
Michelotti did a superb job on the Herald, given that due to the lack of a body shop as described by Roger, most of the pressings were very flat.
The contemporaneous Lloyd Arabella was of similar construction, for exactly the same reason. They even bought-in all of the panels, which were curvier/prettier.
Flexibility, but rather labour-intensive with Yankee screwdirvers.
I remember an early Mercedes A or B class prototype from the 1990s being of similar construction, so it too could be a Professor Pat Pending Convert-a-Car.
Never found any reference to it since…
The Lloyd Isabella – curvier yes, but prettier? Hmmm not to my eyes 🙂 Pretty rare car though, I do not recall seeing one in the flesh.