Occasionally, a manufacturer breaks new ground but still fails to tempt buyers. The Mayflower, introduced in 1949 as a luxury option in the small-car market, was the first unibody car from Standard Triumph. This “first” did not impress, however, and sales consistently fell short of expectations. The model was terminated quickly, leaving Triumph with its Standard 8, which didn’t even attempt to climb the prestige scale. Still, the Mayflower has a certain upright British demeanor that will appeal to some collectors. This unrestored 1951 Triumph Mayflower is advertised here on craigslist for $6,500, which the seller hints is a reduction from some previous price. With a top speed of 60 mph and a zero-to-sixty time north of 25 seconds, the new buyer needs a leisurely outlook on life before driving it home from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Thanks to Mitchell G for the tip!
The Mayflower came equipped with a 1247 cc side-valve four-cylinder, which was mostly a holdover from the pre-war years. The aluminum cylinder head was new, and it breathed through a Solex carb, generating a slight increase in output to 38 hp, compared to the 33 hp squeezed out of the old all-iron mill. The three-speed column shift was all-synchromesh, and the front suspension is shared with the TR2. Drum brakes all around, of course. The seller notes that his car’s odometer reads just 34,000 miles – said to be original.
Individual front seats, a banjo steering wheel, and a couple of gauges are featured in the cabin. Wear is evident nearly everywhere, but considering that this car is over seventy years old, it shows pretty well! I hope I look this good at seventy. Fans of automotive history will recall that Britain was under an “export or die” edict after WWII. More specifically, exports to the US were desired, since the whole world was scrambling for US dollars. Alas, only 510 Mayflowers were sold here, out of a total of just 34,000 produced. Very few survive today.
The Mayflower’s razor-edged styling was a small-scale version of the trend developing at Rolls-Royce. Sir John Black – running Triumph at the time – felt that the look would attract aspiring Rolls buyers who couldn’t quite swing the entry fee for the real deal. In fact, the styling didn’t translate well to the shrunken proportions of the Mayflower, which contributed to the slow sales. Comparable cars are hard to find; if we look at ads for Mayflowers in England, we’ll see prices in the £2000 area all day long. What would you pay for this British rarity?
Reminds me of two things.
* a reskinned Mini like the other BMC copies
* the promo giveaway of a Smart car with every purchase (A-M?) only in this case, styled for the RR buyer.
Standard-Triumph, not BMC which didn’t exist when these were made. Pre dated the Mini by several years. Competition was Morris Minor.
Also, front engine rear wheel drive.
Named Mayflower to appeal to the colonists (us) but priced higher than a new Ford or Chevrolet, which, of course, were much larger and would carry six instead of four.
We have two of these around my area.One is in a garage that’s about ready to collapse.
Just love the 50s British styling, like a generation behind the US. Look at this car, the proportions are seemingly all wrong, and styling right out of our 30s. Naturally, performance wasn’t on their minds, as I read, this car had a top speed of allegedly 62.9 mph( it’s that .9 that gets you over the hill) and 0-50 ( not 60) in almost 30 seconds. It did however, deliver almost 30 mpg, and after the war, that’s what was important. The Brits had high hopes with over 30,000 made, but I read fewer than 500 were sold here. For $1500, there were much better US cars to be had. Today, for short trips, be a hoot to drive,,,oh, oh, ma, it’s a stick, albeit an easy stick to drive, better move on,,,,
I’ve never seen one. I kinda like it.
Nice write-up Michelle, I think you sum this one up well. Despite being a big Triumph fan, owning and restoring a TR4 and Spitfires, and admiring the sixties/seventies sedans like the 2000/2500 and Dolomite Sprint, this model has always left me cold. If you were looking for a small, “cute” relatively underpowered British sedan of this era, the Morris Minor is a vastly superior car.
It has the feel of a stop-gap model. The flat-head still used before the much better OHV motor was introduced, and the love-it-or-hate-it razor edge styling. I think you hit the nail on the head, this sort of styling worked well on some grand limousines but just doesn’t translate well to a small car?
You can kind of see what Triumph was trying to do, selling a slightly upmarket themed small car, but it doesn’t quite work here for me. It’s an idea that Triumph did revisit more successfully with their 1300 FWD sedan later, which had notably nicer trim, wood dash, and equipment levels than many of its peers – and BMC did same very successfully with the various high trim variants of the ADO016 1100/1300 range, like the Vanden Plas and Wolesley/Riley.
…but I can see that this Mayflower might suit someone who wants something just a little different and isn’t needing to go too far on the highway. I think the wheezing flat-head motor, drum brakes and column shift would get tiresome. It’s often hard to know how oddities like this should be priced but with the niche of owners who would really want this, I suspect the $6,500 is a little high?
