{"id":2705,"date":"2006-09-13T07:58:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-13T11:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/09\/hark-herald\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:03","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:03","slug":"hark-herald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/09\/hark-herald\/","title":{"rendered":"Hark, the Herald"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nick<\/a><\/p>\n

Not long after Jill and I were married<\/a>, it became apparent she should have a car of her own. I usually drove the Rover<\/a>, and while we also had a Chevy pickup<\/a> she preferred something smaller, a car that could “turn on a sixpence,” like a Triumph Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Herald had been introduced by Standard-Triumph in 1959 to replace the Standard Ten<\/a> (which had been sold under the Triumph name in the United States). While the Ten had a unitary body<\/a>, the Herald was given a cruciform chassis<\/a> in order to simplify the sourcing of body panels from outside suppliers. It used a version<\/a> of the Ten’s engine<\/a>, and came in four body styles, sedan, convertible<\/a>, coupe and estate wagon<\/a>. The estate version<\/a> came later, in 1961. Only the sedan and convertible were regularly sold in the United States.<\/p>\n

As it happened, we found a 1966 Herald convertible<\/a> not far from home, at a modest price (from which the seller was happy to bargain). Jill quickly cleaned it up<\/a> and enjoyed it, particularly in summer months. Our son Nick was fascinated with it<\/a>, always eager to help me work on it<\/a>. It could indeed turn on a sixpence, or a dime – much more nimble than our neighbor’s Cadillac<\/a>, if a bit intimidated by eighteen-wheelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mechanically it was very similar to the Triumph Spitfire<\/a> – in fact the Spitfire was derived from the Herald, not vice versa. In order to tighten up the steering, I was able to buy a Spitfire steering rack<\/a> from a junkyard and bolt it right in.<\/p>\n

The chassis frame that was the Herald’s virtue was also its fault. Made of light gauge, box-section steel, it was prone to rust. After about four years I began to run out of places to weld reinforcements on the frame. We sold it for a modest profit, and I’m sure the next owner, if he could weld, had fun, too.<\/p>\n

Triumph’s greatest triumphs in the US were sports cars<\/a>; the sedans and estate cars<\/a> never seemed to catch on. Triumph sedans<\/a> were popular in Britain until the late 1970s, but the day of the British sedan in the US had already passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not long after Jill and I were married, it became apparent she should have a car of her own. I usually drove the Rover, and while we also had a Chevy pickup she preferred something smaller, a car that could “turn on a sixpence,” like a Triumph Herald. The Herald had been introduced by Standard-Triumph….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3762,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2705\/revisions\/3762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}