Ref Mr. William Davis's family tree on the Triumph Heralds
May be my reply could be of interest to others also.
I read someone talking about emmission tests and the limits. Here in India
particularly in Chennai (Madras) the CO limit is 3% for recent cars and 5%
for older ones. The interesting thing is that while all the recent cars
struggle consistently to meet the limits, I have been getting in my 1974
GAZEL ( Herald 948 engine modified to have 4 doors) less than 1% CO
emmission . The cops did not believe the certificate issued to me and took
my car over to their lab to check the emmission and guess what they got
-0.55%
He would not believe his machine and had another vehicle tested immediately
-a 1997 SUZUKI compact which was around- it gave 3.2%. The cop thought that
my testing was a caliberation error and immediately tested my car--again
-he got 0.5%.this time around. He still refused to believe that a 25 year
old lady running on leaded pertol and no catalytic convertor can be so
emmission free. I was not surprised since I always got less than 1%
emmission from my car.
So just to be sure, quite nonchalently asked a friend of mine who is an
automobile engineer and has been running a garage for many years as to what
emmission levels I should expect from the Heralds-. Equally nonchalently he
said (he did not know my experience with the cop)--"nothing!.no emmissions
, may be the computer print out will give you few decimals!." , the
smilingly he asked what was my reading. Then I related my experience with
the cops to him and he was not surprised. He said the Herald engine is one
of the best designs you can come up with and it was damn stupid of us to
have stopped making it in India.
I am relating my experience because I am keen to know the experience of
others regarding CO emmission in the Heralds. By the way nothing has been
changed in my engine except that it is now on 40 oversize piston and no
modifications what so ever has been carried out ;every bit the same as it
was at the beginning . I wonder what makes this car be so emmission free.
There must be something very very much right about the design; if so what?
I have checked up with other Herald owners and they all have no emmission
problem and the highest
emmission level I have heard from Heralds is from sister's car-2.5%. She
hardly runs it any way!.
Can some one throuw some light ?
I saw some mention about the recent article on the Indian Triumph in the
digest.I missed it. If it is not inconvenient will someone ,if it is still
in your
machine, just mail it to me.I would appreciate.
Reg the Indian scenario, the production of the Heralds original which looks
like the Herald 1200 but has the 948 engines and modified ones with four
doors and then with hatch back, stopped in the 1978-80 period when the
factory shifted to making Rover 2000.called the Standard2000. Unfortunately
it was fitted with a badly chosen workhorse , an earlier model Vauxhall
engine with modifictions. It gave very poor mileage of 6 kms per liter of
petrol and the production
was stopped.in andaround 1986 The factory is now closed. Any way, the
Standard 20 vans were produced till the end though the body had lot of
problems.There are many Standard 20s still running in the South ,say be a
hundred or so, mainly as mini school buses.
Reg the Herald ,Gazel, there are few hundred all over the country put
together running, mainly in the South of India and perhaps Delhi. I have
two Gazels one here and one in Delhi running ok. There are many Standard
10 and 8 in Chennai and Bangalore still running. There is of course the
problem for spares but then you can get the critical ones because the best
thing about the Herald is that it has very few part compared to the current
day tin pots.
There are some automotive suppliers still making single batch per year of
these spares.Mechanically nothing was changed in these machine from the
original except the modification of the rear axle and change over to
Standard 20 master cylinder in case of Gazel. If you guys in there need any
spares do let me know and I would see if it can be sourced from here- it
surely would cost a lot less than in UK I am told.Of course the tyres are
no problem
as it is still in production as the rim is the same used by a local version
of the FIAT/LADA
I seem to see little information about the Heralds in the digest; how
comes.! Any way due to popular demand of ' the club' I would be preparing a
set of
photos of the various Indian incarnations of the Herald for the world to
see,shortly.
thanks,
s.v.ramani
----------
----------
> From: William Davies <w.davies@virgin.net>
> To: S.V.Ramani <enecne@md3.vsnl.net.in>
> Subject: Re: your posting ontriumphs digest
> Date: Tuesday, July 28, 1998 10:59 AM
>
> Hello Mr Ramani,
> Thanks for your mail regarding the Indian made Heralds. I have been
> aware of these for some time, but I always thought they had the 948
> engine like the early UK cars. I read an article recently in the TRIUMPH
> WORLD magazine which showed some of the Indian Heralds, but there were
> no pictures of inside the cars.
> Are there a lot of Heralds and Gazels in India, or have most been
> scrapped? It would be good to see one of these cars in th UK, but I
> don't think we are allowed to bring them out of India?
> Also, is the Standard 20 Van still seen in India? I run the ATLAS
> Register, which was the original UK version of this vehicle. I think
> there are less than 10 of these on the road in the UK, what about in
> India?
> Thanks again
> Bill.
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> This Message sent by:
> ^================^
> / \ William Davies
> / \ Total Triumph Enthusiast
> __ __________________ __
> / \ ______ ______ / \ 1959 Herald 948 Coupe
> \__/ \ || / \__/ 1960 Herald 948 Saloon
> | A \____||____/ A | 1960 Herald 948 Saloon Export
> | = H H = | 1964 Herald 1200 Saloon
> =====U==============U===== 1966 Herald 1200 Convertible
> \________________________/ 1970 Herald 13/60 Saloon
> | | | | 1959 Standard Atlas Pickup
> |_| |_| 1972 Spitfire MkIV
>
>
|