Triumph Cycle Company (1897-1930)
S. Bettman & Co. was renamed the Triumph Cycle Co. Ltd. in 1897.[2] In 1902 they began producing Triumph motorcycles at their works in Coventry on Much Park Street. At first, they used engines purchased from another company, but the business prospered and they soon started making their own engines. In 1907 they purchased the premises of a spinning mill on Priory Street to develop a new factory. Major orders for the 550 cc Model H were placed by the British Army during the First World War; by 1918 Triumph had become Britain's largest manufacturer of motorcycles.
In 1921, Bettmann was persuaded by his general manager Claude Holbrook (1886–1979), who had joined the company in 1919, to acquire the assets and Clay Lane premises of the Dawson Car Company and start producing a car and 1.4-litre engine type named the Triumph 10/20 designed for them by Lea-Francis, to whom they paid a royalty for every car sold.[3] Production of this car and its immediate successors was moderate, but this changed with the introduction in 1927 of the Triumph Super 7, which sold in large numbers until 1934.
Triumph Motor Company (1930-1944)
In 1930, the company's name was changed to Triumph Motor Company.[2] Holbrook realised he could not compete with the larger car companies for the mass market, so he decided to produce expensive cars, and introduced the models Southern Cross and Gloria. At first they used engines made by Triumph but designed by Coventry Climax, but in 1937 Triumph started to produce engines to their own designs by Donald Healey, who had become the company's experimental manager in 1934.
The company encountered financial problems however, and in 1936 the Triumph bicycle and motorcycle businesses were sold, the latter to Jack Sangster of Ariel to become Triumph Engineering Co Ltd.[2] Healey purchased an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and developed a new car model with an Alfa inspired straight-8 engine type named the Triumph Dolomite.[4] Three of these cars were made in 1934, one of which was used in competition and destroyed in an accident. The Dolomites manufactured from 1937 to 1940 were unrelated to these prototypes.
In July 1939, the Triumph Motor Company went into receivership and the factory, equipment and goodwill were offered for sale.[3] The Thos. W. Ward scrapping company purchased Triumph, and placed Healey in charge as general manager, but the effects of the Second World War again stopped the production of cars; the Holbrook Lane works were completely destroyed by bombing in 1940.[5]
Standard Triumph (1944-1960)
In November 1944, what was left of the Triumph Motor Company and the Triumph trade name were bought by the Standard Motor Company[6] and a subsidiary "Triumph Motor Company (1945) Limited" was formed with production transferred to Standard's factory at Canley, on the outskirts of Coventry. Triumph's new owners had been supplying engines to Jaguar and its predecessor company since 1938. After an argument between Standard-Triumph managing director, Sir John Black, and William Lyons, the creator and owner of Jaguar, Black's objective in acquiring the rights to the name and the remnants of the bankrupt Triumph business was to build a car to compete with the soon to be launched post-war Jaguars.[7]
The pre-war Triumph models were not revived and in 1946 a new range of Triumphs was announced, starting with the Triumph Roadster. The Roadster had an aluminium body because steel was in short supply and surplus aluminium from aircraft production was plentiful. The same engine was used for the 1800 Town and Country saloon, later named the Triumph Renown, which was notable for the styling chosen by Standard-Triumph's managing director Sir John Black. A similar style was also used for the subsequent
Leyland and beyond (1960-1984)
Standard-Triumph was bought by Leyland Motors Ltd. in December 1960; Donald Stokes became chairman of the Standard-Triumph division in 1963. In 1967 Leyland Motor Corporation bought the Rover company and in 1968 Leyland Motor Corporation merged with British Motor Holdings (created out of the merger of the British Motor Corporation and Jaguar two years earlier) which resulted in the formation of British Leyland Motor Corporation. Triumph set up an assembly facility in Speke, Liverpool in 1960, gradually increasing the size of the company's most modern factory to the point that it could produce 100,000 cars per year. However, only a maximum of 30,000 cars was ever produced as the plant was never put into full production use, being used largely as an assembly plant.[8] During the 1960s and '70s Triumph sold a succession of Michelotti-styled saloons and sports cars, including the advanced Dolomite Sprint, which, in 1973, already had a 16-valve four-cylinder engine. It is alleged that many Triumphs of this era were unreliable, especially the 2.5 PI (petrol injection) with its fuel injection problems. In Australia, the summer heat caused petrol in the electric fuel pump to vapourise, resulting in frequent malfunctions. Although the injection system had proven itself in international competition, it lacked altitude compensation to adjust the fuel mixture at altitudes greater than 3000 ft above sea level.
Demise of Triumph Cars
The last Triumph model was the Acclaim, introduced in 1981 and essentially a rebadged Honda Ballade built under licence from the Japanese carmaker Honda, at the former Morris Motors works in Cowley, Oxford. The Triumph name disappeared over the summer of 1984, when the Acclaim was replaced by the Rover 200, a rebadged version of Honda's next generation Civic/Ballade model. This was the first phase of a rebranding of the Rover Group which would also see the Austin and Morris brands disappear by the end of the 1980s and the Rover brand dominate most of the company's products. The BL car division had by then been named the Austin Rover Group, which also retired the Morris marque in 1984 as well as the Triumph brand.
Current ownership and possible revival
The trademark is owned currently by BMW, which acquired Triumph when it bought the Rover Group in 1994. When BMW sold Rover, it retained the Triumph and Riley marques. The Phoenix Consortium, which bought Rover, attempted to buy the Triumph brand, but BMW refused, saying that if Phoenix insisted, it would break the deal. The Standard marque was transferred to British Motor Heritage Limited. The Standard marque is still retained by British Motor Heritage, who also have the licence to use the Triumph marque in relation to the sale of spares and service of the existing 'park' of Triumph cars.
Proposals were reportedly made in the early 2000s for BMW to market a cheaper, four cylinder, rear wheel drive car based on the Z4 Roadster to rival the Mazda MX-5. This new car was speculated to be branded as either an Austin-Healey or a Triumph. Development of the car took place, although production did not commence.
In 2005, it was reported that BMW's Designworks studio in California proposed reviving the Triumph brand for use on the new
