Triumph Acclaim to go

Press, 23 February 1984, Page 21

Triumph Acclaim to go

Another well-known name in British motoring is about to be dropped. British Leyland is going to cease producing its Honda-based Triumph Acclaim and replace it with the Rover 1300 and 1600 about June.

Like the Triumph Acclaim these small Rovers will also be of Japanese origin. In this case they will be based on the new Honda Ballade, a car that was launched at the last Tokyo motor show. The last of the Britishdesigned Triumphs was the sporty TR7. Since its demise the only car to carry the Triumph badge has been the Honda-based Acclaim.

The small Rover will be built at Austin Rover's Longbridge plant on the outskirts of Birmingham, but they will not be the first Honda cars to wear a Rover badge. Last year, Austin Rover’s Australian division began selling the Rover Quintet which is simply a re-badged version of the four-door Honda Quintet hatchback.

While new assembly lines are being laid down for the small Rovers at Longbridge. production of the Triumph Acclaim wil continue at British Leyland's Cowley plant for another month or so. Then it will give way to

the new Austin Montego which will be British Leyland's saloon version of the Austin Maestro hatchback.

While the Triumph Acclaim is offered with the 1.3-litre Honda-built engine, the 1600 cu cm Rover is likely to be fitted with a highly-modified version of British Leyland's R-type engine which will first appear in the Austin Montego. This engine is said to be more efficient, economical and refined than the original R-type engine that was originally launched a little more than a year ago.

However, as this is the engine to be used in the

Montego. some months could elapse before it is manufactured in sufficient quantity to be available for fitting to the Rover 1600 and so this version might not appear much before the end of this year.

These small badged-en-gineered Rovers should not be confused with the British Leyland-Honda replacement for the current range of SDI Rovers.

This car is being designed by both firms, working hand-in-hand, and has been code-named Project XX. The SDI replacement is not expected to appear before 1986.