Trident Cars celebrated
With just 120 cars built, it’s unusual to see any Tridents for sale, much less two in the same month. We look back on a marque that promised much, but sadly came up short
Asports car from lesser-known British sports car maker, Trident, sold at auction in Historics’ 7 March sale for the first time in over a year, when a Clipper GT was snapped up for £9056, prompting our Markets Editor, Richard Barnett, to single it out as one of this year’s Well Bought cars ( CCW 25 March).
Just a few weeks later, Bonhams sold another Clipper that had been the subject of a professional restoration for £32,200 at its Goodwood Member’s Meeting Sale on 29 March. But how did Trident come about – and why don’t we see more of them at shows? Like many sports car manufacturers, Trident – inextricably linked with TVR and its early Sixties parent company, Grantura Engineering – had its fair share of ups and downs. It’s a tale of mishaps and chicanery, hope and calamity.
A chance meeting between one of the firm’s directors, Bernard Williams, and designer Trevor Fiore (née Frost) at the Earls Court Motor Show would set a chain of events in motion that would lead to one of the more colourful episodes in British specialist sports car folklore.
The TVR Trident was meant to lend the Blackpool minnow a more aspirational image, stylist Trevor Fiore re-working a proposal that he had put forward to Lea-Francis in 1961. Turin coachbuilder, Fissore, meanwhile, was roped in to building aluminium- and steelbodied prototypes, the first of which emerged in 1965 (the last car being all-steel). However, the design ultimately materialised in modified form as a marque in its own right after Grantura Engineering folded that same year.
Depending on whose version of history you believe, Fiore was never paid for his efforts while Fissore was only partially recompensed.
It is at this juncture that the split occurred. While TVR’s future hung in the balance, one of its dealers, Bill Last, agreed terms with Fissore and assumed control of the Trident design. This was done under the noses of Arthur and Martin Lilley, who subsequently rescued TVR. Both parties would claim legal ownership of the project, but it was Last who would go on to make the car – sort of.
In addition to selling TVRs, Last had also begun converting Wolseley Hornets into convertibles under the Viking Performance banner, and acquired the rights to the Minibased Peel Viking Sport, which became the
Viking Minisport. The would-be motor mogul travelled to Turin in late 1965 to take charge of the Trident project, having already arranged a supply of Austin-Healey chassis from BMC subcontractor, Sankey; it wasn’t as though he was going to have access to TVR chassis any more, after all.
Under advisement from rally ace, Don Morley – who had enjoyed great success campaigning Big ’Healeys – the track was widened and the frame re-configured to accommodate a 4.7-litre ‘Ford Industrial’ V8. This was mounted some six inches further back relative to the ’Healey’s 3.0-litre straight-six for better weight distribution.
Fiore was then instructed to rework his original design to accommodate the longer wheelbase chassis while Fissore was charged with making a new body buck.
Unfortunately, Last and Fissore fell out over the latter’s perceived poor workmanship and Blackpool-based Grantura Plastics was tasked with producing new moulds for glassfibre ’shells – a move that prompted more than a little consternation for the Lilleys, given that the TVR factory was right next door…
FROM DESIGN TO REALITY
Production began at Trident Cars’ Market Harborough facility in 1966. Grantura Plastics produced the bodyshells, while sales activities were based in Woodbridge, Suffolk. In a rationalising move, production and sales were moved under one roof in Suffolk soon thereafter. Visually, the new Trident Clipper differed from the TVR original in several respects, including its much steeper roofline and fixed, inset headlights in place of the previous pop-ups.
Just as night follows day, problems hobbled its chances. The Austin-Healey 3000 was discontinued in 1969 so a replacement chassis was needed. A stretched Triumph TR6 platform was then adopted, with a sister model coming online shortly thereafter.
The Venturer was physically identical to its sibling, but featured Ford V6 power. However, it received rectangular headlights in 1972 in a bid to lend it a unique identity of its own. Just to add to the confusion, Trident also produced a variant with the TR6 straight-six engine. As few as seven of these Triumph-engined cars, dubbed ‘ Tycoon’, were made.
Production of all models was always stopstart at best. It didn’t help that Tridents were egregiously expensive. A Venturer cost more than a Jaguar E-type in 1971 while a Clipper was only marginally cheaper than an Aston Martin DBS. This goes some way to explaining why production never exceeded 25 cars in the company’s best year.
It didn’t help that the marque was underpromoted in period and enjoyed little media coverage. It appears that Last was wary of the motoring press and reluctant to supply cars for road tests. There were, in fact, no independent reports on the Clipper in period.
Given Motor magazine’s mauling of the Venturer in a December 1970 group test, his mistrust of the media was perhaps validated. Pitched against a Triumph TR6, Lotus Europa, Lotus Elan SE, Marcos and TVR Tuscan V6, it came off worst.
The report stated: ‘On a smooth surface, its outright cornering power was inferior to that of the TR6 – itself worse than all the cars in this respect, probably because of its high centre of gravity and roll angles. Few of our drivers were prepared to try really hard, however, since the light steering was so dead as to almost be dangerous on wet surfaces, which made it difficult to set the car up on fast bends.’
TAKING ON THE WORLD
Despite the negative ink, Trident wasn’t above a motor sport programme of sorts. While the Venturer may not have been the most obvious competition tool, one was fielded in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, although with a degree of predictability, it wasn’t a happy outing. The team comprised army captains Christopher Marriott and John Dill and they had a tough time of it due to endless suspensionrelated problems. It didn’t help that they missed a ferry crossing to Lisbon, which ultimately prompted their retirement.
Last had by now established a small dealer network, only to have problems supplying cars.
The firm was liquidated in 1972, with associate company, Viking Performance, taking care of parts and servicing thereafter.
Last wasn’t done just yet, however – armed with fresh finance from an American backer, he revived the Clipper under the Trident Motor Company banner in time for the 1976 Earls Court Motor Show. It now packed a 6.0-litre Chrysler V8, but its time had clearly passed. The firm quietly disappeared into the ether two years later after making just two more cars. Around 85 of all types were built in total.
However, that wasn’t quite the end of the story. The Fiore-penned outline made a comeback in South Africa in the late Eighties. Carousel Engineering launched a kit-form, Ford Cortinabased rip-off with a slightly restyled nose and ugly side skirts. For additional comedy value, it had the temerity to market this aberration as an Aston Martin DB6 replica! In reality, the prototype
– if you can all it that – was a real Trident Venturer. No kits were ever sold.
And, in one final twist of the narrative, Trident made an unexpected comeback at the 1998 British Motor Show. Several years in the gestation, the new car was powered by a quadcam Ford V8 and had little in common with the original marque aside from the fact that the project instigator once owned a Venturer and liked the name.
Little was heard of it again until the 2000 British Motor Show when the car re-appeared as the Trident Iceni with the accompanying press release stating that it was to be engineered and developed by Lola founder, Eric Broadley.
The Iceni has made sporadic comebacks since then, with bold talk of a GT race programme and even a switch to diesel power, but, like the Last-era Tridents, it remains – perhaps fittingly – something of an enigma.