Triumph Vitesse
Leon Guyot made the most of Triumph’s modular approach to car construction when he re-built his Vitesse before shipping it over to America
lthough I now live in the US, I was born and raised in the UK, where I was
International Liaison
Secretary for the
Triumph Sports Six Club between 1992 and 2002. My first Triumph was a Herald 1200 convertible that I bought in 1981. That was subsequently sold once my Vitesse, seen here, was on the road.
‘In 1984 I decided I wanted a Vitesse, but whereas most people buy a classic to use, or restore and then use, I took a different approach – I acquired all of the parts on a second-hand basis and assembled my own. That’s the beauty of the Triumph’s modular construction, which allowed me to source a decent chassis, front bulkhead, bonnet, rear body shell, boot lid, doors, engine, gearbox and differential, all from different cars that had been either scrapped or written off. All other parts, such as trim, ancillaries, brakes and suspension, came from those cars or jumbles. Some were new but most were second-hand.
‘I originally built the car for long-distance European touring, which is why I fitted twin fuel tanks, each with its own electric fuel pump. I emigrated to the US in 2002 taking my Triumph with me – and it’s well suited to lengthy drives over there. I live in the middle of the West Coast and have driven the Triumph south of Los Angeles (about 3000 miles in all), as well as on a 1500-mile trip north and east.
‘To improve usability and reliability I made a lot of upgrades, starting with a 2.1-litre engine that features a tuftrided crankshaft, Holbay camshaft, triple Weber 40DCOEs, electronic ignition, a duplex timing chain and a gasflowed cylinder head. The Vitesse gearbox is notoriously weak so I’ve got a Dolomite
‘ASprint transmission with a BL Special Tuning close-ratio gear set, J-type overdrive, a higherratio (3.63:1) Quaife limited-slip diff’ and TR6 driveshafts. For added comfort there are Jaguar XJ6 Series 2 front seats , too. Quite a few steel or cast-iron parts, including the radiator, water pump and housing and rear lower wishbones, have been replaced with alloy.
‘The Vitesse isn’t particularly well supported in the US, but mechanically it shares many parts with other Triumphs, such as the GT6, which makes things easier. There’s a small network of owners where I live and we help each other out, but in the US more generally there’s a thriving Triumph scene, especially nearer the bigger cities, although the focus is more on the various TRs because they were sold here in much larger numbers.’