Four of one and four of the other

 

The little Triumph Herald Coupé was a remarkable model and a little more interesting than you may have appreciated. 

Firstly, in November 1961 it was only the second car to be issued with free-spinning wheels from the start. The Bentley Continental was the first, of course, but the Triumph was the first with the smaller wheels. The small wheels first appeared on cars in January 1960 on the Morris Mini-Minor, followed by the Austin Seven a year later and the Chevrolet Corvair in July 1961. All these three, however, started with fixed smooth wheels, then they got fixed shaped wheels and finally the free-spinning variety some time later.

The first Mercedes-Benz 300SL models with suspension, 303S and 304S also had free-spinning wheels which were a little curious, being smooth on both sides. The first Triumph Heralds had a similar smooth free-spinning wheel, in the smaller size. Later the shaped style is fitted and these wheels are smooth on one side and shaped on the other. I can imagine that mistakes would have been made on the production line, with some wheels being fitted with the smooth side out but the two models shown here are not mistakes. The blue one has wheels that are the older type, smooth on both sides.

I had thought for a long time that the first issue must have been gold and white and that all of them had smooth wheels and all the later blue and white issues had shaped wheels but I learned some time ago that the other combinations existed. They're not that common, though and definitely worth a little more than the usual pair.

There are also two type of construction, as I discovered when I took some damaged models apart, mixed up the parts and wondered why they didn't go together again! It seems to concern how the bonnet hinge and radiator grille interact and the bases are quite different, with what look like filled holes painted on one type and just one rivet at the rear.

Both my models have the three rivets unpainted which I think is the earlier type.

I have seen many blue models with each type of base, whether with smooth or shaped wheels. However, every gold one I have seen to date has the three rivet type. I am sure there must be some gold models with the single rivet type but I have still to find one. It took a while to find the shaped wheel edition but, as is the case with so many Corgis, as soon as you find one variation, another one presents itself as a possibility and the search continues!

I probably wouldn't have it any other way.