Bruce Egan wrote:
I just got Bill Piggott's the latest book, "Original Triumph TR7 &
TR8 - The
restorer's guide." It is a great overview of the TR7/TR8 series, and
it must
have been particularly challenging to write, given all the changes
between
factories and the different configurations of the TR7/8 for the
different
markets throughout the world.
Not only that, apparently the factories would occasionally use
whatever parts
were laying around, so even cars coming off the line right after each
other
could be different. If there's anyone on the Triumph lists that used
to work
in the factories, it would be great to hear any stories from you!
I'm sorry Gents - but I've got to say something. Quite a lot - as
usual and its time to put down some markers.
Firstly, I have no wish to appear to be abrasive on this matter,
neither do I want to challenge Bill Piggot's work or his very
authoritative publications. However, this general issue of "any old
bit will do in a hurry" theme is cropping up too frequently for
comfort.
If it's allowed to continue, I fear it may well become folklore - and
we've gone far enough down that blind alley already.
So let's try and put to bed for all time what is largely myth being
perpetuated for reasons I cannot understand.
Of all the car manufacturers in Coventry from 1959 to the cessation of
production at the Canley plant in 1980, the Standard Triumph assembly
facility was confirmed by many contemporary and independent
authorities
as being unquestionably the most modern and sophisiticated of
its type in Europe. At its launch, many of those informed people
claimed it to be the most modern *in the world* and were able to
justify
their claims.
I can speak from personal experience having also seen the assembly
facilities for Jaguar and Rootes Group products at the same time - and
there is no comparison. Indeed, when it was first commissioned in the
late 1950's, the Standard Triumph assembly hallt was such a wonder of
automation and state of the art technology (for its time) that
visitors from Europe, North America and Japan came to study it in
considerable detail and to emulate as many of its key features as they
were able - even if they were later employed elsewhere on a larger
scale. Such visitors came from organisations such as Ford, General
Motors, Fiat, Renault, Daimler Benz and an unknown outfit in Japan
called Toyota.
Although I didn't work on the assembly tracks myself, I spent a lot of
time in very close proximity to them when I worked there and I was
there frequently in earlier and later times studying many aspects of
production as part of my own early automotive training and later
experience.
The Canley plant was NOT at any time, as some have implied (presumably
from what they have read?) as being something akin to Fred Karno's
circus in terms of component availability, manufacturing capability or
general product integrity. By today's standards it might well be more
than a little dated - but archaic, out of date, "any old bit will do
in a hurry" or populated by doddering, white-haired old craftsmen
handmaking
everything in a creaking set of old buildings - an emphatic NO.
I treasure the many mental pictures I possess of quiet
efficiency, exceptional cleanlinness, total order, automatic delivery
of major components and assemblies from above and below and without
any human intervention at all - apart from the actual process of
fitting and bolting things together. The key activities of ensuring
that different models of cars arrived at the right place, in the
right order and with the components uniquely allocated to them was
entirely automatic and controlled by a wondrous thing called a
computer - that also did the payroll!
By today's standards, it was tiny but it worked like a well-oiled
machine. I remember it with pride as being one of the better examples
of British industrial design. What's more, any author who seeks to
convey an alternative view of it being slapdash and "fit anything in a
crisis," is guilty of serious misrepresentation and a gross travesty
of the truth. Of course, there were anomalies on occasions - but
largely these were attributable to human intervention screwing up a
better alternative devised by a machine.
I think it should also be understood by those who are interested in
the manufacturing process that sports cars were only a relatively
small part of the total output. Thousands of saloons, estate cars and
light commercial vehicles were also made in the same place, in whole
and in part, for shipment to many overseas markets where in some
markets they were later assembled in large quantities and sold with
considerable success. It is therefore entirely true to say that "cars
coming off the line right after each other could be different." Apart
from the Liverpool and Tile Hill body plants, the total size
of the former manufacturing site including all the machine shops,
offices, test and storage facilities, main assembly hall, new vehicle
compounds, parts warehouse and employee car parks fitted into a
smidgeon under 95 acres - and that also included a football field!
Is it too much to ask for truth and reality to now be allowed to
struggle to the surface and be given the rightful opportunity to
prevail?
If we seek to admire and support the cars produced by that
organisation in former times, the obvious corollary is that we should
acknowledge the FACTS rather than a quaint misconception of a cottage
industry in a sleepy village with roses nodding in the breeze from the
doorways of a country workshop. To me, this is the mental picture that
some inhabitants of this list seem to prefer to hold - and largely
because of an ignorance that is not their fault.
By comparison, the Morgan Motor Company in days of yore was very much
the manifestation of what is the popular (but wrong) view of The
Standard Motor Company (aka Triumph) from 1959 onwards.
Right up to the very end, "the Standard" was always regarded by all
Coventrians as the preferred place to work and was recognised as being
progressive, up to date with a modern outlook and efficient in
everything it did - especially when it came to payday! The average
Coventrian does not hand out such accolades without considerable
persuasion and proof positive that a better alternative doesn't exist
elsewhere. They've always been a 'picky' lot.
Thank you for the bandwidth. Rant mode off.
Jonmac
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