Mike Costigan

A comment in another thread has prompted this topic; here you can show us all photos and recollections of Triumphs owned by friends and family in the distant past. I'll start it of with two pictures on my father's 948cc twin-carb saloon, one taken in the summer of 1960 when the car was only a few months old, and the second during the winter of 1960-61 at Peak Forest in Derbyshire. We don't seem to get winters like that any more! The third picture is of my own 2-litre Vitesse, bought second-hand when it was five years old. This car was heavily modified - although I didn't realise it at the time, I thought all Vitesses went like that! It was only when I came to replace the exhaust system that I discovered there were serious modifications, probably by SAH, although there was no identification or documentation. It would only run on 5-star fuel, and even then it was very picky over brands - Esso and Shell were OK, but Jet was a definite no-no! I never verified it's top speed, but I did get a £5 speeding fine for doing 118mph, and it wasn't flat out at that! I recall one run, from Exeter to Chesterfield in the early hours of the morning, which I covered at an average speed of rather more than 80mph... Anyway, that's started the thread, now over to you...

Thanks, Chris. That accesses the club website, but Richard's Atlas link is in the Members Only section, from which interested mere mortals are banned.

Still plenty to come, Richard; good to see you've got a Standard Atlas, I've owned a couple in the past and loved them - I cannot access the Standard Motor Club links, any chance of starting a thread on this forum?

We'll leave the rally stages today and head for the motor shows. First of all, the 1959 Paris Motor Show, held at the beginning of October, here's a 948cc saloon all polished up ready for the public to appear: Two years later, a couple of views of the new 1200 convertible prepared for the 1961 London Motor Show at the end of October:

The majority of my photos are from the major international rallies of the day, but here are three from more minor events - I have no details of owners, drivers or entrants. This one is taken at a Bugatti Owners Club hillclimb at Prescott in 1959: Next, the British Automobile Racing Club Goodwood meeting of September 1960: The Royal Scottish Automobile Club will no doubt take excepting to my describing their international rally as a minor event, but it attracted very few foreign entries. This shows a very early entry of a Triumph Spitfire, dating from 1963:

An example of each engine size? Left to right, 1998cc, 1296cc, 1596cc, 1147cc and 948cc.

Like this?

Sorting through my photos for the 'Period Photos' thread I came across this publicity shot from 1960: Thirty years ago my ambition was to recreate the scene with three 948cc models, but over several years I failed to assemble a suitable group. I identified the location as the cross-roads in Berkswell, just west of Coventry, here with my own car; So here's the Challenge: take a photograph this summer of three different versions of the same model in the same location. Saloon, Coupe and Convertible Heralds would be ideal, but you could substitute an Estate for the Coupe so long as they were all 1200s or all 13/60s. Alternatively how about 1600, 2-litre and Mark 2 Vitesses, or Mark 2, 3 and 4 Spitfires? Or even GT, GT4s and 2-litre Bonds! Over to you... .

It's American, so it must be a truck, not a lorry!

TR4s on the 1962 Tulip Rally today - three Works entries plus one private entry, Thuner and Gretener in no 10 finishing Second in Class (24th overall, behind the MGA of Aaltonen and Palm), Sutcliffe and Fidler in no 12 Third in Class (30th overall), Sprinzel and Robson in no 15 Fourth in Class (35th overall), and Hamblin and Johns in the private entry no 17, 69th overall.

Fitting hardened valve seats is probably unnecessary unless you are going to subject the car to continuous hard driving. Triumph engines tend to have good low-down torque, so if you adopt traditional style of driving using that torque rather than revving the nuts off it you'll be fine. I have experienced 'dissolving' issues with modern fuel on both my cars, but I suspect the problem is with the modern blends rather than ethanol. Both my cars have brass carburettor floats with soldered construction, and both have had the floats collapse with all traces of the original solder gone! Both situations occurred when I was still using pre-E5 fuel, so I can safely say ethanol was not the culprit.

Couldn't agree more! I thought I'd got them out of my system, but I still have a hankering for another one...

Three pics from the 1959 Alpine Rally, the first continental outing for the Triumph Herald. Two cars were entered, both coupes, Tiny Lewis and Tony Nash in TL5, and Barker and Donnely in WYT 393. Lewis and Nash (car no 101) finished 9th overall, winning an Alpine Cup: Barker and Donnely (car no 100) came 22nd: The two cars in Parc Ferme:

Ah! One 'n', that's why I couldn't find it!

Most cars are bargains compared with '70s fast Fords!

Well, he does say he's open to sensible offers... It's the same old story: 'I've spent a fortune paying other people to do the work, and I expect to recoup all my money, and then some, regardless of market value'. I've just spent a lot of money having the engine of one of my cars professionally rebuilt; I've probably spent more than the whole car is worth, but I'm not fool enough to think I will ever recover more than a small fraction of what I've spent.

Three 'bubble-top' Spitfires for you today. January 1964 saw the first outing for a Works-entered Spitfire when Roy Fidler and John Hopwood took 412VC to second overall in the Welsh International Rally: Next we have Terry Hunter and Patrick Lier in ADU7B who came 3rd in Class in the 1964 Alpine Rally: And finally Val Pirie and Susan Reeve who retired ADU467B on the 1964 RAC Rally:

If you carry spare items like fuel pump, rotor arm, distributor cap, etc, always fit the 'spare' to the car and carry the original as the spare - that way you know it's a working item. You would be surprised the number of times I have had to fit a new spare, especially electrical, only to find it is faulty!

I would welcome suggestions for the locations, my knowledge of Scotland is pretty limited. I believe that's Ben Nevis in the background of the third shot, and there has been a suggestion that the fourth is by the Crinnan Canal (wherever that is!).

The 1960 RAC Rally again, but not a rally car in sight! Here are a set of photos of a 948cc convertible owned by the Publicity Department on loan to a member of the motoring press covering the rally:

No, they're not left-hand drive, just lying upside-down! The one with the timber panel is a 13/60, 't'other is a Vitesse Mk2.

Oh dear! Egg on face time - it was bound to happen sooner or later. I've already given you that pic of HW 22 in an earlier post, so let's give you another one from the 1962 RAC Rally, this time saloon 38 DFJ... sorry, no further information available:

Three Heralds from 1962 today, all 1200s. Two Johns, Fairer and Bowdage, in their saloon 516 DJJ on the Monte Carlo Rally. They ran out of time and were classified a lowly 244th, but no doubt were happy to be able to say they took part - every rally competitor's dream in the 1960s: Next we have H Watson and F C Mitchell on the Tulip Rally in saloon HW 22; they finished 84th: And finally B Petch and H Miller in their coupe VPN 550 on the RAC Rally; unfortunately I have been unable to find full results for the RAC so cannot report on their performance:

Dealers' asking prices frequently have little relationship to reality. About two years ago a car (not a Triumph) came on the market which might have interested me; it was for sale with a dealer that is well-known for asking ridiculously high prices, but this one was expensive even by their standards. I've just checked their website; it's still for sale with them, although the asking price is now one third of the earlier price - it's still too expensive!

What a depressing week; sadly now Willy Cave has died. A very skilled and experienced navigator, here seen getting back in to 3VC, the TR4 of John Sprinzel, on the 1962 RAC Rally (15th overall):