1983 Triumph Acclaim Goes For a Drive

today I'm driving the very last model of triumph ever released so this their claim the last ever triumph the first Japanese car built in Europe and one of the cars are a great not buying most of all when I had the chance as a daily this may not look like triumph see remember because really it's not underneath it is very obviously a Honda it didn't change that much to turn it into a triumph the development began in 1978 when Michael Edwards realized they needed something in a bit of a hurry to replace the aging maxi Allegro Marina trio which we were looking pretty dated by the end of the 70s and they knew the maestro Montego was gonna be a good five years away probably and they needed a stopgap in a hurry so BL started looking around for companies that could work with similar size similar segments perhaps and eventually they hit on Honda but believe it or not that wasn't their first choice they spoke a long time to Renault they spoke to AMC I spoke to BMW and Mercedes in fact their first choice was Chrysler UK because they considered themselves to be a similar-sized player in the market but ultimately cries a USA sold cries the UK to Peugeot and that put paid to that deal so in stepped Honda and the acclaim was born a blade development was already fairly well underway by the time that Michael had was signed the paperwork on the agreement on Boxing Day 1979 and the car made it into production in 1981 now visually there aren't very many changes between the Honda and the triumph product Honda badge moved from the side to other triumphs is in the center the door handles a little different and knowing mirrors moved on to the doors unlock triumph version as well the tryouts were much better specs in the Honda equivalents though and this biggest CD top of the range model came with headlamp washers and here's a bit of trivia for you to keep costs down the front and rear bumpers are actually identical even these holes for the lights are identical with just rear fogs on the back or blanking plates it was a low spec car if you look at the rear of this car this is actually using a front bumper which has got some blanking plates that have been made for the time being now building this car in Britain was great for both Honda amphitryon's for triumph it gave them a car in a hurry that was already developed and researched and virtually ready to go Honda other hand-knit access to the UK and EU market because there were restrictions on the number of imported cars they could bring in and by making the car 80% locally sought components they got around their restriction made instant access to the European market and so they paved the way for things like the massive Swindon plan for Nissan for Toyota all the other major Japanese players coming into UK and building cars here this is the car that created the entire part of the motor industry as I say this is the CD which is a top-of-the-range car though of four different trim levels l HL HL s and here the top of the tree the CD now the L version was really really really basic you didn't even get a clock in the thing but this one the a the CD is absolutely loaded post-facelift in a quartz clock before that it was mechanical you get horn just about you get fog lights you get electric windows on all four doors you get remote mechanical obviously mirrors you've got an option of air conditioning which is almost never taken you've got two sun-visors one with a mirror you've got a little coin holder you've got fresh air vents left and right you flip these up vents here and suddenly you're being air-conditioned with beautiful fresh air from outside through the the side fence you can a go radio with cassette there's so much joy in this car there's even one of those bizarre things I've ever heard about down here in France the gearshift you've got a headlamp levelling system which is not too rare or unusual thing but this one is hydraulic using glycol like antifreeze to hydraulically raise and lower your headlamps I've never come across that before normally it's a little electric motors all seized up for you and the wheelbase on this car is about 94 inches which is barely any bigger than a metro and so because it's a saloon car shape it's not that big inside the rear legroom is very small I'll show you that in a second the front room is okay but it's very narrow indeed they use narrower seats and the triumph over the Honda and I've heard two different versions either these seats of based on Corti Cortina C frames or they're based on a towel seat frames no one seems to know anymore if you do know tell me in the comments we fascinating to find out but they are very comfortable though squishy not very supportive sideways but they are not bad they've got headrest as well so quite good in case of whiplash and that kind of thing I'm told this particular seat fabric is very rare indeed the company that made it went bust a few years ago and now you can't get it for love nor money and they used in maestro's as well so there's a fair bit of demand for it so the owner of this car may come back one day we'll find a seats have been skinned over on the driver's door obviously you've got your door handle get in and out only plastic built metal this time your mechanical window mover for electric windows and main on and off which means the driver can isolate the other windows so the irritating kids in the back