[TR] use of overdrive

[John Macartney]

Darrell Floyd wrote:



Why did any fool buy a new  Triumph w/o OD?  They were
like an $85.00 option.  What a shame they  were not all built with OD.


Two
points, Darrell. 

1. Of the 20% odd sports cars that were produced but went
to other markets 
outside North America, the vast majority were fitted with
overdrive as an 
optional extra because it was seen as a logical and highly
practical option. 
This particularly applies to Standard-Triumph's 10+
overseas manufacturing 
plants where O/D was often standard equipment and a
non-chargeable option.

2. Why did so few US & Canada cars not have it?
Looking back to my days in the 
company's only showroom in the UK where we
sold about 3000 cars a year to all 
markets, the issue of 'overdrive' on US
shipments was a matter of education. 
Firstly, many US dealers never bothered
to spec a car with O/D on their own 
showroom sales. They never knew when the
next one was arriving, so would often 
sell the car on a full ticket price.
Equally, info filtered back to us in the UK 
that many US dealers had painful
knowledge of a Detroit manufactured overdrive 
that was (I believe) mechanical
and claimed to be unreliable. So those that did 
know of the name 'overdrive'
needed a lot of persuasion on its benefits. The 
selling was a hard job to a
non-technical aspiring new owner until (trumpet 
fanfare) we modified the
terminologies and appealed to vanity "you see Sir, what 
you get with an
overdrive on the TR model is effectively a seven speed close 
ratio gearbox."
That was the clincher! A car with a seven speed on the floor 
with close
ratios for under $3000? Gotta have it!
 
And that's why every sportscar for
the US and Canada and sold through 
Standard-Triumph's London showroom was
delivered with every production fitted 
extra - always overdrive, (almost)
always a tonneau, always wire wheels, always 
leather seats. Reason? We needed
the commission to eat and fund our rather 
extravagant lifestyles :)

Jonmac