First registered on 27th May 1953.

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Launched at the British Motor Show in late 1949, the Mayflower was unique in being the first Standard/Triumph car of unitary pressed steel construction.

 

34,000 of this particular model were produced between 1950 and 1953, of which only c350 are known to have survived world-wide. (source: The Triumph Mayflower Club).

 

Mechanically, the model is something of a hybrid; its engine was derived from that used in the pre-war Standard Flying 10, the gearbox and rear axle were similar to those used in the Standard Vanguard, and its front suspension was later used in the TR2/TR3 sports cars. This particular car, has had a fairly extensive external and internal restoration, undertaken by a previous owner.

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It is said that Sir John Black insisted on razor-edge styling because he had been advised by Louis Antweiller, Managing Director of Mulliner's, that Americans loved Rolls Royces. With this seed implanted in Sir Johns' mind, it is open to interpretation that he presumed the Americans would be stirred by, and wish to purchase, a miniature version of the Rolls Royce, to wit the Mayflower - later to be dubbed by many 'the watch-charm Rolls'. It is further said that Sir John chose the Mayflower name with the intention of appealing to the many Americans who were descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers who landed in Massachusetts in 1620.

 

There is no evidence to suggest that Sir John, or anyone under his instruction, had visited America or studied the market there. If the foregoing is correct, then the inception of the Mayflower must go down as one of the most arrogant, presumptuous and disastrous commercial decisions made by any person during the twentieth century with the intention of entering the volume American motor market; indeed, more Mayflowers were shipped to the then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) than to the USA.