Triumph Toledo 1300

Click Here for Full Screen Image - Click Here to Download Image

The Triumph Toledo dates back to project Ajax, the result of fresh development money being sanctioned by the board in 1961 to develop a front-wheel drive replacement for the Herald.

Giovanni Michelotti was asked to design the body and chose a scaled down version of the Triumph 2000 for the small saloon. In the meantime Triumph Herald sales had unexpectedly risen and so the urgency for the Ajax car was removed.

When the Triumph 1300 eventually made its debut in late 1965 it proved to be a strong seller, although turned out to be expensive to build and rather complicated to maintain. In a radical move, the company decided to re-engineer it for rear-wheel drive, the engineering team launching the new model in 1971 with a much simplified mechanical structure.

Named the Toledo, not many customers noticed the change, the original styling remaining much as it was, although the bonnet line had been lowered thanks to the extra space created by the relocation of the gearbox to its conventional position behind the engine.

One of the few cars ever made to have changed from front- to rear-wheel drive in production, it morphed into the Dolomite 1300 in 1974 with a longer and larger boot. This car developed yet further, ending up as a full range of models which included the immortal 16-valve Dolly Sprint.

This smart little Toledo has had five previous owners since it was first registered in 1975, its last owner treating it to a full respray in Powder Blue and fitting new carpets and replacement brake pipes and linings. Purchased by the vendor in August last year, the car has continued to be improved with a service and new master cylinder being added last September at a cost of £380.

It has a recorded mileage of 56,560 miles, although there is insufficient documentation to substantiate this and we are told that it is always a ‘first time’ starter. At some point a set of sporty Dolomite Sprint alloy wheels have been fitted, the original steel rims and hub caps being included in the sale. In very clean and smart condition both inside and out, it is MOTd until the end of August 2016 and will shortly gain historic vehicle status, becoming tax exempt later this year.

All in all this is a clean, sharp-looking classic that is easy to own thanks to a plentiful parts supply network, cheap insurance and soon-to-be tax exempt status. With just 276 Toledos still road registered according to DVLA figures, this is a rare and highly usable classic that can rightly claim Italian design lineage from one of the true greats, Giovanni Michelotti.