Triumph Motor Company
Triumph Motor Company is a Car manufacturer English now missing (the branch motor bike always exists, to see the article Triumph (motor bike)). The house was founded with Coventry as a manufacturer of cycles by Moritz Schulte and Siegfried Bettmann in 1890. German citizens, they also opened a subsidiary company with Nuremberg which remained related to the head office until in 1929.
History
Luxate and gropings
In 1902 Triumph began manufacture from motor cycles and they is only two years after the acquisition of the Dawson car manufacturer in 1921 which were presented the first car models. Of traditional invoice, these models did not have discounted success. In 1925, Triumph presented the first British car of series equipped with hydraulic brakes Lockheed, the TCP of 1,9 L of cubic capacity. In 1933, new direction made up of lt-collar C.V. Holbrook, of the engineer Donald Healey and the designer Walter Belgrove put in production Gloria at engines Coventry Climax of 4 and 6 cylinders. A range was developed: truck, torpedo and sporting versions with two carburettors. But, the market of the car passed through a crisis related to the Krach of 1929, and in spite of the quality of its products increasingly luxurious and innovating (cars equipped with windshield washer, adjustable direction, headlight of step back, double brake system, automatic greasing of the frame…), the manufacturer saw his sales decreasing unrelentingly. In 1936, Donald Healey designed the Dolomite, an ambitious sport scar inspired of the Alfa Romeo 8c 2300. Thanks to its supercharged engine with 8 cylinders doubles camshaft at the head of 140 horses, its gear box with preselection Wilson and its 200 km/h point some it could claim to equalize the best sport scars of the interval wars. But its price of 1125 £ did not enable him to find its customers. More and more in difficulty, Triumph had the same year to separate definitively from its branch motor cycle. That did not prevent the mark from being found under administration controlled during the summer 1939. Th. W. Wards repurchased the company and, during the war, transformed the installations for a military production (carburettors of plane and especially hunters bombers Mosquito under license De Havilland).
Standardization
At the end of the hostilities, victim of the German bombardments on Coventry, Triumph was nothing any more but one name. In 1945, the mark was resold to sir John Black, director of the cars Standard. Sir John wanted to compete with Jaguar (ex Standard-Swallow) with which it sold engines since the Thirties. The first Triumph models of the post-war period however did not offer anything revolutionist. The 1800, a truck more than traditional of style razor edge (separated wings, high case and trunk) were sold only with 2000 specimens in three years. The Roadster 2000 joined again with a certain will to produce a sporting car, but its middle-class performances and its style with horse between two times convainquirent only few customers. In 1949, in a preoccupation with a standardization, the Triumph models were equipped with engines and Standard transmissions. The following year, the truck accepted the frame of the Standard Vangard, it took the name of Renown then. A new model with monopiece case (the first at Triumph) and with the style particularly " insulaire" , the Mayflower, had more success on the British market and was sold with 32000 specimens in four years of production. Its name was a proof of the will to sir John Black to bore on the US market.
Triumph Roadster
To the motor-show of Earl' S Short of 1950, Triumph presented a prototype of sport scar equipped with an engine and a transmission of Vanguard equipped in particular with a Overdrive, headlights retractable and gadgets electric (opening of the cap) or ordered by the depression of the admission of the engine (seats and antenna of radio). This project was considered to be too futuristic and the mark pretexted the beginning of the Guerre of Korea to garage it after only two built specimens. Two years later, another more simplistic prototype, the 20 TS (called TR1 sometimes), based on the frame of pre-war period of Standard 10 and equipped with the same engine that the tractors Massey Ferguson was going to give rise to the line of sporting which would be the greatest business success of Triumph (more than 200 ' 000 sold specimens, including more than 90% with export) the TR, for Triumph Roadster. Economic sporting car, the TR2 was placed remarkably well in the range of the Roadster S British sold on the US market. More modern and more rapid that the MG TD and definitely cheaper than the Jaguar XK 120, the TR2 offered, with its 170 km/h, of the performances more than honourable thanks to its engine 2 liters of 90 horses with two carburettors KNOWN with constant depression. In 1956, appeared the TR3 which accepted disc brakes in front of the following year and which became then TR3 A. the great innovation occurred in 1961 with the TR4 drawn by the Italian carriage-builder Michelotti and equipped with an engine of 2,2 liters and an entirely synchronized gear box. The US market, more preserving, reserved the new version 2,2 liters of TR3 (TR3 B). The Roadster Triumph accepted finally a back bridge with independent wheels with the TR4 has IRS (Independent Rear Suspension). In the middle of the Years 1960, Triumph presented on TR5 (TR250 with the the United States) a new motor 6 cylinders equipped with an airless injection Lucas. The last true Triumph Roadster was the TR6 presented in 1969, restylée by the German carriage-builder Karmann (Michelotti which cannot assume this task at this time). But, the new standards of Sécurité passivates introduced with the the United States during the Années 1970 pushed the direction of the mark to present a car entirely new but slower, technically less advanced and especially equipped with a fixed roof, the TR7. A version with engine V8 Rover will follow, the TR8.
