Red Wine, White Wine or BRG Wine?

While on a tour in his 1935 Triumph Gloria Southern Cross Dave Thomas, a member of the Pre 1940 Triumph Motor Club, paid a visit to Sir Cliff Richard’s vineyard ‘Adega Do Cantor at Guia, Algarve, Portugal’. The vineyard management fell in love with the car and were keen on using it to help promote the vineyard, mainly on account of the fact that its colour (British Racing Green) matched that of the vineyard’s livery. As Sir Cliff had just released a limited edition sparkling Vida Nova rosé wine to celebrate his 50th Anniversary in show business and the Pre-Triumph Motor Club would be celebrating its own Golden Anniversary, Dave decided to donate a number of bottles to the Club at its Annual National Day event. Sir Cliff was approached and kindly wrote an accompanying letter to the Chairman of the Club wishing the Club all the best on its 50th. During the celebration dinner all the wine was duly consumed in a toast to the Club from Sir Cliff and Portugal.
(photo shows the presentation of the wine and the letter by Dave Thomas to chairman David Mason at Ragley Hall, the site for the Club’s Golden Jubilee rally)

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lunedì agosto 1st, 2011

Sconosciuto

05 Agosto 2011, 13:55

Apologies to Andy and Ben. I remember the Southern Cross as the 1932, 'pre- Gloria' version, reminiscent of the rather 'upright' Triumph 9 and 10 models. I did not realize it was made in this later and more hansom form as a two seater (of which, I read, some 14 survive). It's a pity the sports car market was so small- even MG struggled to make more than 500 road cars a year. The 'inlet over exhaust' Coventry Climax engine was built by Triumph themselves, as I understand, and could be made to produce 35 to 40+ bhp, which was then quite something for such a small engine. The green saloon car in the right background looks like the later 'Dolomite' saloon with its Hudson - like front end- though I hesitate rather, since it is far from the camera and of course I was not at the rally!

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Sconosciuto

04 Agosto 2011, 12:09

Ralph,

The cars in the foreground are the smaller 'Southern Crosses', lobvely little sports cars mostly fitted with the Coventry Climax 1232cc IOE engine.

The Monte Carlo's were four seater sports tourers, of which three did turn up at the rally. Mine being one of them!

Ben

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Sconosciuto

04 Agosto 2011, 09:01

Good to read Ralph's comments, but the three cars in the foreground are actually Gloria 'Southern Cross' models -two seater sports cars - rather than the 4-seater Gloria Monte Carlo.
The body of the aerodynamic Gloria 'Flow-Free' in the background was in fact fitted to a Bentley for many years before being re-positioned on a correct chassis by Rob Green of Gloria Coachworks.

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Sconosciuto

04 Agosto 2011, 07:16

If anyone is interested in the streamlined Triumph Dolomite pictured here, there is an article about it in the April 1998 edition of 'The Automobile'. The Automobile's new web site includes an easy to use guide to back numbers, so I can at last find articles from years ago in my box of magazines in the attic!

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Sconosciuto

03 Agosto 2011, 14:14

An interesting story- and there are interesting cars in this photograph. The cars in the foreground are hansom 'Monte Carlo' sports models- not too many were made and it's unusual to see three of them together. The cream coloured sports saloon in the background is a Gloria 6. this has a grill similar to the Monte Carlo's, but later a similar car with a Hudson- like 'waterfall' grill was introduced in a model range known as Dolomite, and this elaborately cast grill (extrovert and a bit of a risk in conservative Britain) proved to be unexpectedly popular. Most interesting, however, is the 'fast back' coupe just visible behind the gentleman with the moustache. This is a superbly hanson car- inspired by a certain Bentley and by the Pierce 'Silver Arrow' but- like that car- it proved very expensive to make. I believe only six were built and this one is the only survivor- actually a reconstructed body on a replacement chassis. Late 1930's Triumphs were very attractive cars- but their 'next door' neighbour in Coventry was a small concern known as SS cars, and their Jaguar soon provided very tough competition!

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Red Wine, White Wine or BRG Wine?

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