Bryan Young heads out for a go at the Auto Khana event held at Mount Gambier during the 2011 Nationals. Bryan won his “6-cyl modified” class and helped SA to a win in the overall Nationals award for the Competition Cup. Good on ya Bryan!

Other Triumphs in this shot are Bruce Pollock (TR4A) from WA, Robert Hanton (TR7V8) from Qld, and Ron Marion (TR5) from WA.

A selection of the TSOA display at this year’s All British Day in February. Are you entered for the 2012 event?

Well another National Meeting has occurred and from all reports everyone enjoyed the variety and organizing capabilities of the small but very enthusiastic members of the TSOA SA who planned and implemented the event.

This year’s event was over a total of some 9 days if you wished to go and be involved in all parts of the National Meeting. The first 5 days from Saturday October 15 until Wednesday October 19 saw the group of 120 delegates from six states and the ACT based in Mount Gambier in the South Eastern part of South Australia, not far from the Victorian border.

Then the delegates drove back towards Adelaide and were all booked in at the McCracken Country Club Resort, a top grade complex set in its own golf course in the seaside town of Victor Harbor for Thursday October 20 and Friday 21 October 2011.

There was also a further two days on Kangaroo Island available as a wind down from this weekend and a bit more of the friendship, great driving roads and fine food.

The South Australian TSOA National Meeting Committee certainly had us all going each day, there was plenty of driving trips and lots of food! To this end there was an early morning walking group offering which commenced at 06.15. This was referred to as; “An Amble with Alex” I hope that those who went on this event had a good time!

As is always arranged the first day involved getting settled into your accommodation after Registration. Here we got our goody bag and lots and lots of maps and brochures. Then in the evening we had Happy Hour and dinner at the Motel – Silver Birch. There were two Motels beside each other on one of the major through roads in Mount Gambier and our group was spread between both of them.

Most of the members spent a considerable amount of time getting ready for the Sunday when we assembled for the Pride of Ownership display on the lawn beside the Lady Nelson Information Centre.(The Lady Nelson was a two master cutter used extensively in navigating along the Australian coastlines back in the early years of the 19th century under the control of Capt James Grant & Mathew Flinders – It was used in the discovery of Tasmania and a replica ship is now based in Hobart)

Those who wanted to entered the judged section while everyone else lined up along on the grass verge.

While the judging was taking place we were given free access to the Mt Gambier Interpretive Centre Museum which traced the history of the area.

After the Pride of Ownership there were two options, one option was to go on a river cruise on the Glenelg River some 60 Kms from Mount Gambier; the other option was to have a go at the fully organized Motorkhana under the full CAMS rules.  By that evening after another great meal we fell into bed.

The next day, day 3, was a competitive Navigation  & Observation Run in a huge sweep to Port Macdonnell, (the locals call this “portmac”) where most enjoyed their lobster lunch.

The 3 & half hour run of some 215 Kms (131.6Miles) took us through the townships of Casterton (Birthplace of the Kelpie), Heywood , Merino, Digby, Dartmoor then along the wild coastline on our way to Port Macdonnell – the Southern Lobster region of S.Aust.  A well organized BBQ meal was had by all that evening put on by the Mount Gambier Vintage & Veteran Car Club.

Day 4 was another totally different organized event which gave us the opportunity to view the World Heritage listed park containing the Wonambi Fossil Centre and the Naracoorte Caves. The drives took us through some of the finest Terra-Rossa soils area around the South East known generally as the  Coonawarra  well respected for its Red Wine growing. Also we stopped in Penola which is one of the towns with the rich history associated with Saint Mary MacKillop.

Then back to Mount Gambier for another wonderful evening commencing with a very noisy Happy Hour and then a sit down meal at our Motel.  Lots to talk about from today with some of our friends at our table.

Day 5 was check out from the Motels and after breakfast pack the cars and head out of Mount Gambier on our 450 Kms drive to Victor Harbor, the day was quite hot and sunny so it was fortunate that we got away pretty early.  This trip took us across country and then through the Coorong which is starting to become habitable by the wildlife which had avoided it during the severe droughts experienced in previous years.

We turned off this road and took the ferry across the Murray River at Wellington and passed through another special wine growing region called Langhorne Creek and on to the edge of the very historic town of Strathalbyn, here we turned left and headed for Goolwa and then into Victor Harbor to our next place of short residence, McCracken Country Club Resort. Again we had another wonderful evening this time experiencing the happy hour and a chance to talk about the day with new friends at our table from other states.

