James Bond and French fries
07/16/2021
Every now and then, things happen outside of public television that are otherwise only known from shallow domestic comedies. For example, when someone you thought you knew all your life suddenly turns out to be someone completely different.
For 27 years and three months, I lived in the belief that the Triumph my father had bought in 1979 from a Renault Frégate-collecting, turtle-breeding eccentric in Lorraine was a TR4 A IRS like any other - one of the 28,465 cars that rolled off the assembly line in Canley between January 1965 and July 1967. Until a few days ago, when I happened to glance at the chassis number, which, strictly speaking, was only a commission number at Triumph. It usually starts with the letter combination "CTC" for four-wheelers with coil-sprung and diagonally steered rear suspension, followed by the actual serial number and, depending on the configuration, an "L" for left-hand drive or an "O" for the optional overdrive. All of this was also shown on the nameplate of the paternal Triumph - as well as the number "1" on the extreme left-hand side.
The answer to various questions raised by this was provided by TR chronicler Bill Piggott: the red roadster was built in Belgium! Throughout my life, I have always thought that this aged beast was a real Brit. And now this! By way of comparison, imagine you're watching "Goldfinger" for the twentieth time, can say every sentence and suddenly Sean Connery doesn't order a martini, but a bag of chips and a Leffe. Not that that's a bad thing. It would even be kind of funny. But it would still be a little irritating at first. Just like Gaston Lagaffe in a three-piece suit from Savile Row.
Of course, Standard-Triumph didn't set up the plant in Mechelen (ned. Mechelen, French Malines) to confuse Anglophile continental Europeans, but to avoid import duties. From October 1960, cars destined for the left-hand drive mainland were shipped across the English Channel in individual parts and assembled in Flanders. These included a total of 2,200 to 2,400 Triumph TR4 A, whose commission numbers all began with "1CTC". However, the serial number continued to follow the English counting system. As with Citroën and General Motors, the models from Belgian assembly production differed in details from their siblings from home. For example, the windshield came from a Belgian supplier, the nameplate was on the right-hand side even on left-hand drive models, and customers were by no means bound to the specifications from England when choosing paint colors. Anyone who wanted to could have their TR4 A painted in the darker "22 Cherry Red" of the Triumph Herald instead of "32 Signal Red".
Citroën vehicles from Belgium are also said to have a higher quality of workmanship. Whether this was also the case with the Leyland products is uncertain. In any case, they were not worse; after all, father's TR, which was delivered to Metz in March 1967, has survived to this day in unrestored condition. And of course it leaves at least one small oil spill on every parking lot. In this respect at least, he is quite British.
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