Amici...
I probably should have also mentioned the monthly one page Parting Shot
article in my recent email about the April/May issue of Triumph World. It
deals with the early history of the Triumph name our cars carry.
While there is little historical documentation to suggest any formal
engineering trail from bicycles to motorcycles to sports cars, there definitely
was a formal path the Triumph name itself followed to get on our cars. But it
is not crystal clear. It provides another item we can argue about. You
know, like is your car really a TR3B.
What we do know is that in about 1884 a German named Siegfried Bettmann
came to England as a language translator. Based in Coventry, to make ends meet
he began selling high end bicycles under the name Triumph. As a
translator, the name had been chosen because it had numerous meanings in
several
languages. Early on he was not really building anything new, but rather buying
bicycles manufactured by others, and using after market products to make them
fancy. The Triumph Cycle Company, Ltd., was cashing in on the Victorian
bicycle boom. Eventually with some funding from Dunlop, they did manufacture
their own bikes, all of which were fancy, catering to the wealthy, and
offering up grade options like 'soft tyres'. Then, at the turn of the
twentieth
century, motorized bicycles were developed and the Triumph company was
quickly involved in building them, and also quite successful in competition
events.
Before and after WWII is were the history of the Triumph name gets foggy.
There is more than one story told. We seem to know what happened, as well
as why it happened, but not exactly how. There is evidence that Raleigh
bought out the bicycle arm of the company before the war. At least a part of
the motorcycle arm went to Jack Sangster in Ariel during that same period, but
there is also evidence that Bettmann had a deal going with Coventry Cycles.
The fact that all of these factories were then bombed out during WWII
(along with most of their records) is where the confusion comes up. And thus
it
is not clear as to exactly what, why, and how the name Triumph evolved on
British bicycles, motorcycles and then sports cars.
But for sure, there are bicycles and motorcycles in our history, 40 and 16
years respectively, before there were any Triumph sports cars.
Bill Dentinger
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fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
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