# Triumph Graveyard,Appelton,Aug 2010.



## wherever i may roam (Sep 1, 2010)

Thought i'd throw a bit of history up about the The Triumph Motor Company. (stolen off the net)

The Triumph Motor Company was a British motor manufacturer. The Triumph marque is currently owned by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann (1863–1951) and Moritz (Maurice) Schulte from Germany founded Bettmann & Co and started selling Triumph bicycles from premises in London and from 1889 started making their own machines in Coventry, England.
In 1930 the company changed its name to the Triumph Motor Company. It was clear to Holbrook that there was no future in pursuing the mass manufacturers and so decided to take the company upmarket with the Southern Cross and Gloria ranges. At first these used engines made by Triumph but designed by Coventry Climax but from 1937 they started to make them to their own designs by Donald Healey who had become the company’s Experimental Manager in 1934.

The company hit financial problems however and in 1936 the Triumph bicycle and motorcycle businesses were sold, the latter to Jack Sangster of Ariel to become Triumph Engineering Co Ltd. Healey purchased an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and developed an ambitious new car with an Alfa inspired straight-8 engine called the Triumph Dolomite. However the eight-cylinder engine was not used in the production car with the same name.
In July 1939, the Triumph Motor Company went into receivership and the factory, equipment and goodwill were offered for sale. T.W. Ward purchased the company and placed Healey in charge as general manager, but the effects of World War II again stopped the production of cars and the Priory Street works was completely destroyed by bombing in 1940. 

In November 1944 what was left of the Triumph Motor Company and the Triumph brand name were bought by the Standard Motor Company and a subsidiary "Triumph Motor Company (1945) Limited" was formed with production transferred to Standard's factory at Canley, on the outskirts of Coventry. Triumph's new owners had been supplying engines to Jaguar and its predecessor company since 1938. Following a "considerable argument" between Standard-Triumph Managing Director, Sir John Black, and William Lyons, the creator and owner of Jaguar, Black's objective in acquiring the rights to the name and the remnants of the bankrupt Triumph business was to build a car to compete with the soon to be launched post war Jaguars.

The pre-war Triumph models were not revived and in 1946 a new range of Triumphs starting with the Triumph Roadster was announced. Because of steel shortages these were bodied in aluminium which was plentiful because of its use in aircraft production. The same engine was used in the 1800 Town and Country saloon, later named the Triumph Renown, which was notable for the razor-edge styling chosen by Standard-Triumph's managing director Sir John Black. A similar style was also used on the subsequent Triumph Mayflower light saloon. All three of these models prominently sported the "globe" badge that had been used on pre-war models. When Sir John was forced to retire from the company this range of cars was discontinued without being directly replaced, sheet aluminium having by now become a prohibitively expensive alternative to sheet steel for most auto-industry purposes.

In the early 1950s it was decided to use the Triumph name on sporting cars and the Standard name on saloons and in 1953 the Triumph TR2 was launched, the first of a series that would run through to 1981. Curiously the TR2 wore a Standard badge on its nose and the Triumph globe on its hubcaps.

Standard had been making a range of small saloons called the Standard Eight and Ten and had been working on a replacement for these. The success of the TR range meant that Triumph was seen as a more marketable name than Standard and the new car was launched in 1959 as the Triumph Herald; the last Standard car to be made in the UK was replaced in 1963 by the Triumph 2000 .

Leyland and beyond..

In December 1960 the company was bought by Leyland Motors Ltd with Donald Stokes becoming chairman of the Standard Triumph division in 1963. Further mergers led to the formation of British Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Triumph sold a succession of Michelotti-styled saloons and sports cars, including the advanced Dolomite Sprint, which, in 1973, already had a 16-valve four cylinder engine. It is alleged that many Triumphs of this era were unreliable, especially the 2.5 PI (petrol injection) with its fuel injection problems. In Australia, the summer heat caused petrol in the electric fuel pump to vapourise, resulting in frequent breakdowns of the 2.5 PI and TR6 models. While the injection system had proved itself in international competition, it did lack altitude compensation for the adjustment of mixture at altitudes greater than 3000 ft (1000 m) above sea level. The key reason for the Lucas system's unpopularity, was that Lucas was not inclined to further develop it on the one hand allied to the unwillingness of Standard-Triumph dealers to attend factory and field-based training courses dedicated to this propulsion method.

For most of its time under Leyland or BL ownership the Triumph marque belonged in the Specialist Division of the company which went under the names of Rover Triumph and later Jaguar Rover Triumph apart from a brief period in the mid 1970s when all BL's car marques or brands were grouped together under the name of Leyland Cars.

