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Triumph

M

mike jenks

master brummie
Colmore Row

Hi

Thought i would start off with a picture from the 1950's
of Colmore Row. Some super Cars. I think there is a Triumph
Mayflower in the Background.This was a favourite of mine super lines. Nice view of A motor cycle and Side Car. The buildings look splendid.
Spent a few years at Canley. A huge plant the sight of those Sports Cars pouring of the line. Spitfires Tr6's 2000/2500's. Sadley all gone and its a
Super Market now.

Mike
 
Yes, the razor edge Triumph Mayflower; remember it well. I think there was a larger model along the same lines also. Funny, 40 or 50 hp. seemed more than enough in those days and as Oisin has stated the cars had charachter. I think though the cars would not have been designed to travel at sustained speed on super highways. There were not any in th UK back then. This and the poor record of Lucas electricals in North America (as repoted to me) did not earn the cars many kudos here. However I had two British cars here and they performed reasonably well but there were issues that were design related that were clearly missed.
 
Triumph Renown

Mike,Great picture of the Triumph.I used to own one of these when I was 18. I bought it off one of my mates for a tenner.Wish I still had it,I bet it would be worth more than that now.It had all wooden trim and copper and brass fittings but I couldn't afford to keep it on the road so I buried it in the back garden of our house in Broughton Road in Handsworth.Wonder if it is still there?That was when you could get 4 GALLONS of petrol and still have change out of a pound.BobS.
 
Eric Gibson, It looks more like a Devon to me, or the two door Dorset the Hampshire was a wider car, but I may be wrong.
 
Darby said:
Eric Gibson, It looks more like a Devon to me, or the two door Dorset the Hampshire was a wider car, but I may be wrong.
Click to expand...

You are wrong, the Devon had its headlights out on the front of the wings not on the inner panels. E.
 
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What about the cars on the left, Morris Oxford? some vintage of Austin 10? don't rcognise the body.The car further back seems to have an old Ford Grill.
What about the Motor bike. Is that a Panther Sloper with a Swallow sidecar.
 
Nobody has mentioned going round to BoBS old garden and digging his old car up to restore.....:)
 
All this talk of cars here's my Dad with his first car I think its a Wolseley 9. The photo was taken in Bevington Road about 1930.

Dad___car.jpg
 
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Great photo Moma P. I bet your Dad was very proud of his car. I like the
front bumper style.
 
Yes Mike the first one looks like it. Cromwell I am still trying to work out the logistics of burying a car. Seems like a herculian task to me. Our back yard I am sure would not have accomodated a car. Why do it anyway when you could more easily put it in your back bed room...er..with the Tiger Moth.
 
:angel: Rupert, It seems it was the normal thing to do here, to bury old cars in their back gardens, in this Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise NZ.
Still as you say in a Back-to-Back or even on our Maisonette veranda would have been quit a feat LOL.:)
 
Darby said:
Eric,
Yes point taken, that's something else i have learned.
Click to expand...


I've had 57 years in the trade Darby, from grease monkey to garage owner, I still have to scratch my head to remember some of the cars pictured and I guess I've at some time worked on all of them. E.
 
Eric,
Do you remember Frank Moseley's in Steward Street Ladywood they were Armstrong Siddeley and Jowat agents, my wife worked there on the switchboard, being very nervous on her first day suddenly the phone rang and she answered " Good morning Oswold Moseleys ", we still laugh about now.
 
There is a Hillman Minx buried in a garden in Kingstanding.....it was too heavy for the scrap man to remove (this was sometime in the early 1970's)...so we had no other choice than to cut it up and bury it....the lawn has a great drainage system....

I grew up in the middle to late fifties and I would say that the cars of that era and earlier are my favourites.....Standard Vanguard (the one with round back) is probably my favourite...Austin Somerset...Princess....The Mayflower..which I always thought looked like the hat that the sherrif of Nottingham wore in the tv prog Robin Hood...., Hillman, Vauxhall, Rover, Triumph, Morris, Austin, Riley, Ford, etc....all had models you could tell from each other even in the dark......not like today were you have to look at the badge......
 
