The year 1959 was a great year for cars. The Mini and the Ford Anglia were both launched, but the show was stolen by the advent of a remarkable little car that would sell around the world and form the basis of a whole breed of popular saloons and sports cars; the Triumph Herald.

The Herald was unveiled in its original 948cc saloon and coupe versions at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in April 1959. A kitten-healed Miss Triumph demonstrated the front-hinged bonnet, revealing the whole of the engine and front suspension, while a coupe revolved enticingly on a turntable, showing off sleek Italian styling with large areas of glass and two-tone paintwork. It would herald (pun intended) the start of the 1960’s.

More spectacular still was a night at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted by Bob Monkhouse. Four specifically trained Standard-Triumph apprentices appeared carrying pieces of a Herald. In less than four minutes, they had assembled a fully working car and driven it off stage. The audience was stunned into an astonished silence before rapturous applause brought the apprentices back on.

The amazing assembling act was refined down to three minutes, repeated at European motor shows, and the Herald was launched in style. A newspaper critic asserted that “the Triumph badging sets it in a class above the outgoing Standard 8 and 10 range, which always conveyed an air of ration books and boiled cabbage”.

There was nothing “boiled cabbage” about the Herald. This was the sleekest of Italian chic, distilling sporty glamour of Ferrari and Maserati into an everyday four-seater saloon and delivering it to British buyers as a practical and affordable car.

It has been designed by Giovanni Michelotti, who was commissioned by Standard Triumph to produce a totally new model to set the style of the forthcoming decade. His prototype body shell arrived in Coventry on Christmas Eve, 1957. When the directors saw the almost unbelievably pretty coupe on their studio turntable, they were so delighted, they downed tools and went out to celebrate.

There is an industry legend that the car was named Herald after the Managing Director’s yacht. There was certainly no design by committee. Production models scarcely differed from Michelotti’s concept, showing the excellence of his design and willingness of his employers to accept original genius. Michelotti’s monogram would appear on the chrome bonnet-release catches of all Heralds and the Vitesse, Spitfire and GT6 models that followed.

Prototypes were driven the length of Africa from Cape Town to Tangier, generating much publicity and showing the reliability of then new cars. When they appeared in Britain’s showrooms, they caused a clamour of excitement. At just over £700, the Herald was priced above some of its competitors but embodied an enviable cachet of sportiness and modernity.

Despite the rakish body, huge rear window, all-round independent suspension, white rubber bumpers, distinctive fins, hooded headlamp covers and overall “swept wing” appearance, the Herald was not as modern as it looked. Standard-Triumph had decided to take what many considered to be a retrograde step of building their new car with a separate chassis rather than use the monocoque style of construction like other major manufacturers.

The idea was to facilitate assembly of different variants including saloon, coupe, convertible, estate car and van using a common chassis. The benefits to future generations of classic car enthusiasts have included superb accessibility giving ease of working and comparatively simple repair and restoration. If a car’s body can be unbolted from its chassis, every panel and component including the chassis itself can be repaired or replaced and many Heralds have undergone more than one “body-off” rebuild to keep them going today.

The gigantic, 1,000-feet-long factory was built at Canley in the West Midlands with a state-of-the-art paint shop and three parallel assembly lines. It was completed in 1960, cost £2 million and built more than 500,000 Heralds along with all the Triumph Vitesses, Spitfires and GT6’s.

The earliest Heralds were slightly underpowered, and their interiors lacked refinement, but subsequent models were given bigger engines, better carpets and wooden dashboards. Sales took off. The cars were especially popular in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand: some were even built in Italy for the European market. A version called the Gazel was successful in India.

The now much- sought- after coupe was discontinued in in 1964 – it was deemed to be in competition with the Spitfire, but Herald saloons and convertibles were produced through several upgrades until 1971, the final 13/60 model being the most powerful and best equipped.