Great comment and thanks for the compliment. I agree about the Morris Minor being a superior car. My favorite though a bit later is the MG Magnette. Someone could drop a ZB in my garage and I wouldn’t complain!
“Emergency Backup Rolls.”
Keep it in your boot!
Seriously, it’s an interesting (and rare here in the States) vehicle that would probably draw a crowd, however briefly, at any respectable Cars & Grey Poupon.
Queen Elizabeth II ruled with dignity for 70 years and road around in a mighty Daimler limousine. Considering his life’s accomplishments, this would be the perfect car for King charles III.
Think you`ll find QE2 had Rolls-Royce Phantoms and latterly a custom Bentley. Daimlers fell out of favour with the Windsors post WW2.
I´m not a monarchist, but Charles III is at least a modern man.
He also personally owns an Aston Martin convertible!
Solo and don’t forget the E Type Jag that had been converted to be an Electric car.
Daimler was an English car, taken over by Jaguar at some stage. English Royalty also rode in Humbers.
The chauffeur quit when this showed up on the estate.
My uncle had one for a time as his family car in the mid-1960s. Even back then they were considered a quirky, oddball car. The styling was designed by Rootes to mimick the razor-edge coachbuilding syle of the 1930s.
Back in the late ’60’s, I had a friend whose father had one in the garage, not running. Wonder what ever happened to it? It was in Maryland, not that far from where this one is in PA.
I have never seen a more cartoonish looking car. I first thought it was one of the tiny Japanese cars of the 50s. Picture someone in a Mickey Mouse or Bozo costume driving it.
I’ll also add that it wasn’t meant for the highway as going more than 50 mph felt unsafe to put it mildly.
Exactly. What the Brits failed to understand about “Export or Die” was that if you export rubbish with no understanding of conditions outside the UK, you will die anyway. But a slower, more painful death by ridicule.
Exactly! And that didn’t change for the Brits for quite a while. It was weird – like they were flat-earther’s and thought the rest of the world was just like Britain.
One glaring example is the Jaguar XKE. They finally learned the art of body style, but then put their largest inline six cylinder engine in it with the smallest radiator / water pump I had ever seen. I couldn’t possibly recall all the Jags I had seen on the side of the road in the US summers with their hoods up and steam rolling out of the engine bay.
I helped a friend of a friend work on his XKE after this happened to him. I couldn’t believe what I found. The radiator was so small – the same size as the tiny XKE grill – it appeared to me it couldn’t transfer enough heat away from a motorcycle engine to keep it from overheating – and it was hooked up to a large inline 6 cylinder. And when I took it all apart to remove the water pump – it was so dinky I just couldn’t believe my eyes.
Unfortunately, due to the constraints of the body design and the engine itself, there was no way to modify it to keep the problem from happening again. So I just checked the compression of the cylinders to see if the head gasket / head / rings were still intact. Since it all checked out okay – we put in a new water pump for good measure – replaced all the hoses and put it all back together again and it was back to running fine. — I suggested he get rid of it and buy an American made car – designed to handle all the various American climates through the year – and he did – traded it in on a Stingray.
All of Brit’s cars suffered from such myopic designs back then – and probably still do, but I don’t know since I wrote them all off as idiotic motor vehicle designers – and haven’t paid much attention to them since.
It’s difficult to imagine the vastness of the US unless you’re on the ground here. And that expanse leads to high speeds, which leads to impatience!
Last time I found one was a complete black ’51 in a Burlingame, CA junkyard in 1982
King Charles also owns a beautiful 1969 DB6 Mk II Volante.
The Mayflower is a smaller version of the Renown – to my mind a much better balanced car. However-both cars aimed at a vanishing sedate middle class market
The original mobile chicane.
Perhaps it’s my screen, but I don’t see a clutch pedal in the picture.
Nearest you in the photo. What you can’t see is the throttle pedal, it’s itsy bitsy like a button on a stalk.
This would be good in parades. Somebody dresses up as the queen sits in the back, and then you have somebody dress as the chauffeur at front. I would keep this car a local driving. Like to the supermarket or something. Every time I see these small british cars, I think of what ralph nader did to the corvair, why? This car was definitely not made for american roads. Yes, it’s very simple. But good luck to the next owner. Make sure you don’t get in front of tractor trailers😂.
In Australia you could get a ute (pick-up) version!
In the early nineties I owned a black one with red interior in great condition. I have a tendency to like the oddball cars. They definitely look like a shrunken Rolls. It was somewhat of a Mr Magoo car, cute, slow but always an attention getter. I sold it to focus on my Austin a40. No regrets.
I was think more like Mr Bean