won't be fiddling with the windows on a dashboard in a very very Japanese in the Honda way you've got your fuse panel here by your right knee and you've got a little coin tray as well this is just pure wander all the way through and down here you've got your buttons from the rear screen heater rear fogs and front windscreen washers all just tucked away a little bit out of sight but they're not backlit buttons instead there's a tiny little lens with a light behind it just flowing down like a street lights upon them isn't that cute you can tell where the rover are eight dials came from there's a nice clip the speedo and rev counter but they're not that be there they're fairly compact but they are quite crisp the needle goes up to a hundred miles an hour and I've variously heard 84 and hundred miles an hour has the top speed I think 84 was the stated top speed an auto car once pushed one of these to 100 as far as I can tell from my research so normally 84 miles an hour downhill with a tailwind it'll go a bit more that's kind of what I've heard you've got a different range of other instruments you obviously the rev counter because CD and Porsche and Japanese so lots of toys which British cars just weren't getting back then they were pretty loudly SPECT temperature gauge fuel gauge lots of lights even a boot lid open warning light on this thing which is good now we've got our AM radio course clock massive lighter socket massive choke this cars got choking it still and get us out it's got multiple D tens so if we're cold a very cold day which is a little bit cool how fun is that here in the middle you've got the choice of two gearboxes this car thankfully has got the 5-speed manual which is a really nice gear shift which I'll enjoy running through the gears briefly in a moment the other option was a three-speed automatic called a traumatic or in its real name and Ematic it was a selectable automatic semi manual thing but only three speeds and this automatic so we'll ignore that and stick with a manual because that's where the good stuff lives proper ordinary Hambrick and then over here on the Left we've got a tea shelf let me get my cup to test it I have returned now there's no cup holder in this car but do have Oh an unusable tea shelf tea shall fail if I had a regular mug I could probably use that on here and I think you need some fairly dainty cups and saucers maybe I found sources on the medium I've just been told of cost a grand a will fit on there but you know this isn't self sufficient then you need to bring your own thing if you're bringing tea sandwiches so china cups my kind of thing you're going to need using the dolls tea set on this one this is this is very poor indeed this brings me to another point the roof line on this car is quite low and this front screen is quite sharply rate so Headroom is also a little bit limited if I'm about 510 511 kind of high and so if I was any taller it would start to feel a little bit cramped in here Porsche on the t-shirt though now we've got below the failure every shelf we've got a reasonably good sized glovebox which has got around 27 tapes in it and some fuses and no door pockets and the speaker's are here on the edge of the dashboard angled towards your knees there's a couple of little Clips here on the seat box which are quite handy both by the front ones I've got seat but retaining clips which means when you're not using a seat belt you can just tuck it out the way and it won't slap annoyingly if the windows are open isn't that good oh one final thing with the ignition off and you wondering what the time is because it's a clock with a led's display rather than you know modern LCD or hands push the bottom half of the clock and the light behind it comes on for a second so you can see what the time is now these seats have virtually never been sat in here in the back of the car now the Niram is not exemplary oh it's a little bit on the tight side there is a nice seat back pocket on both seats which the CD get I'm not sure the the L got that but the seat back itself is a nice height the Headroom is again quite tight but there are handgrips both sides with little sliding back and forth the coat hooks as well your no door pockets nothing like that at all you've got electric window switch though and you've got a little ashtray thing down here and then this is quite fun the back seat doesn't fold down but it has got a ski hatch but not a ski catch in the middle like you'd expect it's here on the left-hand side so you've got an armrest for one to recline upon I am now reclined there's no seat belt in the back seat camera Klein I'm reclining in my acclaim well you wouldn't be in your claim because someone else to be driving it which would be weird it's not really a so four different car what this is is a great two shelf so you can have a big old picnic here and got segregation for your fork knife and spoon and a small snack area here ideal for maybe some kind of airline food if you want to eat off fat it's not a great design to be perfectly honest it's really shallow and a really funny position in the boot so I've no idea what you put in here it's never going to be used it's a weird thing to add to a car all right let's look in the boot here we are in the truncal area the back of the car proper old-fashioned boots this is a proper three box saloon so even though BL triumphs really did want to have a hatchback