| |
|
|
The Tourist Trophy Garage was John Michael Hawthorn's own premises, inherited from his father Leslie
who died in 1954. From there he serviced and sold his franchised cars including Jaguar, Standard-Triumph and Ferrari. It was also
effectively a social club for all of Michael's friends a lot of the time!
The garage owned a number of utility vans, amongst them a transporter that was used for the race cars,
a small Standard Eight utility van and, the subject of this page, a 948cc Standard Atlas van.
A larger engine (1670cc) was introduced as the Atlas Major in 1961 with very substantial changes to incorporate the larger engine,
including a new front chassis frame and cab floors. Later still came the Standard 15 and 20 (2138cc), very quickly rebranded with Leyland badging.
1147cc engines were introduced in 1961, a popular nuts & bolts conversion for a tired 948.
The major differences in early Atlases are limited to sliding or slam doors, and the optional side loading door on slam door models.
Our subject here is a slam & side loading type.
The Tourist Trophy Garage Standard Atlas Van used at the garage from 1958
The above pictures, which are the only ones we've been able to find so far, were taken around 1960, probably outside
of John Adams house. Adams bought the garage from Mrs Hawthorn some six months after Michael's death in 1959.
The van was in use though during Michael's tenure from 1958 onwards. Someone who travelled in it though says it wasn't the fastest transport on the planet
due to the small engine.
A project is under consideration to find a suitable van and restore it to working condition as far as is possible
matching photos we have. If anyone knows of a suitable candidate van, please let us know via our Contact page.
We'll keep you informed of any progress.
Thanks to Bill from the Club Triumph web forum for some of the above info.
|
