Period Photos of Triumphs

[Mike Costigan]

Having started the Atlas Register in 1985, it's good to see the van still gets some love!

 

[Colin Lindsay]

3 hours ago, Mike Costigan said:

Having started the Atlas Register in 1985, it's good to see the van still gets some love!

 

I'd love one, just for the oddity value. 

[Mike Costigan]

That's how we came to buy our first one; talking to Andy Jones, we challenged each other to be the first to find one (at the time the Atlas was a mythical creature that no-one seemed to have seen). Then my wife pipes up "I know where there is one" - it turned out the parents of one of her pupils had one in their back garden!

[rlubikey]

I wasn't feeling on top form today, so I spent the afternoon moving my Atlas restoration thread on the Standard forum to a visible section. Now, if you follow the link in my signature, you can see the whole story - so far - which started in 2011 when I bought the one for sale on Ebay.

Cheers, Richard

PS: COVID test came up negative, so it's just "man-flu".

[johny]

31 minutes ago, rlubikey said:

PS: COVID test came up negative, so it's just "man-flu".

Keep testing as Ive heard of a few cases where it takes 2 or 3 days before it shows on the tester...

[PeteH]

One of our neighbours too. Had 3 test`s before a positive one. His "other half" showed up on the first. Yet they both had the same symptom`s?. Weird?.

Pete

[Mike Costigan]

Thanks, Richard, I have enjoyed following your journey with the Atlas. I shall look forward to seeing it in the metal.

[Mike Costigan]

Geoff Mabbs was one of the leading privateers in Heralds, notably winning the 1961 Tulip Rally outright when navigated by Les Griffiths. For the 1961 RAC Rally Geoff was joined by his brother, David, in his Tulip Rally car, 111 LHW, and was again the highest placed Herald, finishing 28th overall.

 

[Colin Lindsay]

23 hours ago, johny said:

Keep testing as Ive heard of a few cases where it takes 2 or 3 days before it shows on the tester...

A female columnist in the paper earlier this week was off on a quite expensive cruise; bags packed, pets all off to boarding, all else sorted out... tests the night before - negative; tests that morning - negative; tests again half an hour before leaving - positive. Stays at home and moans.

Some people don't know when to quit...

[Works Spitfires]

On 14/04/2022 at 09:03, Mike Costigan said:

Having started the Atlas Register in 1985, it's good to see the van still gets some love!

 

Mike is this the same Register that is now maintained by Bill Davies?

[Works Spitfires]

On 14/04/2022 at 13:31, Mike Costigan said:

That's how we came to buy our first one; talking to Andy Jones, we challenged each other to be the first to find one (at the time the Atlas was a mythical creature that no-one seemed to have seen). Then my wife pipes up "I know where there is one" - it turned out the parents of one of her pupils had one in their back garden!

Many (many!) years ago there used to be an Atlas stored here when JK owned the farm. I have a vague recollection that it was Andy Jones's van. Back then I had little interest in it, and never really had a good look at it. My taste in vehicles has obviously matured since then!

I seem to remember JK (or was it Mick Papworth?) telling me it was dragged out of hibernation to help with JK's move from 55 Whitmore Park Road into his first shop on Aldermans Green Road. That must have been a very slow process!

[Mike Costigan]

1 hour ago, Works Spitfires said:

Mike is this the same Register that is now maintained by Bill Davies?

Yup; I passed the Register over to Bill, along with a load on NOS spares i had collected.

The van at John Kipping's was almost certainly Andy Jones' van, they were close friends. Andy's van was blue and white with round port-hole windows in the side.

[Chris Longhurst]

All this talk of Atlas Vans reminds me that one (modified as a 'caravanette') drove across Africa from Cape Town to Tangier in 1958 with the two Herald prototypes.

I'm not very familiar with Atlas Vans - was the 'Africa' one the same as the models discussed above and was it a 'standard' Standard Atlas (other than the side windows) or was is modified (engine, drive, suspension ??) to cope with the journey?

[Mike Costigan]

Yes, Chris, a standard Standard Atlas - not a caravanette, but a van with side windows, kitted out as a mobile workshop; the Atlas was rated at 15cwt carrying capacity, the Sahara van was estimated to have carried 5 tons of spares and equipment! It boiled its way most of the journey, even with the heater on full blast ...

[Peter Truman]

Didn’t have enough power to spin it’s wheels so didn’t get bogged just slowly walked over the sand! A fantastic achievement those Heralds and Atlas. Vans did!