Unfortunately again I missed the Amble with Alex next day, Day 6.

On the itinerary today was a trip on a steam train to Goolwa and then a Hillclimb at Mt Alma which is only 36 Kms from Victor Harbor.

The hillclimb was organized by a local CAMS approved oganisation accredited to run speed events specially for our group and was most suited to the more highly-powered Triumphs.

We were given a practice run to start with, and this was in dry conditions but the rain then started and all the other runs were in the wet.

The course was an extremely steep asphalt road of  just under 3Kms which ended very soon after the finish line by then becoming a dirt road;  so as you came over the finish line it was necessary to brake hard’

Each of the 3 groups had their turn and waited at the top on the side of the dirt road for the last in their group to come up the hill.  Once the last car in their group had completed his or her run then we all returned back down the hill. The last group had the pleasure of waiting to hear the awesome sound of Ian Wilson in the Yellow TR 8 come up the hill, followed by a wonderful sounding Series 1 XJ6 Jaguar which was not very standard!

In all we had 4 runs and then all packed up and headed back to Victor for the traditional drinks and Dinner, this time at the Hotel Victor in the heart of this pleasant seaside village, once’ in the very early days of the State of S.Aust a whaleing industry was all that happened here. Now a much liked tourist destination.

On the last day, day 7, we had a slightly later start of 09.00 on our next drive through to, yes you guessed it another well known wine district; known as the Southern Vales with McLaren Vale as its central  township. This run was a brunch run to a delightful setting with a feature lake complete with ducks and geese, called McLarens on the Lake. Again far too much lovely food awaited us.

After this we were given the afternoon off to do as we pleased with most doing a leisurely meander back to our accommodation, to get ready for the final dinner, the Presentation dinner at The  McCracken Country Club Resort.

This was another memorable evening with the traditional “Triumph Nationals Theme Song” commencing the evenings offering, followed by the National Meeting Awards presentations, then there was dancing to finish off the night, mainly for all those who still had energy!

And so another Triumph National Meeting came to a close the next morning with those who did not choose to go to Kangaroo Island, packing their cars for return journeys to their homes wherever that was, to now consider if they intend backing up in 2012 to meet in the central Goldfields of Victoria to again meet up with some of the Triumph friends made while in South Australia.

TSOA SA member Barry Clark’s TR4A with Mark Webber on board at this year’s F1 event in Melbourne. Not too shabby Barry! What a Triumph!

GT6 in the Mist – 2011 All British Weekend at Wakefield Park.

The Triumph story, according to Graham Robson and Richard Langworth, goes back to 1863 when a young and very ambitious 21 year old man by the name of Siegfried Bettmann decided to leave Germany and head to London to make his fortune.

Siegfried was very bright, well educated and he spoke German, French and English. Given that he was very talented at an early age gave him advantages and is why his rise through the ranks was so spectacular.

Siegfried had soon out grown his initial menial job as a translator and had created S.Bettemann & Co and obtained a number of continental companies for whom he was London agent. With the exception of one of these agencies most not that successful; the only one which was successful was a manufacturer of sewing machines from Saxony and S Bettmann & Co imported these sewing machines under this agency agreement to be sold profitably throughout the England.

Bettmann saw that there was little to be seen of a profitable nature in importing but there was a real market in exporting, and at that point of time transport was in its infancy with the humble bicycle being the “new” mode of transport.  At that time the “penny farthing” was all the rage.

However Bettmann saw that the high front wheel of the Penny Farthing was not as easy to ride as the smaller front wheel and had a Birmingham company manufacture them for his company, he foresaw that there was a huge market over the channel.

But he knew that calling these new bicycles the “Bettmann” would not be a good marketing product and he wanted a name which would be recognized worldwide, he came up with the name “Triumph” which he felt would be recognized throughout.

Little was he to know that this name would become so well known the world over for such high quality cars and motorbikes. The Triumph Company has arrived!

In  1887 Bettmann needed more capital to continue to expand this thriving small concern and he asked a fellow German countryman of his , a Mauritz J Schulte to be a partner, this partnership was to last over 30 years.

The company was changed to a limited liability company when Schulte added his life savings of 150 pounds (which in those time would have been a large sum!) and the Triumph Cycle Company Ltd was created!