The only all-new Triumph model launched under Rover Triumph was the TR7, which had the misfortune to be in production successively at three factories that were closed - Speke, the Leyland-era Standard-Triumph works in Liverpool, the original Standard works at Canley, Coventry and finally the Rover works in Solihull. The four-cylinder TR7, its eight-cylindered derivative the TR8, and its still-born fastback variant the Lynx, were dropped when the Solihull plant ceased making road-going cars (the plant continues to build Land Rovers.)

The last Triumph model was the Acclaim which was launched in 1981 and was essentially a rebadged Honda Ballade built under licence from Japanese company Honda at the former Morris works in Cowley, Oxford. The Triumph name disappeared in 1984, when the Acclaim was replaced by the Rover 200, which was a rebadged version of Honda's next generation Civic/Ballade model. The BL car division was by then called Austin Rover Group which also sounded the death knell for the Morris marque as well as Triumph.

The trademark is currently owned by BMW, acquired when it bought the Rover Group in 1994. When it sold Rover, it kept the Triumph marque. The Phoenix Consortium, which bought Rover, tried to buy the Triumph brand, but BMW refused, saying that if Phoenix insisted, it would break the deal. The Standard marque was transferred to British Motor Heritage Limited, along with Austin, Morris, and Wolseley marques. The Austin, Morris and Wolseley marques were later sold to MG Rover Group Ltd, on the 10th December 2003. The Standard marque is still retained by British Motor Heritage who also have the licence to use the Triumph marque in relation to the sale of spares and support of the existing 'park' of Triumph cars.

The MG marque was sold to Phoenix along with the sale of the Rover brand images and a licence to use the Rover name. The Rover name was later sold to Ford, with Nanjing Automotive gaining the rights to the brand image. The Triumph name has been retained by BMW along with Riley, Rolls-Royce and Mini. In late 2007, Auto Express, on the back of continued rumours that Triumph might return under BMW ownership, ran a story showing an image of what a new version of the TR4 might look like. BMW has not commented officially on this.

Explored with Ceejam & Evilnoodle..(cheers )




































































































thanks..


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## TK421 (Sep 1, 2010)

What a great selection of old cars, and I really like your photos. Whats the story with these then, are they someones private collection, is someone planning on restoring them, the people need answers

Great report!


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## ryedale rodent (Sep 1, 2010)

Most are left hand drive, so I'm guessing the site may be in the States, though there is a UK plated car there.
I know that quite a lot of Triumphs have been imported into the UK from the States as they are rust free if they're from the west coast. Any more pics and info?


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## wherever i may roam (Sep 1, 2010)

ryedale rodent said:


> Most are left hand drive, so I'm guessing the site may be in the States, though there is a UK plated car there.
> I know that quite a lot of Triumphs have been imported into the UK from the States as they are rust free if they're from the west coast. Any more pics and info?



From what i can gather,its a private collector/restorer, in Cheshire....


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## lost (Sep 1, 2010)

A lot of British sports cars sold new in the US were shipped back to the UK during the classic car boom of the late '80s/early '90s. One bonus is that, dependant on state, they were rust-free.


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## hydealfred (Sep 2, 2010)

Very interesting post. Lets hope these classics are not just allowed to rust away. I note there are no Triumph Stag's here. These seem popular with present day restorers. My dad had a couple of Heralds in the late 60's and early 70's. Many a day was spent in traffic jams heading to the West Country in these cars. Only air con in those days was to wind the window down


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## Simon-G (Sep 18, 2010)

I am literarly dripping at the mouth so to speak looking at these as I have said before I just cant get enough of abandoned and scrap cars. Would be interesting to google who Mike Mueller was as the name on the side of no 32 car. I have to visit this place.


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## Zotez (Sep 18, 2010)

Brilliant, just my cup of tea, shame theres no triumph 2000s/2500s though!


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## night crawler (Sep 19, 2010)

I could cry, so many TR's going to the scrapheap in the sky. I'd love a TR5/6


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## stevejd (Sep 19, 2010)

I could cry, what a waste of lovely TRs Always wanted a 6, just love the sound of the Triumph straight 6


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## peanuts (Sep 20, 2010)

if you like your triumphs you should take alook in the car restrores yard betwix bacup and rawtenstall full of them mainly tr7s but quiet a few others will get apic next time i go past would say there roughly a football pich of cars in the front yard all jammed in together


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## stevejd (Sep 21, 2010)

what these guys. saw their website a couple of years ago


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## projectzip (Sep 29, 2010)

ooooooo the old racing triumph caught my eye!!
cant find anything on mike mueller however I did find this pdf which has a lee mueller and paul newman in a triumph!
http://www.templeoftriumph.org/tsoa/TSOASepOct76.pdf

The Marrs series or Mid Atlantic road Racing Series still exists and originally formed in 1976
http://www.conceptcarz.com/events/event/62/Mid-Atlantic-Road-Racing-Series.aspx


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## Tomoco (Sep 29, 2010)

What a cool place, nice job


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