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TSOA 1060 Rallies of Europe


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I think "Temple of Triumph" now has a full set of the TSOA newsletters available online, Stan. (And I have a nearly complete set scanned but not OCR from another source).

 

They're a gold mine of cool info, aren't they?

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Now here's an interesting comparison . . . . .

 

That $1995 for a TR in 1960 would equate to $16488 in 2016, that's US inflation rates for you . . . . .

 

in contrast, UK inflation has resulted in a £1995 purchase in 1960 costing £41855 in 2016 . . . . .

 

Cheers

 

Alec

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Hi Don

 

Do you have a link for this resources?

 

Thanks

 

Iain

 

 

Here you go Iain. They have the 1960 tour announcement but I dont see the doc that I posted. I may have missed it due to the usual male malady.

 

http://www.templeoftriumph.org/tsoa/tsoa.html

 

Stan

Edited by foster461
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Yeah, they might be missing a few bits, Stan -- especially things that came by direct mail outside of the regular newsletter. I may have that (or similar) in my stash.

 

The ToT guys have done the best job of comoling the full set of TSOA newsletters, and a few people with private collections have put aside turf concerns to share with them. I'll bet they'd welcome your contribution.

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Now here's an interesting comparison . . . . .

 

That $1995 for a TR in 1960 would equate to $16488 in 2016, that's US inflation rates for you . . . . .

 

in contrast, UK inflation has resulted in a £1995 purchase in 1960 costing £41855 in 2016 . . . . .

 

Cheers

 

Alec

 

$16k would get you a nice entry level car today too like a Ford Fiesta

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The Grand Touring kit was, IIRC, created to homologate the TR3 for one of the classes in international rallying back in the day. It was hardtop, fixed side curtains (identifiable with a different piece of bright trim along the door curve), and outside door handles (before they were standard).

 

There are a few photos out there of the kit, including a few original ads if my memory's not wrong.

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  • 3 years later...

True, the full set of TSOA Newsletters, published in New York, is available online. And I was able to glean several facts from them. 

But does anyone happen to have a copy of the issue of Road & Track, which published a report of the first, 1957, Rally? (It was "roneoed", meaning cyclostyled, or photocopied, and included in a TSOA Newsletter, but is not included online.).

  • "The American Triumph Rally of Europe", Road & Track, Vol. 9 No. 1, October 1957. 
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  • 5 months later...

I have scanned through various editions of the TSOA Newsletter announcing the rallies but they all referred to detailed itineraries being attached, which they are not in the temple of triumph archive. Does anybody have any or know where I can get them from?

Mick

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On 9/24/2020 at 11:00 AM, Mick Forey said:

Mike, thanks for your help. I was thinking of re-creating one, might be fun. TRs at the Folie Bergere!

Mick

Mick

If this was the European rally that US purchasers of TRs went on, I did once have a note of the itinerary of destinations but cannot find it at present. Somewhere online there is a promotional film / home movie of one of the rallies. I suspect that I found a reference to it on the Forum. As I was watching it a couple of years ago I simply jotted down the various destinations, just in case...!  From recollection it was a very ambitious tour with 30+(?) towns and cities visited across Europe. If you can track down the film, that might give you a start. 'Don H' might be able to assist. Will post if I find anything.

Miles

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  • 2 weeks later...

As the weather was so filthy on Sunday, I spent most of the day tidying (ransacking) my study to try and find my note of the rally destinations and then searching the internet for the film from which I had taken them. No success and I started to think I had imagined the whole exercise. Hoping to prove that I had not completely lost my marbles, I had another go at interrogating the internet between Zoom meetings today.

Success!

The information can be found in the archived newsletters of TSOA material on this site: https://vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa-archive/

The ones you need to look at are January 1957, February 1958, March 1958, June 1958, March 1959, June 1959, January 1960, May 1960, October 1960 and March 1962. Not all the newsletters appear to be archived so there are some gaps in information.

In summary:

  • There was a tour each year 1957 - 1962
  • !957 - 1961 involved TR3 and 3As; 1962 TR4s
  • They were accompanied by a company service van and a couple of mechanics.
  • The first tour itinerary was from 04 May to 21 May (stopovers in bold): London Airport > Bull Inn Gerrards Cross > Stratford-upon-Avon (!) > Coventry, Canley factory > Dover > Calais > Dunkirk >Ostend > Brussels > Liege Aachen > Koblenz > Darmstadt > Wurzburg > Nornberg > Regensburg > Passau > Linz > Baden > Vienna > Tyrol > Innsbruck > Arlberg Pass > Feldkirch > Zurich > Lucerne > Susten Pass > Interlaken > Berne > Lausanne > Dole > Dijon > Paris > Boulogne > Dover > London. (I note that in relation to Paris it is stated that "...special arrangements can be made to visit some of the popular night spots"!) 
  • The itinerary changed for 1958, and included Spain, the French Riviera, Italy and Switzerland.
  • In 1959, there were 3 tours: two to southern Europe and one to Scotland, Scandinavia and northern Europe.
  • Cannot find itineraries for 1960 
  • One southern and one northern European itinerary for 1961
  • The proposed 1962 rally was to England, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, France and England

Also, a 46 minute film of the 1957 rally was produced and available from Standard Public Relations, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. A 28.5 minute version was shown on TV across the US. Pretty sure it was one of these I must have seen and from which I  noted the route a few years ago. Try as I might, I cannot find it on the internet now.

Do have a look at the newsletters - they are a great read with some interesting, period photos. It would be really good to see the publicity film though.

For me the 1958 route sounds particularly attractive.

But most importantly... I am not losing my marbles!

Miles

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