{"id":26934,"date":"2012-05-25T13:14:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T12:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=26934"},"modified":"2022-06-15T12:51:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T11:51:01","slug":"triumph-and-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"England’s Alfa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell us about Triumph, says the editor, and make it personal. But that\u2019s exactly Triumph\u2019s problem. For someone like me \u2013 mid-thirties, passed my test in \u201992 \u2013 a brand that died in 1984 doesn\u2019t figure much in our car consciousness. My personal experiences of Triumph are all of the jokey-ironic variety. There was the work experience kid we had when I was road test editor of car magazine who showed up in a mint early-eighties Triumph Acclaim<\/strong> every day, rather bravely parking it among our Ferraris and\u00a0Lamborghini’s, and expected us to take him seriously as a car enthusiast. (It didn\u2019t do his career any harm: he\u2019s still at the magazine.)<\/p>\n

Or there\u2019s the beautiful ex-girlfriend, a Notting-Hill dwelling media guru who, despite showing zero interest in cars while we were together, completely inexplicably went out and bought a poo-brown Triumph Dolomite <\/strong>after we split and parked it proudly between the Range Rovers and Porsches of W14, possibly seeking to replace me with something even less reliable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nDolly Sprint: great potential – bad build quality<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And yet, and yet\u2026 there must be something about Triumph to have made BMW retain the rights to the name \u2013 along with Riley \u2013 when it was happy to relinquish MG along with Rover.<\/p>\n

Go back beyond the Acclaim, TR7<\/strong> and Dolomite to the bigger, Michelotti-styled 2000<\/strong> saloon and its successors, and to sports cars like the Spitfire and the Stag, and you see a British Alfa Romeo emerging.<\/p>\n

Like Alfa, Triumphs were often good cars ruined by woeful build quality, lack of engineering investment and appalling mismanagement. Unlike the Italians, we were prepared to follow financial logic and let a swathe of famous names, including Triumph, die.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nVitesse: evoked European style, not just in name<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But death isn\u2019t terminal in the car industry. When the German brands were busy brilliantly re-imagining British brands like Rover, Range Rover, Rolls-Royce, Bentley and most relevantly Mini in the nineties and early noughties, Triumph was always just one boardroom vote away from resurrection.<\/p>\n

You can see the appeal to punters of an affordable, charismatic, utterly British sports car: it\u2019s the obvious gap in our revitalized national line-up. Trouble is, pure sports cars sell in small numbers, so they have to be expensive to make money. The Mazda MX-5 has the affordable roadster market wrapped, and BMW already does sporty saloons of the type Triumph used to make.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSpitfire: worthy of the noble moniker?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But as the car market fractures into more and more sub-niches \u2013 I\u2019ve lost count of how many Mini sub-variants there are \u2013 the chance of a gap opening for Triumph increases.<\/p>\n

But should Triumph come back? Does it mean anything, now that it\u2019s been gone so long? It is one of the world\u2019s great car names, but also a massive hostage to fortune and headline writers if the car BMW puts the badge on is anything less than stellar.<\/p>\n

BMW is reported to have recently re-registered Triumph and the laurel leaves as a European trademark. It might just be legal housekeeping, or there might finally be something brewing in Munich. If there is, I doubt they\u2019ll call it a Spitfire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Oliver on what might have been for Triumph<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1779,6],"tags":[2721,953,1113,951,2090,966,2735],"class_list":["post-26934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","category-features","tag-alfa-romeo","tag-british","tag-british-cars","tag-italian","tag-michelotti","tag-spitfire","tag-triumph","manufacturers-alfa-romeo","manufacturers-triumph"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTriumph and Disaster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Triumph motors, looking back over the often good cars ruined by woeful build quality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Triumph and Disaster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Triumph motors, looking back over the often good cars ruined by woeful build quality.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Influx Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-25T12:14:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-15T11:51:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Influx\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@influxmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@influxmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Influx\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Influx\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/bd1d7849cc02132a2eef1e6a832bff63\"},\"headline\":\"England’s Alfa?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-25T12:14:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-15T11:51:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\"},\"wordCount\":533,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alfa Romeo\",\"british\",\"British Cars\",\"italian\",\"Michelotti\",\"Spitfire\",\"triumph\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cars\",\"Features\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\",\"name\":\"Triumph and Disaster\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-25T12:14:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-15T11:51:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"Triumph motors, looking back over the often good cars ruined by woeful build quality.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"England’s Alfa?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/\",\"name\":\"Influx Magazine\",\"description\":\"Cars, Bikes, People, Culture\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Influx Magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif\",\"width\":300,\"height\":60,\"caption\":\"Influx Magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/influxmag\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/bd1d7849cc02132a2eef1e6a832bff63\",\"name\":\"Influx\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aca34c7dcf62c4a37ad59c4be80c5b75?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aca34c7dcf62c4a37ad59c4be80c5b75?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Influx\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Triumph and Disaster","description":"Triumph motors, looking back over the often good cars ruined by woeful build quality.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Triumph and Disaster","og_description":"Triumph motors, looking back over the often good cars ruined by woeful build quality.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/","og_site_name":"Influx Magazine","article_published_time":"2012-05-25T12:14:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-15T11:51:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Influx","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@influxmag","twitter_site":"@influxmag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Influx","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/"},"author":{"name":"Influx","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/bd1d7849cc02132a2eef1e6a832bff63"},"headline":"England’s Alfa?","datePublished":"2012-05-25T12:14:05+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-15T11:51:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/"},"wordCount":533,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg","keywords":["Alfa Romeo","british","British Cars","italian","Michelotti","Spitfire","triumph"],"articleSection":["Cars","Features"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/","name":"Triumph and Disaster","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg","datePublished":"2012-05-25T12:14:05+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-15T11:51:01+00:00","description":"Triumph motors, looking back over the often good cars ruined by woeful build quality.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/dolly1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/triumph-and-disaster\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"England’s Alfa?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/","name":"Influx Magazine","description":"Cars, Bikes, People, Culture","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#organization","name":"Influx Magazine","url":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn-influx-wp.adrianflux.co.uk\/uploads\/2016\/06\/influx-logo.gif","width":300,"height":60,"caption":"Influx Magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/influxmag"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/bd1d7849cc02132a2eef1e6a832bff63","name":"Influx","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aca34c7dcf62c4a37ad59c4be80c5b75?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aca34c7dcf62c4a37ad59c4be80c5b75?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Influx"}}]}},"Feature Image":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/2000F1-1-of-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35466,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26934\/revisions\/35466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}