Chapter 9

1961 - 1962

Triumph Gloria - AKU 990   

1961

John TURNER with Triumph Gloria

Paul SHACKLETON with 1932 Morris 8

As I have said in the previous chapter, my Mum bought me my first car from a garage at Four Lane Ends in Bradford.  For anyone who is interested in specifications, the following are specifications given by the Triumph Owners Club.  I don’t remember mine having the twin SU carburettors!!

• Engine:         10.8 hp; 4 cylinders; 66mm bore by 90mm stroke; capacity, 1232cc;        overhead inlet and side exhaust valves; twin SU carburettors.

•  Gearbox       4 forward speeds and reverse with free-wheel pre-selection.

• Brakes:           Lockheed hydraulically operated on all four wheels; handbrake operating on rear drums.

• Track:              4 ft. 2 in.
• Wheelbase:     9 ft.
• Production:     September 1935 to August 1937.
• Price New:       £345.
• First registered in Bradford, Yorkshire in January 1936.

The following may also be of interest and are taken from my memory.

• Hand throttle to assist starting - early Cruise Control!!

• Advance / retard  ignition control on steering wheel.
• Manual control for Windscreen Wipers as backup to the electric motor.
• Interesting Headlight dipping system - the offside light went out and the nearside one physically moved by means of an electrically driven solenoid working against a spring.
• Reverse gear was left and back, which moved the gearstick so that it just about touched the passenger seat.  Alright for inadvertently touching your passenger’s knee, as long as the passenger was female!!
• Car body was Maroon Aluminium with Black Steel Running Boards.

The first story about that car concerns my attempt to get insurance.  I went into a Broker in Bradford and sat down in front of a man with a large book in front of him.  He asked me what car I wanted to insure, at which point he turned over a few pages.  He then asked my age and turned over a few more pages.  Finally he asked what my job was and when I said that I was in the RAF, he closed the book with a flourish and said that he couldn’t help me.  I sincerely hope that, since he refused to insure me, I am not supposed to declare that on every Car Insurance proposal ever since!  Anyway, from there I wandered along the road, found the Co-op Insurance office and they accepted me with no problem.

One of the earliest memories of this car was driving to Sheffield with Peter THORPE.  We were around Wakefield when my nose started bleeding; whilst I made an attempt to stop it, we carried on the journey with Peter driving.  I am sure that I remember him saying “Doesn’t this car have any synchromesh”.  Of course, it didn’t, so he had to learn double de-clutching.  I have spoken to Peter about this incident and he has no memory of it.

During the Summer of 1961, I drove down to Pembrokeshire to spend a holiday with Dai NICHOLAS.  Whilst driving through Tenby, I felt a jolt and stopped.  When I got out, I found that I was towing a Morris Minor backwards.  Whilst the driver was reversing out of his parking space, I had pulled in at the end of the line of parked cars and his overrider had become entangled with my rear bumper.  On another occasion, I was driving with Dai in heavy rain when the windscreen wipers stopped working.  I operated the manual handle, which was on the right hand side of the steering wheel and Dai helped to change gear so that I didn’t take both hands off the steering wheel.  That was interesting with the ‘crash’ gearbox.  At the end of that holiday, I drove Dai back to Halton for his new term and I continued on to Bradford.  The journey must have been about 400 miles and, given the lack of motorways, the fact that the car had a top speed of about 60 mph and no power steering, it was quite a journey.

One Friday evening on my way home to Bradford from Waddington, I reached to just north of Doncaster when the temperature gauge fell to zero.  I found a leak from the Water Pump gasket.  I had no tools so I went to the only house that was anywhere near and asked for help.  The lady was very helpful and gave me a cornflake packet and loaned me a pair of scissors and sent me to the garage where her husband lent me some spanners.  I took the Water Pump off, made a new gasket from the cornflake packet, using both cardboard and greaseproof paper, refitted the Pump, took the tools and scissors back, got some water, filled up and off I went.  That gasket lasted the life of the car.

On another occasion I was driving from Waddington to Beverley in East Yorkshire to visit Bill and Mary HEWSON.  In those days, the Humber Bridge did not exist so, to avoid a long detour, I used the ferry, which was a Paddle Steamer, from New Holland to Hull.  As the ferry docked in Hull, I went to start the car to be met by a terrible racket.  This turned out to be a leaking exhaust gasket.  I drove the remaining 10 or so miles with a very light touch on the accelerator pedal to lessen the noise.  On the following day, Bill pointed me towards a hardware store and in there I bought an asbestos mat designed for use on Gas Stoves.  We then cut out a new gasket, fitted it and, once again, it lasted the life of the car.

I had a memorable trip to London on one occasion with someone who I thought was Frank HARE, however he has no recollection of it, so perhaps the use of the word memorable is inappropriate.  The car just kept on stopping with the most likely fault being ignition.  Just how many times we stopped to clean and adjust the points I cannot remember.  I think that we also replaced the Coil as well, but we did make it there and back somehow.

In the late months of 1962, I had some trouble with the generator and, subsequently the timing (in addition to the camshaft, the timing chain also drove the distributor via gearing on the end of the generator shaft).  I arranged for a local garage to tow the car away so that it could be fixed and went on leave.  When I returned, the car was still on the car park.  The garage claimed that they couldn’t move it because the brakes were stuck on.  That winter turned out to be one of the coldest on record, causing the engine block to crack and the car was consigned to the local scrapyard.  Such a sad end to a lovely car.  It was my fault for not having enough, or perhaps some, antifreeze in the cooling system.