Sales of bicycles continued to sell so much that Bettmann, being driven by the more astute Schulte asked several more financiers to assist in the expansion of the company.

As part and parcel of this process the Directors made the decision to manufacture bicycles themselves rather than have someone else do the manufacturing. So they started to look for suitable location in Coventry; which was the hub of bicycle manufacturing at that time.

The Triumph Cycle Company indeed found a suitable building in Much Park Street, in the West Mid-lands town of Coventry, the Company were to move to Priory Street in 1907 but some major factors propelled the company to become so much more successful and this was due to  a number of factors;

One was that Mauritz Schulte was more forward thinking and

Secondly the link with a Dublin based Company, called the Dunlop Rubber Company in seeing what success the Triumph Cycle Company was having and wishing to be involved.

These two factors were part of the process in changing the way the Triumph Cycle Company was to go into the future. On pneumatic tyres!

By 1897 manufacturing of bicycles started selling motorized bicycles with very primitive and tiny motors; Triumph was also interested in this move forward and tried a number of different engines before deciding to build their own 3& 1/2 hp engine.  The company was still finding its way and by 1906 had started production in a small way. As mentioned above in 1907 the Triumph Cycle company sought larger space and some of the manufacturing moved to the Priory Street premises.

Siegfried Bettmann started to move into politics while keeping an eye on the bicycle division which was his main interest thus leaving the other Directors to drive the motorcycle division forward.

Siegfried’s civic life saw him become a member of the City Council then President of the Chamber of Commerce and in 1913 became Mayor of Coventry.

However the next link in this chain of events occurred in 1911 or 1912 when Siegfried became the Chairman of the Standard Motor Company.  There is some thought that he provided some funds to Reginald Maudslay in order that he could obtain the controlling interest in the Standard Motor Company . Maundsley was to become a Director of Triumph as well.

According to Graham Robson and Richard Langworth; Siegfried Bettmann did not have a very long period of involvement with the Standard Motor Company but it would be 34 years later that this relating link would come full circle. Bettmann had retired with a very handsome payout and the Company was now under the control of Mauritz Schulte, a much more dynamic and forward thinking individual with a new Company Manager, Col. Claude Holbrook who had been closely involved with Bettmann and Maudsley in the procurement of motorcycles as part of the war effort during the Great War.

In fact the Triumph Cycle Company did very well during the war with large orders for motorcycles as part of the war effort, orders for machines increased from 3000 in 1909 to some 15,000 by 1923 and by 1929 this number had doubled!  By then the Priory Street building was a seven storey building thanks to the high quality of material and workmanship which has made Triumph motorcycles famous.

During the early 1920’s management at Triumph were cashed up and were like a number of companies interested in building Automobiles. An article in The Autocar printed an article advising that the Triumph Cycle Co Ltd was interested in producing light cars and had purchased the Dawson Car Company who had built a 12 hp light car. Unfortunately the Dawson motorcar was not a success with some 65 cars built and there are apparently no survivors today.

When this purchase was made by Bettmann prior to his retirement his intention was more for the value of the property that came with the sale which was only half a mile from Priory Street. When William Morris ran into financial difficulty he approached Bettmann with a view to buying the Morris Motor Company, however Bettmann refused, reasoning that he could build exactly the right complex for the production of the Triumph motorcar.

In April 1923 it was announced that the production of wholly Triumph designed”Triumph 10/20” was to commence.

The start of a long illustrious period of some 60 years for this famously named automobile!!.

By Mike Greenwood – Adelaide

Jon in WA

Jon Williams doing a little bit of circle work around the cones in WA after moving over there recently. The “6” looks great Jon!

Remember July 24th run. Meet at Adelaide oval front gates off King Willianm. Meet at 9.30 run will be through the hills with a morning stop then on to lunch at Y cafe. Cafe has live music with wood fired food on Sundays. Area also has opal shop, Cheese and wine tasting. Car park display of the cars. Info Ian Rigby or Sue. Info in June mag.

Chuck Falzon’s magnificent Triumph 1800 Roadster – pictured at the 2011 All British Day.

This magnificent 1971 Mk III GT6 has been owned and driven by TSOA member Graham Jones since the mid 70’s and surprisingly has covered something like 319,000 miles! A full restoration over recent years has returned the car to pristine condition – what a beauty!  And nicely done Graham.