I have had a long and happy relationship with the Herald. After learning to drive as a boy on disused airfields, a yellow Herald was the first car in which I “went solo”. In the early years of the 21st century I bought a 1962 Herald 1200 and shared it with my mother as a four-seater running mate for my Spitfire 1500 which had been bought new in 1980. Its dazzling red and white paintwork led some fellow enthusiasts to dub it “Santa Claus’s Herald. It was a stylish and lovable car, and I understand it is still on the road with its current owners. When I drive my Spitfire today, I know it would never have existed without the Triumph Herald.
You’ll always smile when you see a Herald. It has the air of an English Sixties girl smartly suited in Italian clothes with a dash of Fifties glamour. It is rightly valued as a pretty, practical and affordable car.

Note: this article was published in “This England” magazine, Winter 2019 and was provided to TSOA SA by Tom Olthoff.

Our Club website needs your help!

There is little to no input from our members to make the site interesting.

Surely one or some of you have something to share.

If you need help with posting an item, contact me and I will happily assist.

Otherwise, this site will die a natural death . . .

Roger Lange

TSOA SA Website Manager

Built and maintained by an enthusiast in Sweden, this has to be the the coolest Spitty EVER!

Great to see so many members brave the early morning rain and bring out their Triumph’s on Sunday. Best part, all those hours in the shed for a fresh coat of paint paid off, and our Dolly won it’s Pride of Ownership Class. I did enlist the help of my 9yo daughter over the last weeks to help hold,retrieve and fit some parts, with finally her holding the bumpers CAREFULLY without scratching the fresh paint whilst I bolted them up.

Feb 18th         (Tuesday Evening) General Meeting at the Sporting Car Club 8.00 pm

Feb 23rd        (Sunday) MSCA Picnic / Presentation Day – Virgara Winery, 143 Heaslip Road, Angle Vale . . . from 11.00 am

Mar 2nd        (Sunday) – All British Day

Mar 16th      (Sunday)  MSCA Super Sprint 

April 6th      (Sunday)  TBA Monthly Run instead of the 20th because that is Easter Sunday

Vale: Harris Mann, designer of the Triumph TR7.

The TR Register is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of our long-time honorary members and stylist that played a pivotal role in Triumph’s history – Harris Mann who has passed away at the age of 85. 

Harris Mann was born in London in 1938 and by the time he arrived at Triumph to style the TR7, had already built up an impressive portfolio of work. He worked at Duple, the (American) Loewy Consultancy. Then after some time out of the country for National Service, Mann worked for Commer and then Ford, where he was involved in the first Escort and Capri. His boss at Ford, Roy Haynes then persuaded Harris to follow him to BMC in 1967, where he moved to lead the design studio at Cowley. Roy Haynes’ brief was to rejuvenate the design team and part of his solution would include Harris Mann.

When the TR7 family was conceived in 1971, Harris was really considered a ‘Longbridge man’ as opposed to a ‘Triumph man’. Once he moved to Longbridge, he shaped the beautiful BMC ‘Zanda’ concept car and put forward acceptable original shapes for the Austin Allegro before these were changed by the British Leyland (BL) planners. Harris was responsible for the wedge-style BL Princess which would be launched immediately after the TR7. The Princess was a large and attractive package which, once again, would have done him more credit if it had not been put on sale when BL was in the depths of its nationalisation crisis.

It was his work on the TR7, where he offered up the shapely wedge-styled shape, which was accepted ahead of Michelotti, Pininfarina and other proposals in a kind of ‘internal’ styling competition. It would be the TR that would outsell all the models that came before and despite a troubled start due to factors out of Harris Mann’s control, would be loved by its dedicated band of enthusiasts for generations.

We interviewed Harris Mann on many occasions in front of audiences at TR events and for TR Action Magazine, and learned much about the detail surrounding the TR7 – why was the screen angled so, why was the rear window glass angled like that, what influenced the nose and flip-up headlamp layout etc – and he was always so honest, modest, and eager to share insights and stories.

Spending time with Harris was to appreciate what professionalism and talent he had, but also what an agreeable and pleasant personality he was. He was so very friendly and easy to get along with. A conversation over lunch though might often be disrupted by him grabbing a beer mat or menu card to draw up some styling detail to explain why things were as they ended up on a particular model.

