North American Triumph Sports 6 (Vitesse 6) and Herald Database My 1967 Triumph Sports 1200 "blog"

Birth Certificate !

All seems well again!

And then some. You'll note a significant time gap between entries here. The amazing truth is that there's been virtually nothing worth reporting, which is one way of saying that the car has become surprisingly reliable. Oh, it's not completely without its quirks and such, but other than a reluctance to start after standing for eight or more hours or overnight (I've really got to find and connect a good choke cable, among other things), it's been behaving itself very nicely. I guess I passed the test!?

Anyway, you may remember back about page 3 I'd mused about the fact that the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles could not cope with the fact that my 1967 was, in fact, a 1967 model. Somewhere in the past, either a confused (or conniving?) owner -- or possibly a well-intended but equally confused (or conniving?) DMV clerk managed to morph this car into a 1964 model, and I simply couldn't convince them otherwise. (I'm sorry, Mr. Mace, but we'd need something from the manufacturer stating.... Well, fine. Let me just run down to the local Triumph dealer and...oh wait...that won't work....)

Well, the only thing to do was, of course, to order up a Build Certificate from the BMIHT. Unfortunately, no one there bothered to notify me (although I'm told others who ordered around the same time WERE told) that they were closing for a month. Long story short, the certificate that I ordered the end of June, the one that should have come by the end of July, came yesterday, Monday, August 27!

Surprise, surprise, surprise! The Herald convertible that I was so sure had to have been built in calendar year 1967 was, in fact, built in...1967! 9 May 1967, to be exact! There weren't really any other surprises in the detail of the build. I knew I no longer had the original engine (it's a late Spitfire 4 Mk2 1147 long block in there now), but other numbers seem to match up, as do details of the original build specifications.

I was intrigued by one little bit of recorded information. The last entry under "12. Other Information" is the following: "Less Nave plates"! I'm assuming that, by 1967, Standard-Triumph USA was doing everything they could to try to sell Heralds in the US, both by lowering the base price (convertibles had been selling for $1949.00 POE East Coast, but the price had dropped to $1909.00 POE East Coast by 1967) and by "optioning up" the cars whenever possible. In this case, "Less Nave plates" meant that they could add a set of the Air-Flow wheel covers that had become pretty popular in the US and pick up a few extra dollars. (On the other hand, my car also was equipped from the factory with a tonneau cover.) When I got the car a few months ago, it had the more traditional nave plates, which were in pretty good condition but not well set off by wheels that had been painted black at some point. So initially I didn't feel too guilty about substituting a set of Air-Flow wheel covers; now I guess they'll stay! I still want to redo the wheels in Spa White at some point....

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7/25/12; revised 8/28/12