A great Triumph; CLASSIC CARS with IAN JOHNSON This week: Triumph Acclaim

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Jan 25, 2008

Byline: IAN JOHNSON

NOW here is your starter for 10: What was the last British Leyland car to bear the Triumph name?

Having to think about it? I'm not surprised because the answer is the Acclaim, a somewhat forgotten product of a 1979 deal between BL and the Japanese firm Honda.

Known abroad as the Honda Ballade, the Acclaim was assembled at Cowley, in Oxford, which now manufactures the BMW-owned Mini marque.

Acclaim was essentially a Honda but some items were British-sourced and constructed, including the interior trim. But all power and suspension-related items came from Japan.

But the Acclaim never lived up to its name in the long term.

When new, it was a magnificent little car, which gained a lot of friends who valued its Japanese-inspired reliability, but probably because it was lumbered with the BL tag, it never achieved a high spot on the podium of eternal auto celebrity.

The Acclaim was intended to be a stop-gap model between the old fashioned Triumph Dolomite and the lacklustre British Leyland Maestro, yet it was streets ahead of the pair of them.

The Acclaim featured that mix of Japanese and British features that has come to be the norm on a number of recent and current models.

It was the pioneer of cars like the superb Rover 216, a longlaster of the late 1990s, some models of the range featuring the incredibly good Honda 1.6 fuel injected engine.

The arrangement between Rover and Honda which resulted in the 216 and its spin-offs was under different rules, but there is no doubt that the pioneering little Acclaim led the way and demonstrated just what could be done when two nations put their minds to it.

But salt-induced corrosion took its toll and although having the mechanics of a quality car, most Acclaims found their way to the crusher - often before their time .

There are still one or two about. I saw a beautifully-restored one in a garage a couple of years ago and it brought home to me how well styled this car was.

Compare it to modern cars and it still looks good. A fitting tribute to the team who led the way in international co-operation in car design and sourcing.

CAPTION(S):

GREAT MIX - the Triumph Acclaim was the perfect marriage of East and West