[TR] How did the factory add on factory options

Thu Jun 4 17:13:43 MDT 2020

John/Don,
John, Lovely account, thank you for sharing.  But, please tell me: What is a wire-disk Spit?

Don, great pictures are there links to more?

All the best,
Bill B

On Jun 4, 2020, at 5:02 PM, John Macartney <John.Macartney at ukpips.org.uk> wrote:

Don,

I do know the Herald and the Toledo went in the crusher. The cost of rectifying the Herald exceeded the cost of materials and direct labour to make it. The Toledo as well. With a spot welded monocoque body done in a jig, you don’t have much choice but to throw it out.

The Spitfire is a slightly longer story. It escaped from the factory as it had been built and even got through the pre delivery check at the selling dealer. Reason? The dealer only got five pounds to do the check so released the car to the customer AND charged him for the wire wheels he hadn’t ordered and didn’t want with the promise they would sort it out at the free first service at 1000 miles. Two days later, customer turns up at BL Head office seeking to tell the CEO what he thought. I was the CEOs PA for consumer issues so it fell to me to sort it all out. He took me downstairs to see the car and I was so amazed to see it as it was, that I laughed. Not a good idea because the owner was more than piddled off and he hit me so hard on the jaw, I landed on the pavement. I got it all sorted out (the car) very quickly and customer was happy to have three months free fuel as a goodwill gesture. Fast forward forty years to my time at the BMIHT museum and I met the owner again gazing wistfully at the last Spitfire off the line and we started chatting. Didn’t take too long to realise this was the guy who had hit me. Once reacquainted, He insisted on buying me a slap up lunch that very day and we departed in his version of the worlds most popular taxi (Mercedes) thoiugh to be fair, it wasn’t a 2400cc diesel.

We had a truly great afternoon and I returned to work well fed and even more well lubricated at about 4.30pm. However, explaining my absence to an irate female Managing Director about my tardiness did nothing to convince her I was being truthful. That’s why I’m SO glad I no longer have anything to do with the motor industry any more. It was fun in those days, but not now. Different people, different ethos and product that in most cases is boringly reliable, too well made and can only be worked on with a diagnostic plug.

Cheers, John

At the Battle of Waterloo, 1815:
Lord Uxbridge:  “By God, Sir - I’ve lost my leg”
Duke of Wellington: “By God, Sir - so you have!”

> On 4 Jun 2020, at 20:12, Don Hiscock <don.hiscock at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> John, I've thought about, and laughed, at your memory of that "three door" Toledo, the right-left Herald, and the wire-disk Spit.  Truly funny.  Knowing how eager S-T were to sell car, I'd be willing to bet at least two of those were sold on.  Heck, maybe all three.
> 
> Sidescreen TRs in the US have all kinds of variations in windscreen washers.  Some never had their dash blanking panel pierced for where a switch usually went.  I'd have believed all cars got nozzles mounted to the scuttle, but I didn't know all cars got washers.
> 
> The 1956 09 S-T accessories brochure still shows windscreen washers as an option, but they note even then they were rapidly becoming an essential.
> https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-vncLKFm/1/3100b418/O/i-vncLKFm.jpg
> 
> BR,
> 
> Don
> 
>> On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 1:52 PM John Macartney <John.Macartney at ukpips.org.uk> wrote:
>> Small correction, Don. Screen washers were a legal requirement in most world markets and for those countries that didn’t specify them, they got them anyway. A normal line fitted item.
>> 
>> Jonmac
>> 
>> At the Battle of Waterloo, 1815:
>> Lord Uxbridge:  “By God, Sir - I’ve lost my leg”
>> Duke of Wellington: “By God, Sir - so you have!”
>> 
>> 
>>> On 4 Jun 2020, at 19:24, Don Hiscock <don.hiscock at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Here's what part of the Coventry production lines looked like in 1958.  Maybe this will give some insight into how things were done.  It's clear S-T campaigned body colors, and possibly interior colors too.
>>> https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Zq7NRxF/0/3dfea902/O/i-Zq7NRxF.jpg
>>> https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-3c968hL/0/e52b3d42/O/i-3c968hL.jpg
>>> https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-n5fdGBR/0/48115ef0/O/i-n5fdGBR.jpg
>>> https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-9RpSbmS/0/9d49a652/O/i-9RpSbmS.jpg
>>> 
>>> Jonmac and I were having an email conversation about some of the regional customization the other day (around lighting regulation differences across the continent in the day) that might be relevant here, too.  John noted that customization could be done in line production, in Sales Conversion, off-line before dispatch by train, or by the selling dealer.  Where options were added relate to how deep they're built into the car.  Adjustable steering on a sidescreen car would obviously be done on the line.  Windscreen washers and mirrors, for example, were usually done by the dealer.
>>> 
>>> Don
>>> Saint Louis
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 12:46 PM Sujit Roy <triumphstag at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> I'm just wondering how the factory added options to cars.
>>>> Did the production line have branches off the main line at certain stages and then they would merge back on the main line? Or were the cars lifted off the line with some crane?
>>>> Sujit
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> Sujit Roy
>>>> Cupertino, California
>>>> 
>>>> https://triumphstagblog.wordpress.com/
>>>> 
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