MEET THE OWNER – SIMON BROWSE AND HIS TRIUMPH HERALD 12/50

I’ve always sided with the underdog. Ford and Austin got most of the glory and notoriety for their compact Saloons at the time. Triumph, not as much – it is much the same story with the MGB versus the Spitfire.

This is just one of the reasons why Simon Browse acquired a 12/50 ten years ago. On its introduction in March 1963, it bridged the gulf between the Herald 1200 and the Vitesse, with £634 18s 9d gaining the buyer a 51 bhp engine with a raised compression ratio and the high-lift camshaft from the Spitfire. The specification further included front disc brakes, while a duotone paint finish was the sole listed extra.

Perhaps the 12/50’s main sales feature was the fabric sliding roof, a very unusual item of standard equipment for a British car of that era. Triumph promised that “horizons open up quicker” with the latest Herald and that the “Skylight Roof” was “Incomparable”. They also commissioned a horrendous-even-for-1964 cinema commercial with a Richard Briers voiceover and a 12/50-driving chauvinist –

In terms of rivals, the MG 1100 was more expensive at £713, and the Ford Anglia Super was cheaper at £599, but neither offered a sliding roof. In addition, the Herald had a distinctive persona. As I once wrote, the 12/50’s image appeared to be the ideal car for “the sort of up-to-the-minute motorist who wore dark glasses in fashionable niteries and who regularly watched That Was The Week That Was”.

Autocar hailed the 12/50 as “a welcome addition to the small car field”, and believed “Women drivers appreciate the lightness of all the controls.” ‘Meanwhile “strong armed men can, with or without finesse, use the little car as they like and it never complains.” No comment, other than a nod to certain spoof public information films from Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.

Production of the 12/50 ended in 1967 with the launch of the 13/60. Today, Simon remarks: “Those 1960s fins really do it for me, and I am a great advocate for the Herald as a brilliant first classic car for those that want to dip their toe in the hobby.” His Herald looks as though it belongs in a Triumph brochure or the sort of Technicolour Rank comedy that starred Leslie Phillips. As for on the road:

It is sprightly with an excellent turning circle! The little 12/50 sings along at 60 mph all day with no problems. I have to make a 260-mile trip in the Herald at the beginning of March to the British Motor Museum and I am not intimidated by the prospect at all. Obviously, the Triumph’s 0-60 is not quick, and the manual unpowered brakes need accounting for when slowing – but you just allow extra distances for both issues, and they are not a problem. It is also very comfortable, especially with newer radial tyres fitted. And there is that sweet exhaust note from the tiny pea-shooter exhaust at the back.

Most importantly, “A Herald was my mother’s first car that she both learned to drive in and passed her test in, in 1967 – it was a 1964 12/50 in exactly the same colours. She passed away when I was young, so it’s a little nod to her.”

And it is a rare privilege to write about a car that evokes such family memories.

With thanks to: Simon Browse