Herald and Spitfire
Of 1956 with 1958, series TR constituted the essence of the production of Triumph. The mark Standard saw its sales stagnating because of the bad reception of its new models 8 and 10 HP. The direction of the group thus decided to invest 2 million pounds sterling in the launching of a new car model of tourism under the Triumph mark. Drawn by Michelotti, Herald was judged revolutionist in spite of his separate frame. Equipped with a four-cylinder motor of 948 Cm3, the new model innovated by its suspensions with four independent wheels, its rack-and-pinion steering without diagram of Jenteau and its entirely tilting cap forwards. Available in half-compartment and the convertible 4 places, it was produced until in 1971. A version with six-cylinder motor of 1,6 liter of cubic capacity, Speed, was proposed as of 1962. The principal defect of Herald came from its independent back suspension to variable set: the driveshafts were articulated only side bridge, which created a steering induced at the time of the strong supports in turn. A solution with this problem existed at Triumph (suspension with lower triangle), but for reasons of production costs, it was not applied.
In 1962, a rustic roadster based on the frame of Herald came to supplement the range, the Spitfire. Sport scar economic and amusing, it competed with the Austin-Healey Sprite and the MG Midget. Like Herald, its engine evolved/moved in cubic capacity to pass initially to 1147 Cm3 (63 ch) then to 1300 Cm3 (75 ch), finally, in 1975, Spitfire inherited the engine 1500 Cm3 of the MG Midget. WP 6, a version crossed with six-cylinder motor of 2 liters was presented in 1966, it was equipped with the triangulated back suspension. Spitfire and WP 6 were diffused under various versions of carossery until in 1981.
The repurchase by Leyland and fusion with BMC
In 1961, Standard-Triumph was repurchased by Leyland Motor Corporation. The new direction removed the Standard mark (in 1963) and supplemented the Triumph range with Spitfire and the truck 2000. A range of private car was installation: Herald, 2000, and the news 1300 with traction before presented in 1965. In 1968, Leyland amalgamated with BMC, resulting from the group Nuffield (industrial empire founded by William Richard Morris, Lord Nuffield). Triumph was thus in internal competition with Rover and MG. A new model of sport left in 1970, Stag with V8 engine of 3 liters and an average truck, the Dolomite. Stag suffered from the lack of development of its engine and acquired a reputation of car with problems, like the TR 7 presented in 1975. The Dolomite gave rise to a sporting version, the Sprint with engine 2 liters 16 valves of 127 horses.
The fall
These various reorganizations and fusions which enamelled English auto industry as of the end of the Années 1960, as well as the standards Antipollution S and sedentary founded with the the United States (main market of export and first source of revenue of English auto industry), caused the decline of Triumph and British Leyland. The last model to bear the name of Triumph was a version of the Honda Ballade produced in England, Acclaim. Triumph disappeared during creation of Mg-Rover Group. Today, the Triumph mark belongs to BMW which had acquired Mg-Rover during the Années 1990. BMW refused to sell the name " Triumph" at the time of the repurchase of Rover by the group Phoenix, which makes it possible to hope that a bearing sporting model this name is again existing in the future.