May Courier & One Off Factory Vitesse Coupe

[Peter Truman]

Just received my May Courier 491 today and it has a pic & article of the clubs new aquisition the one off Vitesse Factory Coupe on the cover, here in Australia the Vitesse was never available and the somewhere between 20and 30 examples here were personnel imports, BUT AMI here in Melbourne in the early 60's produced a Herald 12/50 Coupe from CKD components which had the Vitesse 4 headlight bonnet fitted, a very attractive car, it didn't have the Vitesse extruded bumpers but similar chrome steel overlays, as all 12/50's it only had the 1147 engine but with twin 1.25in carbs. Not a lot were made.

My own 68 Mk2 Vitesse has a AMI 12/50 Coupe bonnet fitted after my original was damaged here in 1976 in a shopping centre accident when some harrased mother backed into my wife, fortunately I found an AMI 12/50 Coupe bonnet in a local wreckers , no rust & straight. In retrospect I should have tried to get the Coupe  roof as well, but I did subsequently get an AMI CKD rear convertible tub which I fitted so I suppose the old girls 50% Aussie CKD, the bulkhead, doors, valances, boot lid, and chassis are original UK fitment as are ALL the mechanicals.

I believe Vitesse's were CKD assembled in New Zealand.

Hope you find the attachments interesting.

 

 

[Triumph948]

Peter, what a great car, thanks for all the information as well 👍

[ahebron]

I have seen one CKD NZ Vitesse but more might exist.
I believe they where special order for company bosses etc.
They would have been built at the Nelson factory with its dirt floor.
NZ built Triumphs have a 3 prefix.

Did Oz built Heralds have extra body strengthening? I seem to recall reading that they did, unless that was the transition from Mk1 chassis to Mk2

[Peter Truman]

My Mk2 Vitesse was an import in 74 (me when I returned to Aus) so has the UK strengthened chassis, ref Aus AMI CKD cars I believe the very early ones had the early Herald chassis switching to the stronger rear diff & shocker set up around 1960, any specific extra strengthening I'm not aware of and Toyota destroyed ALL AMI records late 70's. The chassis were shipped to Aus assembled, where all body parts were separate CKD and Jig assembled.

I know GMH substantially strengthened the Commodore from it's European origins esp around the suspension turrants etc, my 82 Series 3 XJ6 Jag reqd extra reinforcing around the shocker mounts due to our country (dirt) roads, with less than 5yrs use, I had it 8yrs from 84 to 92, when a Semi wrote it off!!!. 

[JohnD]

This "factory original" VItesse coupe was announced in the Courier by great headlines, and a short - so short as to be little more than a picture title - description fform the Chairman.     When will there be an in-depth article, telling the story and substantiating the claim?  When the small chassi roof is such a removable, chnageable object, that is badly needed before it takes a place in the museum.

Jhn

[Triumph948]

On 20/05/2021 at 10:54, JohnD said:

This "factory original" VItesse coupe was announced in the Courier by great headlines, and a short - so short as to be little more than a picture title - description fform the Chairman.     When will there be an in-depth article, telling the story and substantiating the claim?  When the small chassi roof is such a removable, chnageable object, that is badly needed before it takes a place in the museum.

Jhn

Don’t worry John an article is on its way , we spent along time making sure it is the unicorn, the british motor heritage certificate proves its the real thing.

lots of advice was taken and approx six months of communication took place.

one of one don’t come available very often 👍