MEET THE OWNER – PAUL COLLARD AND HIS TRIUMPH RENOWN
By Ellie Priestley |
13th July, 2020
‘I’ve always liked the ‘30s and ‘40s look of British cars - the sound, the leather, the body lines - but had only owned ‘70s Triumph Dolomites! Approaching retirement from Sussex Police, I started to look for the next Classic’. And so, ‘on a visit to Magnificent Motors in Eastbourne in 2016 I saw a Renown and was smitten!’ This is quite understandable for this is a car that Triumph claimed to represent ‘All that’s best in Britain’.
Standard Motors acquired Triumph in 1944 and the first post-war saloon to bear the globe logo was the 1946 1800 Town & Country. It was a charming blend of the razor-edged coachwork from Mulliners of Birmingham - personally selected by Captain Sir John Black, the formidable MD of Standard-Triumph with the Flying Fourteen’s 1.8-litre engine. Three years later the up-rated 2000 TDA boasted a 2,088cc Vanguard Phase One engine and three-speed steering column gear change.
However, the TDA lasted only until October 1949 when Triumph introduced its replacement named after HMS Renown. The latest car for the James Robertson Justice style driver combined the familiar coachwork with the Vanguard’s box section chassis and coil spring independent front suspension. In that same year Triumph also unveiled the 1.3-litre Mayflower, which was aimed at retired headmasters or bank managers.
By the early 1950s, a Renown occupied a distinctive niche in the British car market – cheaper than a Riley RMF, far less mid-Atlantic in appearance than a Humber Hawk and more formal than a Wolseley 6/80. The specification included upholstery in ‘fine quality furniture hide’, ‘adjustable armrests at front’, and ‘Pull straps and fitted toe boards for rear passengers’. Canley offered an LWB limousine version in 1951 and a year later the Renown Mk. II saloon was essentially the long-wheelbase body sans division.
Triumph’s sales material was a fascinating blend of rural images and various appeals to the reader’s inner snob. One brochure claimed that a Renown gave ‘the discerning motorist the satisfaction that he has chosen well’ – please note the very 1950s ‘he’. Even more importantly, ‘the knife-edge coachwork body gives an air of distinctive air for town or city use’ – i.e. this is not a conveyance for wide-boys. Furthermore, a Renown owner would have probably uttered the phrase ‘Flash Harry’ on sighting a Jaguar Mk. VII.
Production of the Mayflower ceased in 1953 and the Renown in 1954. S-T did initially plan for the 1956 Vanguard Sportsman to bear Triumph badging, but in the event, the name would not adorn a large saloon until 1963. The gulf between a 2000 and a Renown was akin to That Was The Week That Was versus Twenty Questions on the BBC Service; the TRs and the Herald had transformed the marque’s image.
Fifty-four years later, Paul discovered “Ruby” for sale in Exeter. ‘It was the colour that initially caught my eye, followed by all the chrome. Price agreed, it was mine’. The Renown dates from 1951 and is fitted with the optional overdrive on third and top gears. Since then, ‘I’ve done a number of shows and weddings’. Such a distinguished motor-car naturally attracts attention – ‘Lots of people admire her and say that they remember seeing them on the road or did their apprenticeship working on them or parents owned one’.
Survival rates of the Renown are quite limited and today ‘lots of people think that they’re a Mayflower which is always a then a talking point. She has even been mistaken for a Bentley or Rolls Royce!’ Above all, Ruby certainly lives up to Triumph’s assurances to the owner that ‘appraising glances will confirm his good taste and judgement’.
WITH THANKS TO: Paul Collard - https://www.rubyrenown.co.uk/
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