An Unhappy Pilgrim - Triumph Mayflower

like many post-war british cars the triumph mayflower was a model designed almost exclusively to win over the american market but during its attempts to marry the compact size of a family saloon with the styling and luxury of a regal limousine this obscure machine cemented itself a reputation as one of the strangest looking cars ever built and among the biggest commercial failures in motoring history the story of the mayflower begins in july 1939 when due to the triumph motor company's inability to compete successfully in the small car market against the products of giants austin and morris forcing the sale of its bicycle and motorbike division to jack sangster of ariel in 1936 to form the triumph engineering company limited an arguably short-sighted move considering triumph engineering's following decades of highly successful motorbike sales the triumph car firm was declared bankrupt and entered receivership with the company and factory put on sale triumph motors was eventually bought by thomas ward limited a sheffield-based firm that originally specialized in steel engineering and cement services before branching out into shipbreaking with donald healey of later austin healy and jensen healy fame being placed as general manager but before car production could resume war was declared between britain and germany on september 1st 1939 during which time all civilian car production was halted while an air raid in 1940 completely destroyed the company's gloria motor works at holbrook lane in coventry after five years of dormancy the triumph motor company was eventually sold by thomas ward to the rival standard motor company based at their own nearby factory in canley and under the direction of standard managing director sir john black he began to consider a new series of models that would help to make the firm competitive once production of civilian models could resume at the end of world war ii with peace declared on september 2nd 1945 black cleared out the previous range of triumph models primarily comprised of sports roadsters and saloons and relaunched the brand with two new models in 1946 the steel body triumph 1800 town and country saloon which was based largely on the standard flying 14 saloon and the triumph 1800 roadster the company's first post-war sports car model and one which was a modest success selling 2501 units before it was replaced by the uprated 2000 roadster in 1948 however what black desired was a small family car that instead of competing with direct rivals like the ford anglia would aim to challenge the likes of jaguar by providing luxury at an affordable price while at the same time intending to win over the export market as britain attempted to address the serious economic costs of world war ii placing as greater emphasis as possible on selling british goods abroad particularly in the usa where the strength of the dollar against the pound meant greater revenue could be achieved on this market building on the previous town and country saloon black's new small car with luxury pretensions would adopt the pre-war standard flying tens side valve engine updated with an aluminium cylinder head and single solex carburetor developing 38 horsepower while a three-speed gearbox with column shift was carried over from the standard vanguard and suspension utilized cold springs at the front and telescopic dampers but with a solid axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs at the rear one somewhat pioneering feature of this new car was the introduction of a unitary construction replacing the previous method of body on chassis assembly a first for both standard and triumph with the razor edge coach work which attempted to emulate the stylistic cues of the contemporary rolls-royce silver wraith being the brainchild of leslie moore chief body designer of mulliners of birmingham with input from standards walter belgrove the body shells being built by fisher and ludlow at their factory in castle bromwich birmingham as mentioned as great an emphasis as possible was placed on getting the car sold in the united states this mindset not only dictating the rolls-royce styling that gave the car regal airs that black believed would win over the american buyer but also being the driving force behind the choice of model name mayflower derived from the eponymous ship that transported the pilgrims of plymouth colony to the new world in 1620 launched in 1949 the mayflower was praised in practical terms by motoring critics for its somewhat spacious interior the upright razor edge styling helping to provide adequate headroom although the rear seat was comparatively narrow due to the presence of the rear axle while the car's performance was considered lackluster when put up against contemporary rivals the car achieving a naught-to-sixty time of 27 seconds and a top speed of 63 miles an hour although it was generally comparable to the morris miner the price of the car though was perhaps its greatest stumbling point the mayflower entering sales at a cost of 505 pounds in the uk or 18 250 pounds in 2021 and 1750 in the united states or 19 600 in 2021 figures which eclipsed the morris miners 382 pound retail price in the uk and the 948 ford angler in the usa while the domestic chevrolet style line deluxe two-door sedan cost only 1 629 this combined with the car being arguably less well-equipped than its rivals and with something of a stigma surrounding its compacted mock rolls-royce look meant only 510 mayflowers were sold in the united states although the car's popularity in the commonwealth of australia new zealand and canada as well as in certain european countries saw large numbers being shipped to these export markets as ckd or complete knockdown kits which were assembled at port melbourne in australia and under license at the a b not kings automobile fabric factory in sweden which also assembled cars and trucks for chrysler desoto plymouth fargo skoda standard and simca generally though the mayflower despite spawning variants including a two-door drop head coupe and a two-door utility truck was a significant failure for triumph and with only 35 000 units built of which only 16 395 was sold in the uk the model left production in 1953 being replaced by the standard eight although the front suspension unit from the mayflower would later be used as part of the development process for the triumph 20 ts or triumph tr1 prototype and eventually following modifications be re-employed in a production role for the triumph tr-2 one of the company's best-selling roadsters and the beginning of the legendary triumph tr range of sports cars today the triumph mayflower is often considered among the worst cars ever built its mixture of poor performance equipment pricing and styling creating the perfect storm of unappealing qualities that rendered the machine a sales calamity but despite all these factors does have the distinction of being among the first cars to marry a small size and comparatively low price with the trappings of a luxury saloon a formula that has since been replicated time and again in order to bring the feeling of affluent motoring to the mass market you

Channel: Ruairidh MacVeigh

Views: 79,739

Keywords: car, cars, automobile, auto, bus, truck, motor, motor vehicle, saloon, estate, compact, sports, roadster, transport, road, heritage, historic, Triumph, Triumph Mayflower, Mayflower, Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony, World War II, Donald Healey, Standard Motor Company, Triumph Motor Company, WWII, WW2, United States, United Kingdom, Standard 8, Triumph TR2, Triumph TR1, Triumph Roadster, Coventry, USA, UK, Great Britain

Id: kQTrlcfbfrI

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021