In the late 1970s, he worked on updates to the Marina style, then the Metro and Maestro projects and the still-born Triumph SD2 saloon project. The entire motor industry recognised his talents, so after he left BL in 1983, to set up on his own, he was never short of work. He shaped several Suzuki motorcycles and worked for BMW on four-wheeler and two-wheeler shapes. Then there was work on big railway locomotives, on Lotus and Lola models, and much more.

Harris found himself back at Longbridge during the early-2000s working with the team headed by Peter Stevens on the MG Zeds and even the MG SV.

For the fans and enthusiasts, the delight of meeting Harris never waned and he always took time to answer in detail even the most naive of questions and explain the reasoning behind designs or to share an anecdote from those troubled times at British Leyland.

He was an active participant in TR Register events, an honorary member of the club and a friend to many of us and he never seemed to tire of seeing the cars being loved and appreciated by enthusiasts, always willing to stop by for a photograph, a ceremonial cake cutting or to sign someone’s boot lid!

Harris Mann, a stylist, a talent, a part of history, a lovely Mann.

This article has been reproduced in part ‘by kind permission of the TR Register UK’ … Dean Bogisch

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Here is photo of Bob Tullius’s Group 44 TR8 Racer. Very successful in it’s day, including a class win in the 1980 Sebring 12 Hour endurance race. Quite a mean machine!

Hi. I’ve missed the last couple of meetings, so this might all be academic, but I recall someone saying that it would be nice to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Spitfire by having one on the stage during a club meeting. I have a 1963 Spitfire 4 (Mk1)…so its an early model. I’d be happy to do the honours! Let me know and assuming its not poring with rain I can bring it along to the next or other club meeting. I’ll even swap its currently fitted alloys for the original steelies! Cheers. Peter Spalding.

Found these photos recently. I believe it to be a TSOA show from about 1977 or so. I am pretty sure  the TR2 RPN843 belonged to a friend of mine Robin Heath while we were doing our engineering degree at the time. It was my introduction to TRs and most of the reason I own one today once I realised that an XK140 was unlikely to happen. Still happy with my choice.

Our May mid week run, the first for almost 2 years, was enjoyed by a small group of enthusiasts.  Bob Kretschmer brought out his lovely TR4A and Stephen Wade his equally superb Stag.   The autumn colours in the Adelaide Hills were brightened by the morning sun as the drive took us through Crafers, Woodside, Nairne and to our lunch destination at the Hahndorf Mill.  On the way we stopped at Green Valley Strawberry farm for morning tea.  All thought this worth another visit, particularly Bob who enjoyed their sticky date pudding.

Last meeting Duane Kaak gave a brief presentation on some personal memorabilia related to his Triumph motoring.   I am hoping to continue this whilst members find it interesting.  John Tuohy volunteered to present at the next meeting, and I will again seek further volunteers.  Just to remind everyone, it is intended that presentations are brief and each item should be smallish and could be anything of interest ranging from a stainless-steel bolt to a speeding fine from SA Police.   .

As I am writing, we are 3 days away from the next Berlemon Weekender, this time to Murray Bridge.   Julie and I, together with more than 25 others, are looking forward to another interesting event.

At the last meeting it was announced that we have a volunteer to take over the production of FasTRak from Marg and Dean Bogisch who have been doing it for the last 9 years.   Many thanks to Marg and Dean for holding the fort for so long and to Katherine Bradley, a relatively new member, for taking on one of the most important jobs in the Club.

And that reminds me that we need a firm commitment from someone to take over running of the Day of Triumph (DOT) from Ian Rigby.  This is another vital Club role.  Ian has outlined details for the event in a recent FasTRak.and I know that he will be willing to assist a newcomer in taking over and managing the event.  Let Ian or me know if you’d like to take on the role.

Don’t forget to pay your subs and get your logbooks sorted before 30 June 2022.  And remember the AGM is not far away (August meeting) so start thinking about a position on the Committee.

Check out the social calendar.   I look forward to seeing you in June

Kind regards,

Peter Davidge (President)