Charged Mayflower
this article appeared in the April/May 1996 issue of
British Car magazine text reprinted from Current
Events magazine, courtesy of Clare Bell, Editor.
"Triumph's cheeky little razor-edged saloon gets a new
lease on life through one enthusiast's obsession with
keeping it on the road. With electric vehicles finally
catching on with the public, this postwar classic could
be a harbinger of things to come. . .
British car buffs gathered in Palo Alto
on September 10 to celebrate 'wind in the
hair and oil in the driveway' during the 18th
Annual Brittish Car Meet. This year's winner,
however, had zip without drips and class without
gas. An electrified 1953 Triumph Mayflower owned
by EAA (Electric Auto Association) member Peter
Panagotacos M.D. of San Francisco, whizzed away
with the People's Choice Award for the niftiest
car in the show.
The car might have won because Panagotacos'
8-year-old son kept polishing the car throughout
the 6 hour show, but whatever the reason,the
little Mayflower sailed away with the prize before
the owners of 600 pampered and polished English
classics.
The win startled Panagotacos, who owns seven 1953 Mayflowers. He
expected one of his other cars, a little jewel once owned by Eleanor Funk
(of Funk and Wagnall's Dictionary) and a one-time resident of the Ford
Museum in Detroit, to take top honors.
Panagotacos thinks that the British car afficionados could see beyond the
Mayflower's paste-wax shine and not-one-dust-speck elegance. The
electric drivetrain obviously upped the car's niftiness factor in the minds
of many show-goers enough to put it over the top. Brit car buffs care about
driving clean? This says they do.
To use Triumph's 1953 ad slogan, a qote from a British peeress upon
her first sight of the original Mayflower (which was deliberately
styled after the Rolls-Royce), "Oh, how bloody marvelous!"
Perhaps they could also appreciate how the electric drivetrain
enhanced the Mayflower's performance and reliability. Triumph
made no secret about copying the Rolls body, but the engine was
another matter. Since the stock engine could barely scuttle the
car along at 55 mph, driving on California freeways endangered
major panic reactions. The aluminum flathead design led to
frequent blown head gaskets and warped heads.
The car was a wedding present in 1961 and driven on
extensive round trips to Oregon and Washington D.C.,
but the upkeep involved was too much for the young
medical student. "I rebuilt the motor twice, changed
head gaskets four times, and the head once before
finally giving up" he said during an interview.
After the car sat for 25 years in his mother's San
Francisco garage, Panagotacos decided to
resurrect it with a later-vintage Triumph motor.
When that engine proved too large, and a
growing interest in electric vehicles made him
aware of the conversion option, he solved the
problems by transforming the car into an electric.
Mike Slominski, of Mike's Auto Care in San
Mateo, consulted on the conversion and Bill
Eck of Auto Cellular in Half Moon Bay did most
of the hands-on wrench work. After restoring
four cars in five years, Dr. Panagotacos needed
a rest from Mayflower mechanicking.
Now cranky motors and blown head gaskets are all in the past
and Panagotacos can easily keep up with freeway traffic, cruising
the lanes at 70. Now he has a classic that is a practical vehicle and he
doesn't even need the smog exemption!
Unlikely though it seems when one studies the aristocratic lines of the
mini-Rolls-Royce, Triumph built the original Mayflower in the early 1950s to
compete with the proletarian VW Beetle. Envisioning a flood of aristocratic
but fuel-efficient cars overseas to the US, the British manufacturer dubbed
their creation "Mayflower". Alas, the invasion foundered, sunk by the
overstressed motor and the utilitarian preferences of American small-car
buyers. Triumph built 37,000 Mayflowers from 1950 to 1953, then gave
up in disgust at the colonial's obvious lack of taste. VWs swarmed into
the US, but only a thousand Triumph Mayflowers ever landed.
Spurned by the States, Mayflowers ended up in Australia, New Zealand,
Brittain, and other Commonwealth countries. An estimated 600 remain
on the road worldwide. It is interesting to note that one of the popular
aftermarket modifications for VWs is the addition of a Rolls-Royce snoot.
Could that, perhaps, be an unconscious tribute to the Mayflower?
As shown by his choice of electric vehicles (EV), Dr. Panagotacos is a
man of unusual interests. Known as a world-wide authority on hair
transplantation, he is an individual whose dedication and concern for
others has taken him to the top in his chosen field of dermatology
(Pun intended? --Ed).
He collects African art and is involved in "Save the Pygmies", an
organization dedicated to preserving the oldest living human culture.
The Annual Brittish Car Meet in Palo Alto is the foremost British
motorcar event in California. To have an electric vehicle take the top
prize must have caused some interesting and perhaps radical attitude
alterations in the crowd of car connoisseurs. Certainly and original way
to spread the word (on electric vehicles). "
this article appeared in the April/May 1996 issue of British Car magazine
text reprinted from Current Events magazine, courtesy of Clare Bell, Editor.
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