Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ part 2 ~ l!') 00 0') ....... ~ 0 ....... >- - ~ ~ r Turner at Triumph Corporation in Baltimore. Maryland. w ith a cutaway display model of Triumph engine. 1960. The story of E.l: Edward Turner, Triump-h designer and visionary By Neale Shilton O n h is 1946 visi t to California, E.T. was p hotogra p h ed wi th film star Ri ta Hayworth adorni n g a T riumph and the picture hung over h is Meriden desk for many years. It was in Sep tem ber 1946 that a Tri· umph won the. f ir st po~twar Manx Grand P rI X and this erea ted for E.T. a problem situa- 18 lion which was to rebound unpleasantl y t he foll ow ing year. Th e fine Ir ish rid er Ernie Lyons who had raced h isown Triumphs successfu lly, as ked E.T. for help wi th a machine for th e Manx classic. The Irish ch arm persuaded E.T. to ha ve a Tiger 100 p repa red by Freddie Clarke th e ch ief devel opment engineer who had himself achieved man y race records on T ri um p hs a nd had built a very quick en gine with out E.T.'s kn o wledge or a pprova l. It was based on th e 30 cu bic-inch light a lloy twin wh ich powered the wartime ge ne ra to r unit used for sta rt in g a ircra ft eng ines. Lyo ns won the race a n d beat 64 NorIOns, which sho u ld have pl eased E.T., but had the opposite effect and caused such trouble for Clarke that he left Meriden for AjS where h e developed their first twin on which h e was killed a yea r later. Meanwhile, E.T . reluctantly gave way to th e pr essu re demand for Grand Prix replicas and a limited number were made in 1947. Six challen ged Norton 's dominati on of th e Isle of Man TT races in june a nd a ll went out wi th wrecked eng ines by half di sra nee. The higher speeds of the TT were too much for th e plunger type o il pump a nd its lubri cation system. E.T. never chan ged ove r to th e more positive gea r-dri ven pump and th e plunger type rem ained the o ne in ad equate cornponent o f hi s engi nes whe n th ey were tuned to p ro d uce m ore power than th eir design intended. H e enj oyed th e racing scen e but kept the factory a way from it as far as a ny direct involvement was co ncerned. His policy was maxim u m production of catalog mod els, alt ho ugh to th ese he la ter ad ded the lucrative business of p olice an d military machines. In the early part of 1949 I was instructed to ta ke my Speed Twin to th e factory development department for a new engine to be installed. Although I had to buy a new machine each year for my roadman traveling, m y 50,000 annual miles were used by E.T. for testing anything new . The replacement motor was the prototype of th e 40 cubic-inch unit and a few months later I was given responsibilit y for organizing the demonstration at th e Montlhery track in France which launched the new model. E.T. n amed th e machi ne the T hunderbird. which at that time seemed a strange title but proved to be ideal for th e American market at which it was aimed. Bill j o h n so n wanted a higher performance cycle, and E.T. produced it. The demonstration debut was high ly successful with three fullyequipped machines each covering 500 mi les at more than 92 mph a nd the last la p a t over 100. Press and radio pu blici ty wa s excell ent, a nd when we rode ba ck to th e factory two day s lat er Thunderbirds were comin g off th e a ssem bly line a nd in to the p ack in g cases for Am eri ca. I bough t one o f the three ma chines an d rode it for anothe r 50,000 m iles. T he fa ctory wa s n ow workin g arou nd th e clock 6n pr oduct ion o f th e two 30 cu bic-inc h and th e new twin s, p lus th e mi litary side-va lve mod el wh ich was exported in large n u m bers. The bu siness in the Sta tes had beco me bigger than johnson Motors co uld h andl e from th e Pasadena base and E.T. decided to set up an organization on th e eas tern side of the country. H e co ns u lted Percival White wh o was presid en t of a leading market research corporation , and a keen rider. He agreed th at th e proj ect should go ah ead but did not expect to lose his vice-p reside nt Denis McCormack in th e process. Denis, who was born in Coventry, was the ideal man to head the new Triumph Corporation whi ch co m m enced opera tio ns in 1951. H e recruited a first cla ss staff of proven experience, incl uding service manager Rod Coat es, th e Daytona 100 winner on Triumph. a n d j ack Mercer who came from th e H ap Alzin a BSA im porting ou tfit. j ack has been described as " the roadman extraordinary ," he still gets a ro u nd o n two wh eels and we have regu lar corresponde nce. Bill j ohnso n was not overjoyed with the T riumph Corporation development but accep ted the E.T. pers uasio n that it was ne cessar y and from th en onwards there was a good relationship between Pasadena a nd the Corporation founded a t Baltimore, Mary land in fin e pr emises. T h e other m ajor development in 1951 was a great sh ock to everyone at Meriden. Sangster called a meeting of the senior staff a nd a n n o unced that he had sold th e company to the BSA Group. The reason given wa s to protect the assets against the heavy taxation which would be imposed when he died, and those assets comprised the bu lk of his wealth. A sound en o ugh rea son a nd it may have been true but there were other ways of achieving th e sa me object and preserving th e proud independence of th e factory. The sale gave him the th en equivalent of $ 10 mi llion p lus a seat on the BSA Group board which was headed by Sir Berna rd Docker. Withi n five years Sir Bern ard was o ut and Sangster took his p lace. It is unlikel y that E.T. approved of the sale, but he had made sure o f his own financial reward by patenti ng h is desig ns under th e bu sin ess name of E.T. Develop m ents, and BSA had to pay a lot o f money for th em . Th e figure of $1 mi llion has o ften been mentioned. Unde r E.T.'s leadership Tri um p h prestige and p roduc ts had a lways been well a hea d o f th e BSA competi tion a nd we were ap prehen sive a bo ut the effects o f the takeo ver. However. we were ass ured that Meride n would remain independent a nd th a t E.T. would continue in so le comma nd. The promise was kep t for n ine years. In 1953 the lightweight Triump h Terrier was introduced with a nine cu bic-inch O H V engine in unit co nstruction with the gearbox. It was E.T .' s first incursion into the sma ll machine market a nd well ill us tra ted h is axiom of gelling the most o u t of the lea st metal. The morn ing a fter a lo n g n igh t ride o n the p rototype, I reported to h im that he had ac h ieved the ultim at e in the ratio of pe rfo rmance to weigh t as in th e da rkn ess I imagi ned I cou ld see th e glow of thepiston crown. The hard -working Terrier was superseded by a 12 cu bic inc h version named th e Tiger C ub w hich so ld very well an d I n egot ia ted a co ntract with the Frenc h Arm y for 4,000. T he year 1956 saw th e introduction of anothe r and very successfu l E.T. twi n, th e 21 cu bic-inc h model which was named th e Twenty-One to commemorat e th e a n n iversa ry year of the co m pa ny . Its co m bined en gine a nd gearbox design was la ter used for the Speed T win a nd Tiger 100 rep lacements o f the origina ls which had

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