in there it didn't want to admit it to Honda at the time but they're a little bit disappointed it wasn't a hatchback and was actually a saloon they kind of had to go with it it's not a huge boot it goes back a fairly decent way and if you are considering a murder you don't you want to murder a small person because you're not going to get a big guy in the back of it now the owner has worryingly put a bit of thought into this because he's got a genuine accessory Unipart triumph acclaim branded boot liner here so anything messy in the back is going to be protecting the carpet underneath which is also very original on this car got plastic pockets left and right and on to the floor there is a full-size spare wheel which is nice now you put your bonnet release catch and the wrong end pops up because this is a front hinged bonnet mic on say a Jaguar e-type so if the Pacha are in good company now here in the front you'll find a transverse-mounted rather than longitudinally mounted so a bit different for triumph air 13:35 cc four-cylinder engine which is basically an all Honda unit it's all aluminium as well and on the Honda version it's got a nice cast you've got a nice cast aluminium Rock a couple with Honda cast into it which looks very smart indeed on the triumph version you've got a rather voluminous pressed tin black painted thing which gives him some slightly annoying mayonnaise sometimes it's made trick you into thinking you've got head gasket failure just get so big you get condensation in there but because this is a Honda unit it doesn't go wrong in fact this car hopes the perhaps dubious record for the least amount of warranty claims on any British Leyland product there's a couple other oddities under a for example this massive bottle here isn't the windscreen washers it's the headlight washers they look a tiny one tucked in mind the battery that's why I can need for the window so bizarre choices made there there's the main difference between this in the Honda engine is of course that this has got twin carbs only single on the Honda unit this makes about 10 bhp more than the Honda car now thanks these are twin Cayenne carbs this 1.4 engine makes 72 horsepower and 80 foot pound a talk which is good for twelve point nine seconds nought to 60 and a top speed as I said before somewhere between 84 and a hundred right let's take this thing out on the road so given a tiny weeny bit choke here and it sparingly quite nicely as twin cubs nice and smooth unlike this road which is extremely rotted indeed the gear change is very nice as well three very crisp slightly heavy mechanical feel between one and two certainly I'll ask the air vents going sis pretty warm in here that's better there's little vents here as well nice fresh air all the rides not bad at all actually this is a bit of bouncy road but the they call have taken it very much in its stride and twelve point nine nought to sixty is not impressive but it feels a lot more sprightly than that and suggest I like the 5-speed gearbox and that's good little bit windows from the doors but y'all need to input a certain amount of fit and finish to this thing after all now it's incredible to think they made over 133,000 of these cars the last big as I could find we're about two or three years old and it showed there's only 390 left only about 200 on the road and I suspect it's a lot less now you really can't tell the Honda next it's so quiet and so refined very mind this is a small family car and yet it's riding with just beautiful smoothness in the pot from air conditioning and the sat-nav there's not a lot missing from this car there will be present on a modern luxury vehicle I think I've got velour as well who doesn't love velour I love vanilla [Music] now one great thing about BL and triumph tying up with Honda is that Honda really is an engineering led company like Grover used to be so when they got this car take on a car with fully independent McPherson strut suspension so rides fantastically it's got disc brakes at the front drum brakes in the rear so for stopping power it's quite good as well and of course the build quality was like nothing British Leyland had ever built before the cars are built by pressed steel Fisher Cowley which is now of course where they make the minis mumblings at a time that there wasn't a proper time wasn't really British the fact was it kept thousands of jobs in the country [Music] it certainly kept the company running long enough for them to continue developing the maestro Montego one thing they did learn from Honda was about production technique in production process so for the first time they were designing a car away they had a car given to them design may be a better way to say that was designed to be built as designed for construction so the shop floor the factory floor could actually put this together sensibly and not have to struggle to build the things and that meant they built a better product which even after well this car is nice 83 so 37 years old it's still fairly rattle free now because it says a Japanese based car you do have your indicators here on the right-hand side along with your headlight switch and your wife system and the hazard warning lights are a funny little sliding switch on top very curious indeed all it took a little while for the British public to come to terms with a foreign influence all over the very British triumph brand it was the