New, Top-Secret Triumph Revealed
New, Top-secret Triumph Revealed
ROUNDUP
IN A SCENARIO WORTHY OF THE best British spy novelists, a high-tech British firm is working hard to keep its secret from a news-hungry public and a prying press. The company is Triumph Motorcycles Coventry Limited and its secret concerns a fresh, new Triumph motorcycle.
That such a machine exists, and that production plans for it are in place, is beyond doubt.
“I know people who work there, but it’s like working for the CIA or MI5: They won’t tell you anything at all,” remarked one Roundup source.
“There,” in this case, is a brandnew, purpose-built factory situated on about 10 acres of land in the English Midlands and filled with state-of-the-art machine equipment purportedly purchased from Japan.
John Rosamond, sales and marketing manager for Triumph Motorcycles Coventry, would only say of the factory, “We’re in a development phase of the project, so we're in a position of no comment . . . we don’t want to talk about production until our quality is what we expect and what everyone else expects.”
Triumph-watchers in Britain and in the U.S., meanwhile, speculate that production of a range of 750cc and lOOOcc Triumph Threes and Fours could begin as early as this fall or next spring and that an American arm of the company could be established as early as next year.
According to a report in the British publication Motor Cycle News, castings of an all-new. double-overhead cam, four-valve-per-cylinder, liquid-cooled, counterbalanced Triple destined for use in the new Triumph were displayed, in spite of a secrecy pledge between the foundry and Triumph, at the Society of Automotive Engineers’ International Congress and Exposition in Detroit in February. An SAE spokeswoman told Cycle World the organization does not keep records of specific display items and so cannot confirm this report or provide the name of the foundry which reportedly displayed the casting.
Styling of the neo-Triumph is said to be, “Very like the Japanese ‘projectiles,’ but with a little nicer style to it,’’according to one source in England. Rumors persist that Triumph pulled molds from the bodywork of a Honda CBR600 during the early stages of its design exercise.
Finally, there’s what may be the most titillating rumor of all, that one of the new Triumphs is tentatively scheduled to make a showbooth appearance at the British Grand Prix on August 6th. Motor Cycle News, meanwhile, suggested in its May 10th edition that a dozen Triumph prototypes have been built and that top speeds of 1 55 miles an hour have been recorded.
Will this new Triumph follow on the heels of the Norton Rotary to confirm the rebirth of the British motorcycle industry? It just could happen. Watch this space for further developments.
Jon F. Thompson
