On Thu, 19 Jun 1997, Lawrence G Miceli wrote:
> Andy,
>
> I have a book titled "The Complete Guide to Triumph Herald & Vitesse"
> written by Mike Costigan (1992) and published by Bay View Books of 13a
> Bridgeland Street, Bideford, Devon. EX39 2QE. It shows the headlamp rims
> as being changed from the original 3.75 inch rims to 3.25 inch rims in
> mid 1963! I have found the book to be a great source of information on
> restoring my Herald and would recommend it to any Herald/Vitesse
> enthusiast. Unfortunately, I have never seen it in the states and
> purchased my copy in London at Harrod's book dept.
[WARNING: SOAPBOX MODE ON!] Costigan's book is fascinating and
wonderful...and almost completely lacking in information on versions of
Heralds sold outside of the UK, particularly U.S. versions. The U.S. cars
do differ in any number of ways, some of which are decently documented in
the spare parts catalogues, and some of which are not. It is interesting
that one of the very first photographs in the Costigan book is a U.S.
publicity shot of the 948 Herald range. And he does note there that the
U.S. Heralds featured the white rubber bumpers from the very start as
standard, unlike home market cars (where the bumper kit was a catalogued
option).
BTW, Costigan's book is readily available here. I got mine from EWA in NJ,
although I'd much rather have had the pleasure of going to Harrod's in
London to pick it up. :-)
> As to my Herald, again it shows that nothing can be taken for granted,
> The carpets in it were originally light blue, not gray, and the head lamp
> rims are without question the early ones, and were in HORRIBLE shape when
> I replaced them with the NOS pair. Of course, the next owner of the car
> will probably think the car came with disk brakes, dual SU's an o/d
> transmission and wire wheels. I guess I really should send off for the
> Heritage certificate and check on those original items.
Depending on what source you read, nothing you have done is "incorrect"
for a Herald, unless that OD tranny is a late, single-rail style or the
brakes are from a GT6. All of those items were catalogued options --
formally or "informally"!
> BTW, I really enjoyed the last issue of the VTR newsletter. Let's have
> more Herald stuff next issue.
I agree, but I'm told VTR also has a lot of members that don't have
Heralds. More will follow in the future, I promise!
> And if you are not using that radio from Matt Barre in the Herald, I'd
> like to borrow it until you need it? If not, maybe I could ask you to
> take some pictures and post them on the web page so that I could see
> what it was all about.
Maybe I'll be able to do that someday. Meanwhile, the RCA radio is typical
of an aftermarket radio of the period, which i'm guessing is mid-1950s to
early-1960s. It's an all-in-one unit (speaker built in to bottom) that
could have been mounted in-dash in some cars, or under dash on others, or
even overhead (perhaps in pickups -- that was not uncommon back then).
--Andy
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Andrew Mace, President and *
* 10/Herald/Vitesse (Sports 6) Consultant *
* Vintage Triumph Register *
* amace@unix2.nysed.gov *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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