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Period Photos of Triumphs


Mike Costigan

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way back in the  67  when my 59 948 was disintegrating around me i had my  eye on a red/white 

Coupe with a heck of a spotlamp in the middle of the grille and the daft things you remember the reg was LFA ???

i never had the cash to buy it why do we remember some odd things that never happened ???

Pete

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Following on the references to ADU 5B, here are some more pics of it.

1964 Tour de France again, high in the Alps shortly before retiring with a blown engine:

1964 Tour de France 04.jpg

1964 again, this time two shots of the car in the Paris 1000km Race driven by Jean-Francois Piot and Jean-Louis Marnat to a Class win:

1964 Paris 1000km ADU 5B 02.jpg

 

1964 Paris 1000km ADU 5B 03.jpg

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As my first car I almost bought a green VW Beetle, registration ADV 708 with a sort of yellowy-gold interior; I can still picture the door trims with the saggy elasticated pockets and one exhaust tailpipe missing, but nothing else about the entire car. Why that memory has lasted, I don't know.

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26 minutes ago, NonMember said:

My first non-Triumph was a VW Passat with a rather tired roof lining that hung down in drapes "like a boudoir", according to some friends

I'm surprised I never got into VW Beetles, still love them, but I think the state of that first one put me off. I also like the VW Variant, I reckon one of those would make a very practical Classic. 

Apologies, Mike, like a Herald round an Alpine bend, we're drifting...

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Back on course, then, but this time we'll leave the competition world behind. Here are three photos from the Vignale archives, the first one showing the wooden body buck used to hand-form the body panels for the first Herald prototype; here it has been wheeled out into the sunshine in the Via Cigliano outside the Vignale workshops:

01 Body Buck Via Cigliano.jpg

... and two rather poor-quality shots of the finished prototype before shipping to Coventry for approval:

02 prototype.jpg

03 prototype.jpg

 

 

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Back to competition shots today, here are three privately-entered Vitesses.

First of all, we have 444 GBF on the 1962 RAC Rally:

1962 RAC Rally.jpg

 

The 1962 RAC Rally again, here's Leo Bertorelli and A Straker in their Vitesse showing evidence of an off-road excursion:

1962 RAC Rally Leo Bertorelli A Sraker.JPG

 

Finally, 4 SYC - a convertible - on the 1964 Welsh International:

1964 Welsh International 4 SYC.jpg

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On 27/02/2022 at 11:21, Colin Lindsay said:

There's a striking similarity to other cars of the period, especially with that bar across the front grille.

MK1-1.jpg.8526b4643bd355fcfa5681551b078881.jpg

 

That could almost be a prototype Sumbeam Alpine?.

Pete

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Sorry Pete, the original is not very clear either; it's probably 7586 RK, but the 5 could be a 6 and the 8 could be a 3! I doubt if any of them have survived, rallying in the early 1960s was pretty rough, and the Herald/Vitesse construction was not the most durable under those conditions. Also many of them ran with personalised plates, so it would be very difficult to track them down once they were sold on. For example, Tiny Lewis' TL 5 is now on an Austin Healey 3000, 2 HP is now on a 2014 BMW and Tony Horn's TH 16 is on a 2005 Mini.

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I tried some other combinations too with similar results. I agree with your self the cars are most likely in the great graveyard, many older numbers are on modern cars. My wife has hers * 30MMH. (A Birthday pressy) So we are all Guilty at some point.

PH1 was on a Coach based around Guildford back in the 80`s!, I used to see it quite regularly.

Pete

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Which returns Not Found. So another bites (has bitten) the dust?.

But the I supose, the number of Early Escourts, "we" scrapped, some as result of disaster, and others as donors. they where very popular at club level for rally work. One cannot be surprised.

Pete

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Leaving the rally stage for a bit of circuit racing in this post.

Here's ADU 2B and its 2000 tow-car in the square at Chatres-sur-le-Loire prior to the 1965 Le Mans race:

1965 Le Mans ADU 2B.jpg

ADU 4B in the pits during the 1965 Sebring 24-hour Race:

1965 Sebring ADU 4B.jpg

and ADU 2B again, lifting a wheel during the 1966 Nurburgring 1000km Race:

1966 Nurburgring 1000km ADU 2B 03.jpg

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