Registration: 170 FTV

Details: Triumph Herald Coupe

Source: Email: Brian Screaton

Info: Many years ago, about 1972/3, I used to own a Triumph Herald Coupe reg. no. 170 FTV, which I think was a 1959 – it was one of the early ones, without the fluting on the side panels of the roof, anyway. I attach a couple of photos – the colour one is not long after I bought it, whilst the black and white one is just before I got rid of it – you can see its rather the worse for wear. It was my first car, and I bought it for about £135 from a ‘friend’ – I never saw him again

The Triumph was a bit of a bodged up wreck, but I managed to keep it on the road for a couple of years, and then when it fell apart I sold it (for about £15, I think) to a couple of farmer’s sons from Willoughby Waterleys who used it to race around their fields, until, I assume, it was abandoned or scrapped.

 

My main memories of the Herald are : The drive shafts nearly falling off on Scraptoft Lane in Leicester, because the previous owner hadn’t tightened the bolts, the prop shaft catching on the body every time anyone sat in the back ( which wasn’t often, given the cramped space ), driving through a ford and the water lifting the cardboard cover to the gearbox and flooding the footwells, the accelerator cable snapping just as I was crossing a busy main road – ah, happy days ………