News

Pre-war Triumph cars on display in Manchester

The Pre-1940 Triumph motor club, presented several of their historic cars at the recent Classic Car Show at Event City.

Richard Hill, Regional Representative for the club, organised the attendance of the Triumph cars, for this, their second appearance at the show. Amongst all the post war family cars and the powerful sports cars at the event, the Triumphs took visitors back to a time when motoring was for the few, and for the very enthusiastic, rather than the norm that car ownership is today. For the two days, those on the stand fielded numerous questions and reminiscences about the cars. Sometimes this lead to information, previously unknown to the club registrar, who is trying to recreate the data bank lost when the Triumph factory was completely annihilated during the war, destroying all records.

The cars on display were a 1929 7.9 HP two seater tourer de-luxe, in primrose yellow; a black 1939 Roadster Coupe 14-65; a grey Vale two seater sports car, which uses all Triumph parts, chassis, engine, gearbox etc.; finally, and just around the corner, another club member was displaying his 1933 7.9 tourer, in beige. (This latter on the display of the Thame Valley vintage and classic car club).

The occasion was also used to pass on the Triumph baton between members. Made from a piece of ash, taken from the frame of a Triumph car, the baton is moving from member to member, all around the world. Started at our Golden Jubilee club rally, in 2011, when we assembled 57 of the remaining Triumphs at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire, which in itself was a fantastic achievement, as the club has just 275 members worldwide. These 57 cars are some of the residue of only 35,000 Triumphs to be made.

Coupled with the fact that Event City is located just across the road from the fabulous shopping mecca of The Trafford Centre, with its marvellous food hall, then the weekend was judged to be a great success by all that attended.


 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The 3rd Annual General Meeting of the Pre-1940 Triumph Motor Club Ltd will be held at 12 noon on Sunday 16 June 2013 at Broughton Castle. Reports and voting papers will be sent to members in early May. Nominations for membership of the Management Committee or items that members wish to be added to the Agenda should be sent to the Secretary by 30 April.

Tony Miles, Secretary secretary@pre-1940triumphmotorclub.org

A Triumphant Day at Coventry

The Pre-1940 Triumph Motor Club Ltd took top honours at this years Festival of Motoring at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, Warwickshire on 25th and 26th August, having won four awards from the four cars entered into the “Show and Shine” Concours Competition. This included the award for the “Best Car in the Show” which went to Rob Greene with his “Straight Eight Tribute Car”. The car also won the Pre-War Sports/Convertibles Category.

This car is a Tribute to Triumph Chief Stylist’s Walter Belgrove’s still-born road going version of the legendary Straight Eight Dolomite i.e. it has full length wings and running boards, as opposed to the cycle type fitted to Donald Healey's rally car.

It took Rob about 2,700 hours to build the car over a 6 year period. In common with most pre-war Triumphs the bodywork is coach built (ash frame skinned with aluminium). As with its sister car, also built by Rob Green (now owned by Club member Steve Myres) it is powered by Triumph's 6-cylinder 2-litre over-head valve engine with triple carbs.

This years Prescott was its first public appearance and resulted in considerable public interest. Rob has now covered 700 miles and he says “the engine is bedding-in nicely during this running-in period - each time I take it out it performs better”

Other award winners were a Triumph Gloria Six Vitesse Saloon which is owned by John Marshall which was placed 2nd in the Pre-War Saloon category, and Martin Johnson Howe with his 1935 Gloria Six Vitesse Saloon, which came 3rd in the same category.

As expected the Triumph stand, which also included a newly restored 1935 Triumph Gloria Southern Cross owned by Bernhard Boullons, was certainly a crowd puller as most of the cars on display are seldom seen given their rarity.

Triumph have a long association with Coventry and the Coventry factory produced an estimated 35,000 cars from 1923 to 1940 of which only 255 are known to survive in roadworthy condition. Unfortunately during the bombing of Coventry all the company’s equipment and records were destroyed. The Club however is extremely active and has a record 265 members in the UK and overseas.