[rlubikey]

On 16/04/2022 at 11:11, Chris Longhurst said:

All this talk of Atlas Vans reminds me that one (modified as a 'caravanette') drove across Africa from Cape Town to Tangier in 1958 with the two Herald prototypes.

The Herald/Atlas Trans-Africa testing run was described in the book "Turn Left For Tangier". One kind soul had a scanned copy on their web site but presumably had to take it down for copyright reasons. However, there was a small promotional pamphlet called "Sahara Tested" and, as I believe magazine/pamphlet copyright is only 50 years ...

Sahara Tested

Cheers, Richard

[Mike Costigan]

Richard, you are clear of copyright restrictions on that leaflet anyway; as an item that was issued to the general public without cost the copyright regulations don't apply.

[Mike Costigan]

I featured Val Pirie and ADU467B a couple of weeks ago; here are three more photos.

The first is from the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally:

... and two from the 1965 Tulip Rally:

Val Pirie (left) and Susan Reeve (right);

[Works Spitfires]

On 17/04/2022 at 15:57, Mike Costigan said:

Richard, you are clear of copyright restrictions on that leaflet anyway; as an item that was issued to the general public without cost the copyright regulations don't apply.

JK copied Ray Hendersons original diary of the Africa run back in the 90's when we were building JK's tribute Herald saloon to the run. I recall it ran to many pages, and was much more comprehensive than the book.

[Works Spitfires]

On 16/04/2022 at 10:45, Mike Costigan said:

Yup; I passed the Register over to Bill, along with a load on NOS spares i had collected.

The van at John Kipping's was almost certainly Andy Jones' van, they were close friends. Andy's van was blue and white with round port-hole windows in the side.

Now you come to mention it I remember the port holes! I also recall Andy having a Herald Estate that had been left out in a field for many years. JK asked me to get it up, and running, and MOT'd as cheaply as possible. I recall the main motivation was that it ha a full tank of fuel in it when it has been originally parked up, just sufficient for Andy to drive it back to Wales when I finished it.

I bet it smoked all the way home on that ancient fuel.

[Mike Costigan]

That was in the days when fuel was 100% petrol! I have revived cars which hadn't been run since before the War, and they have run perfectly well on forty-year-old petrol, these days petrol has a shelf life of six months if you're lucky.

[Works Spitfires]

1 minute ago, Mike Costigan said:

That's a curious picture: it appears to show one of the 1958 prototype Heralds accompanied by a BMC Landcrab, which didn't enter production until 1964! What's the story there?

That's the tribute Turn Left For Tangier Herald prototype I built for JK in the Sahara. We had planned to do the West African Safari, but it got cancelled due to a war in the Western Sahara. We decided to go anyway, and the Landcrab crew who had also signed up for the event joined us. Everything was going well until we got to Daklar in the Western Sahara where we missed a UN convoy by a couple of hours. The next convoy was a couple of weeks away, and we were running out of provisions, so we turned around and headed home. I dropped JK off at Casablanca airport, and drove home on my jack (apart from an Australian hitch hiker for a few hundred miles).

[Mike Costigan]

Three more Canley publicity shots featuring WRW 404:

 

[Peter Truman]

Prefer our model, much more exciting 

Aussie 12/50 Coupe by AMI (Aus Motor Industries), note chrome bumpers too!

[Gary Flinn]

On 19/04/2022 at 15:55, Works Spitfires said:

That's the tribute Turn Left For Tangier Herald prototype I built for JK in the Sahara. We had planned to do the West African Safari, but it got cancelled due to a war in the Western Sahara. We decided to go anyway, and the Landcrab crew who had also signed up for the event joined us. Everything was going well until we got to Daklar in the Western Sahara where we missed a UN convoy by a couple of hours. The next convoy was a couple of weeks away, and we were running out of provisions, so we turned around and headed home. I dropped JK off at Casablanca airport, and drove home on my jack (apart from an Australian hitch hiker for a few hundred miles).

I've been re-reading the Excellent Herald/Vitesse Book by the Late Graham Robson whilst off work suffering with a Chest Infection, there is a short chapter on the Turn Left for Tangiers run

Apparently they needed around a gallon of water per day for each person whilst crossing the Sahara, what with the additional Fuel, Food, Etc required all the cars must have been well over-loaded!

It would seem from the write up too, that the Heralds were more reliable than the back up Atlas Minibus & Standard Companion Estate!!  😁

Gary