Spring Chicken: Triumph Herald 13/60

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I took my Miata in for its yearly inspection the other day, as it had to be done by the end of this month. I’ve been driving it for a year now, without much problems at all! That does also mean I haven’t spent much time improving anything on it.
I was amused to find this True British Sports Car  British econobox parked on the next lot. It seemed to have been covered with a tarp, but the winter winds had blown the cover clear from the car. In any case, it was the most handsome Michelotti-styled car I had seen all day!

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Is this Triumph a contender for Most Ill-Fitting Choice of Aftermarket Wheel Trim 2016?
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The glasshouse is lovely and upright. Visibility is probably great, and only improved by removing the few bolts that keep the tin top on.
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The side windows weren’t rolled up all the way, so I could take this glare-free shot of the inside. Either they all had a red primer paint, or this green car used to be maroon.
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The 13 stood for 1300cc (almost) and the 60 for 60 horsepower (roughly), or how? 1296 cc and 61 bhp.
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The Herald is probably easy to work on and not complicated to own, but they all seem to need some amount of welding. But a nearly 50-year-old car would probably have to be restored a few times over in its lifespan, I guess.

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  1. roguetoaster Avatar
    roguetoaster

    The front end styling is a Triumph.

    1. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      I don’t know – something about it looks a little DAFt to me…

      1. roguetoaster Avatar
        roguetoaster

        Well, you know, it was Born of the same styling house.

      2. dukeisduke Avatar
        dukeisduke

        We need the Tuesday Caption Contest back.
        “I don’t know where the cat went, but he’s not under your wheels, Dad!”

  2. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    Somewhere on the car, or in the owner’s pocket is a Philips head screw driver to help keep spontaneous disassembly at bay.

    1. anonymic Avatar
      anonymic

      Those are Pozidriv. If you use Phillips screwdrivers on a British car, you’ll do nothing but strip screw heads and make life difficult for yourself.

      1. Rover 1 Avatar
        Rover 1

        That explains why even my impact driver gives up in the end.

        1. NapoleonSolo Avatar
          NapoleonSolo

          When I worked on my 1963 Rover 95, I had to have metric, SAE, and British Standard Whitworth (BSW) on hand. It was hard to find Whitworth wrenches (er, spanners) and sockets in the States, but they were worth every penny.
          “Rotate that anti-clockwise whilst I prise it off with the end of my spanner…”

      2. NapoleonSolo Avatar
        NapoleonSolo

        As are most Japanese screws. When I worked for Toshiba decades ago Pozidriv screwdrivers were hard to find, and mine was much prized. Of course, even that had limited usefulness if the last four guys to work on the machine used Phillips.
        screwdrivers.

        1. anonymic Avatar
          anonymic

          Now they have JIC, which has a dot stamped between two adjacent lobes of the cruciform. For the life of me I can’t determine what makes them different from Philips, unless it’s a tolerance thing. Though it’s more likely that it has to with licensing the Philips name, or it may allow more torque to be applied before camming out of the fastener. Pozidriv is fundamentally better in that respect, you’re more likely to break the fastener than strip the screw. I managed to do just that removing a Lucas generator field winding screw.

          1. NapoleonSolo Avatar
            NapoleonSolo

            Pozidrive has straight sides and a point on the end and fits more deeply into the screw head. Phillips has a rounded tip, thicker splines and doesn’t go as far into the screw. Nothing really wrong about the Philips design as long as it is used for Philips screws. The Pozidriv would seem to be the overall superior tool, but it you use it on Philips screws, it won’t sit fully in place because the pointed tip keeps it from going in all the way. So, a Pozidriv can ruin Philips screws just as a Philips can ruin Pozidrive screws. The nice thing about the Pozidrive tool is that different sizes all have the same contour at the point – it’s just a matter of how big they get toward the handle. So, a large Pozidrive will fit a small Pozidrive screw as well as a small Pozidrive screwdriver, if it fits at all. On the orther hand, the various numbered Philips drivers only perfectly fir the exact screw they were designed for, that is, a large Philips will not fit a small Philips screw at all.

          2. anonymic Avatar
            anonymic

            Except I was referring to JIC and Philips.

  3. Simon Storey Avatar
    Simon Storey

    I really do like how the 2nd gen Herald looks. Great piece of design.
    Triumph during the 60s really was what BMW has become in the modern era (maybe the 90s and early 00s rather than now).
    They had the Herald which was one of, if not the first aspirational small car in the UK. Same market space that the 1-Series occupied when it first came out.
    Then they had the whole Dolomite/Toledo/1500 FWD mess that despite the confused model range was analogous to the 3-series at the time, or perhaps what the 1-Series has become now.
    Then you had the 2000/2500/2.5PI which was the first of a breed of premium smaller saloons along with the Rover P6, sort of what the 3-series is now and the 5-series was then.
    Then finally you’ve got the sports car range of Spitfires, GT6s and TRs along with the GT Stag.
    If only they’d realised that they were onto a winning formula and carried that momentum through the 70s. Sadly the whole BL mess sucked up what little investment capital Triumph had and the range stagnated.