 

Gloria Triumphs at Classic Car show in Lelystad, Holland

A rare 1935 Triumph Gloria Six Tourer, owned by Bert Mooijekind was the star winner at the Lelystad Concours car show in Holland held on 17th June 2012. A total of 400 cars were on display at the show and the car won overall first prize, plus was the class winner in the 1930 – 1940s section, in which there some 60 cars. The show was well attended with some 25,000 visitors.

As the overall winner the car was entered into the International Concours d'elegance Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn, Holland the following weekend, where they are required to comply with international FIVA preservation, with a number of international judges. Bert said “initially I was somewhat nervous about entering such a prestigious competition, with such a high standards for entrants. However this was an opportunity not to be missed.”

The Gloria attracted many admiring looks and received favourable comments from judges although it was unsuccessful in winning the national Concours in view of some very stiff competition.

Bert and his wife Monique live in Holland and are very active members of the Pre-1940 Triumph Motor Club Ltd. Including Bert's Gloria Six Tourer there are two survivors plus one Gloria Six Vitesse Tourer (visually the same but with a higher spec. engine). These were built between September 1934 and August 1935. The Club has only recorded four Gloria Six Tourers and three Gloria Six Vitesse Tourers, so it is likely that Triumph did not make very many.


Chairman’s Chat, December, 2012

My last article commenced with a mention of the awful summer weather and ended with a comment about the forthcoming Classic Car exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. As the theme for our display at the NEC this year was the Sporting Triumphs, I was asked to take my Vitesse 14-60 along as an example of that model. I agreed but the thought of driving the 260 miles round trip, at this time of the year filled me with trepidation. However, despite the awful summer weather, the autumn weather in the period of the NEC show was balmy and pleasant. Editor Steve arranged for his Monte Carlo entrant and my car to be transported together from Doncaster to Birmingham. I decided to trailer my car to Doncaster to keep it away from the already frequently salted roads and the arrangements Steve made were perfect.

Talking of perfect arrangements, our West Midlands Regional Rep organised our attendance at the show, and how perfectly those arrangements were made. Congratulations Martin! Leaving the show was easy, as soon as the trade doors opened, our convoy of 6 cars was gone and we were able to load and beyond the road, just 45 minutes after the show ended. I fetched my car back from Steve’s the following morning, having the pleasure of driving the 40 miles or so in warm autumn sunshine. The car was washed, chammied and put back to bed before lunchtime and before rain and heavy winds started. Thank you Steve, Martin, Brian Bromwich and Bernard Bollons for all the organisation and for taking your cars. Than you to Clare for supporting Martin. Thank you to all the Management Committee and members who went along to support the club.

 

Now, the follow on: Last year we won the medium sized club stand award. This year we took the runner’s up position, (2nd) in the category most improved car club magazine, so congratulations Steve!

 

Thinking of the forthcoming Spring and Summer Martin J ohnson –Howe would appreciate feedback of how many cars are likely to attend the STAR 90 Festival at Gaydon, on Sunday May 19, 2013. The festival will celebrate amongst other things, 80 years of the Triumph Gloria, so we ought to pull out all stops.

 

I wish you all an excellent year for using your Triumph in 2013. David Mason.

New Year

David Mason writes - I took my Vitesse 14-60 to the Petwood hotel, to the VSCC New Years Day Lincolnshire members meet. About 35 cars met, and the occupants, some 80 VSCC members and their travelling companions, enjoyed a lunch together. The hotel served as the mess for the officers of 617 squadron during the war, and a bar is preserved as a museum to the Dam Busters squadron. The hotel will have seen many cars similar to those assembled on New Years Day, both before and since the War. Contact was made with one other visitor, who had knowledge of, and maybe pictures of, a previously unknown Triumph, and Graham, our Archivist is now researching the lead. Last year on the same day, similar weather conditions prevailed and I went in my Southern Cross, hood down.

 

 




About Us.

Our Club is dedicated to preserving and running cars built by The Triumph Motor Company including the Triumph Super Seven, Triumph Gloria, Triumph Monte Carlo, Triumph Vitesse, Triumph Southern Cross and Triumph Dolomite models. We are a small but growing Club of enthusiasts who organise around half a dozen events each year. Our current membership is over 200, worldwide.