1300 FWD Vs Dolomite 1500

To those of us of a certain age, Ajax is a cleaning product. For Triumph, Project Ajax was a clean sheet of paper and it delivered a revolutionary new car for the firm which underwent many changes over its 15 years in production. Bruce Jones is your guide to perhaps the most complicated evolution of any Triumph offering.

- Bruce Jones

The first vehicle to come out of Project Ajax was the Triumph 1300, introduced in October 1965 with the first cars being sold early in 1966. Originally touted as a replacement for the Herald – which was slightly retro with its separate chassis but had started to sell well after its update to the 1200 and so continued in production – this new small luxury saloon was intended to move the company into the next era.

For small cars, that era was moving firmly towards front-wheel drive, and so that was what Triumph designed. 1300 was up against the likes of the Wolseley and Riley versions of the 1100/1300 range from BMC, which of course featured a Mini-style transverse engine, with the gearbox in its sump and sharing the engine’s oil. The new Triumph was every bit as plush as its upmarket competitors with a new all systems-go warning light cluster, deeply padded seats and luxury items such as an adjustable steering column, height adjustable seats and more, but it differed markedly in terms of mechanical layout.

The majority of FWD cars featured a transverse engine, but the 1300 bucked the trend by having the engine in a north/ south layout. The gearbox was mounted below and behind the engine, with the differential sitting effectively in the engine’s sump. However, Triumph gave the gearbox and final drive their own lubrication system that was separate from the engine’s oil. That engine was derived from the Herald’s well-established OHV unit but bored out to increase capacity to 1296cc and treated to an eight-port cylinder head developed from the ones that had been used so successfully on the Works Spitfires. This boosted power to 61bhp, later increased further in 1967 to 75bhp for the 1300TC – those letters referring to twin carburetors rather than twin cams.