First car

My very first car was a 1937 Morris 12/4 which I bought from a garage in Monkspath by the name of David Prophet.I had a £7-10shilling tax rebate while I was working at Burton and Cole in Ruston Street in Ladywood and I saw an ad. in the Mail for this car and was determined to have it.Monkspath was then on the far side of the world but I had to go and get this car.I caught a Midland Red in the Bull Ring and went to Monkspath and bought it.No license and no insurance but the salesman let me have it,no trouble.I drove it home to Ladywood,where I lived and proceeded to paint it in very strange colours so consequently could not drive it anywhere as it was so noticeable and I got stopped by the police who actually let me off for driving with no licence etc. as long as I scrapped it.As it was my first car I was a bit miffed but I went and got driving lessons and passed my test when I was just seventeen.I then went and got insurance but on that very day someone broke in the car through the roof and set fire to it.Gutted or what?I then had a succession of cars until I was about twentyand have not had one since.The last time I bought petrol it was about 4/6 a gallon.I walk everywhere now and have probably one of the most underused free bus passes in Brum.Bob Shale.
 
Morris 12/4

Hi

Is this the one.
Now a BMW dealer David Profit.
Whole area full of Car dealerships.
Great Story.

Mike Jenks
 
morris 12/4

Hi,Mike
Thanks for the picture but that one looks a bit more modern than the one I had.The one I had was,I think,a bit more angular than the one you have posted.I could be wrong as it was a very long time ago.46 years to be exact!
 
Hi,all.I went down to Broughton Road today on one of my walkabouts and had a look down Crick Lane which is at the bottom of the garden of my old house and it didn't look any different to what it looked when I lived there so maybe my old car is still in the back garden!!!!.I did knock the door but got no reply so will have to wait a it longer to find out if it is still there.BobS.
 
triumph car

the mayflower was a very nice car despite the lack of disk brakes,indicater winkers,heater, seat belts, syncromesh gear box, radio. It did have an engine you could understand and repair though not like the ones today . my wife and I owned one in 1956, swopped it for a ford "Cortina".
 
Triumph Mayflower.

Geff. The Mayflower, it was a bugger to change that manifold to exhaust pipe gasket even up on a car hiost, also had a lot of free play in the steering box. I loved the style of the car.
 
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Hi,
The Mayflower was built in smaller numbers than the larger Renown. The Renown had a Standard Vanguard engine and they were built in Coventry. HJ Mulliner, the coachbuilders, in Small Heath. (Golden Hillock Road I think), were taken over by Standard, and I believe that was the only place where the Mayflower was ever built. The Renown was often called 'the poor man's Rolls-Royce' on account of the body style.
Mulliner's was the only place to build the Vanguard Estate too. My late dad worked there for several years untill the place closed down in the 1950's. (I'm talking about the Mk1 Vanguard, I don't know where the later marks of the estate were built).
Spooner:)
 
Hi

Great article on Mulliners. Alhough I worked at Rover
Solihull I alway's felt the atmosphere at Canley.
Mergers etc lead me to Canley in its last few years.
By then the Factory had gone and we were in the Huge Engineering and Styling area.
During the 60's and 70's Canley produced massive amounts of Vehicles.
Clearly its hey day's were the Spitfire and Tr6 era with the 2000 range.
Coupled with the 1300 1500 1850 vaqriants it was compatible
with Longbridge.
Sadly it lapsed into decline politics etc I was nevere really convinced
Triumph 2000?2500 range never has quality problems sold in their
thousands. A great place but gone now.
 
Hi

Just had an idea.
Wrote a book some years ago on my life at Leyland.
I decided to re-write some bits and bobs as I felt
there was a fair amount of Tribal hysteria written.
I was fortunate to work at the heart of this buisness
for nearly 35 years.
I hope my article will help a little I had no axe to grind either way.


Mike Jenks
 
Hi Mike

Just finished reading your book,I found it an interesting read and nice to hear from somebody who was at the heart of it.I used to work close to Longbridge at a Rover dealer in Tessall Lane till 1998 then was transferred to Rocky Lane till Rover closed.Knew a few engineers from Powertrain,engines and transmissions as I had to deal with them on a regular basis.

Just a thought have you come across this site www.austin-rover.co.uk
Although it is called Austin Rover it deals with all things BL related, the guy who runs the site is a motoring journalist and is an Austin Rover nut.He is always looking for info from people like yourself.

Regards

Dave
 
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