Getting Ready For The Ten Countries Run

It is amazing what you can discover when an expert checks over your car, and a trip to the rolling road turns into an overhaul of the rear suspension on Simon’s Herald

As some of you will know, I have entered the Herald in Club Triumph’s Ten Countries Run in September, on which my brother and I will take it on a 2500 mile, five day jolly across numerous Alpine passes. Obviously for that kind of adventure you need the car to be in tip top condition, and I was relatively happy with how it was running. However, I did think that the drone from the exhaust could get a little wearing on the longer stretches down to Italy and back. That’s because the silencing consisted of only a Dolomite Sprint back box, which did make it sound rather fruity. So I took a trip up to Rimmers, and their Carl Wright was extremely helpful, bringing out various silencer options and trying them up against the Herald for size.

In the end I opted for a stainless steel Vitesse back box which promised to muffle a little more sound and fitted both the exhaust pipe and the space available perfectly. Before making the change though, I took the Herald to the rolling road because I was keen to get before and after power figures – it is all too easy to equate noise with horsepower in your mind, so I was keen interested in getting some concrete before and after figures. The only problem was that Mike Greaves at the Sleaford Mini Centre’s rolling road was not happy to rev the engine up to maximum because the oil pressure was low at idle and he thought the bottom end sounded a bit clattery. However, he admitted that he was more in tune (pardon the pun!) with A-series engines, so I booked a visit to Dale Barker at Moordale Motors for an expert Triumph opinion.