beginning of a very successful partnership because this car was ultimately replaced by the rover 200 the sd-3 shape which was in turn replaced by the r8 and in the meantime from the very beginning there were plans for a smaller car which never happened and a larger car which became the 800 and of course the 600 was born of this as well in fact it even inspired a line on my merch store which is the rover name spelt out in Japanese text I'll put a link in the description above I really like that one it's very subtle which side the width steering wheel indicators wrong what time you turn back down the road [Music] now the owner of this car is very enthusiastic about it he spent a lot of time making it as nice as he possibly can buying accessories like that floor mats he's added the mud flaps that kind of thing he's done his level best to improve a car which is such a rarity now and so hard to find parts for because they're just so few of him left the only built it for three years of course it was introduced in 1981 replaced in 1984 by the sd-3 Rover 200 and of course the maestro Montego this thing really does write nicely and we've getting up to a national speed limit kind of speed down this road and it's just cruising beautifully and the owner tells me when he bought it he lives down in the Home Counties he bought it in Aberdeen Road tripped it back over two days I didn't miss a beat apparently I do think it's rather sad that this car is now what's so forgotten it's almost slip from the collective consciousness of the nation because it's a really good car reviewers at the time really enjoyed it I didn't necessarily rate it as being the best handling car in the class but they certainly appreciated its refined road manners is quiet cabin its reliability and the build quality we're all really welcoming to Don and I'm being harsh saying it doesn't have good handling because it does it by the turn in this shop the grip is good being front-wheel drive it's nice and safe it's got predictable understeer handling rather than my cellmark to escort which would have happily chucked you off sideways with a lots of oversteer if you got it wrong [Music] this thing's fun adult wing car engine revs up beautifully it's just so quiet and composed it's easy to forget you're driving a carpet nearly 40 years old I'm often asked questions like what would be a good starter classic or an everyday classic I could take to work and I never had I've never said buying a claim before because if night kind of half forgot on them because he just don't see them anymore but this is great five-speed gearbox decent was there conditioning but you know decent ventilation electric windows all around central locking beautifully reliable Honda electrics an engine so it's not gonna let you down there isn't to worry about one of these really is rust broken trim if you're worried about getting all the best bits of trim sorted out you may be in trouble because there just isn't any my mation it's pretty cheap insurance as well if you're a young a young driver into retro cars because only a one point or deckle at one point four bits close to 1.3 really and that kind of 80s japanese styling is so cool right now so much in fashion you're gonna look good in this thing I nearly bought one back in the 90s when these were just 300-pound throwaway cars and I didn't I've bought a mark three escort instead and a stupid thing to do because the Mach 3 escort was rubbish it's absolutely trash and no extras on it manual everything broken most of it I don't know why I didn't buy this they even back then I was concerned I was gonna struggle to get parts for it because I just hadn't seen one in so long and triumph obviously wasn't a current surviving brand back at that time instead of a broken rubbish s cool I could have had a really cool thing with electric windows and reliability and heater that worked funny you can go back and do things again now this car from 1983 is a phase to facelifts so there are a couple of very small differences the steering was a tiny bit different the gear knobs are tiny bit different the door handles are a tiny bit different and the clock is different they didn't go all out on the facelift well thanks for coming along on this ride for me today I hope you've enjoyed this well one of those rare cars I've never driven really isn't it although they make quite a few of them there are none left if you have liked this please hit like please hit subscribe please share with your friends do all that good stuff it makes a massive difference to the channel get the all these videos out to new people who've not enjoyed the triumph II British Leyland dienes of this channel before join me again next time when I have literally no idea what I'll be doing because I really very very rarely do that intake today anyway so the chance of you planning something on this channel it's slim to none take care everyone stay safe and I'll see you soon

Channel: furiousdriving

Views: 38,492

Rating: 4.9432626 out of 5

Keywords: car, cars, blog, vlog, retro, classic, classic car, retro car, motoring, Triumph, Acclaim, Honda, Ballade, japanese, british, last triumph, collaboration, anglo japanese, saloon, sedan, 1980s, 1983, small, front wheel drive, road test, car review, test drive, eighties, modern classic, daily classic, classic daily

Id: Qr-hY9yK71s

Length: 22min 3sec (1323 seconds)

Published: Sat May 23 2020