The Trojan - An Unorthodox Delight!
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- The Trojan Car (and Van) was built from 1922 to 1937. Although outwardly conventional, it was an unusual design but proved to be remarkably reliable. The make still has a loyal following.
Music: ‘Honeysuckle’ by Honeyroot.
Photos: Trojan Museum Trust, Motorsport Archive and others. Please contact me if I am missing your credit and I will cheerfully list you, with many thanks.
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This one slipped through my notifications. Glad I caught it! What a beautiful concept - wish they had been more successful; I would gladly drive one! Thanks for the history, Nick! 👍
Thanks Nick. Another fascinating episode. Would be great to see a running Trojan, will need to figure out if there is one locally.
Thank you, Nick, I really do enjoy your history lessons. We here in the US also had a trojan company but they didn't go over all that well with the men here. The last thing a husband wan'ted to hear was ( oh, darling, lets buy a trojan.) Ok, I'll stop now.
In the UK we have Sellotape, in the US you have Scotch Tape, in Australia they have Durex...
@@kirbyn2010 If the lady insisted on the use of a Trojan, well, I’d still be a happy chap!
And still available (new) today.
@@howardsimpson489 I’m not sure I’d trust a vintage one!
Thank you for giving us all that information. Very interesting.
Very enjoyable piece of history! Seems like such a versatile vehicle might have had a longer production life.
@@davidheal4623 Cars were actually available from the factory until 1939. Not advertised but they would (and did) assemble customer cars from spares. The van, which was still in production until 1939, shared 99% of components.
I have lusted unsuccessfully for a vintage Trojan after a ride in one in Wellington ,NZ over 35 years ago. The owner had it from when he was a medical student in England and told of heroic journeys around Europe. He broke down outside the DKW factory one time and they were happy to get it running again. Feeling the pause when changing from low, the sinking into the wondersprings and then catering off while going up hill is almost a mystical experience.
Thank you Nick great auto history. I had never heard of them.
Thanks for that, very informative! My grandmother had an early Trojan, in which my aunt learnt to drive in the '30s. She ran it off the road into a ditch and hedge, but was pulled out with the help of the local blacksmith's horse!
Excellent and informative video. I had always thought that the Trojan was very crude but it was anything but!
Yes, it was simple but not crude. They appear to last for ever!
Marvelous thank you
Sad to see it dissolved in 2013. They look like good little cars and vans. The marketing was pretty clever too.
Yes, it looked like that Torjan smacked into the car behind it at 04:27.
@@ptonpc Yes indeed! I once had a Spanish girlfriend who ‘parked by ear’; evidently it was normal in Madrid!
@@FlyingForFunTrecanair And in Paris. Parisians don't use their handbrakes or leave their cars in gear so allowing them to roll if hit by another car trying to park.
Great one! I really enjoyed. Beautiful selection of photos too. And film clips. The ones showing the suspension characteristics were amazing!
Excellent again, good start to the weekend, had a hanckering for something really old, agree with you a Trojan would be interesting to own, thanks and have a good weekend
@@garypoulton7311 It’s delightfully potty yet immensely practical.
My mother worked at the Purley Way factory on the switchboard there just after war's end. She had been a WAAF signaller at RAF North Wealds Operations Room which was located off station at Blake Hall. Grp Cpt Douglas Bader became her station commander after liberation from Coldititz who she said loved to use the F word a lot and the occasional C word 😂 She passed away in 2015 aged 95.
Lovely thank you
There is a Trojan Co., here in the US. Their products made of "rubber" and usually sold in Apothecary. Depending of the use one may get a smooth ride too.
Aah... Yes, I remember the product rather well! TX79364
@@robertklein1316 or bouncy without dampers?!
I remember as a child seeing Trojan vans delivering Brooke Bond tea locally in Cornwall.
Absolutely brilliant and thanks for such an interesting topic. Never realised that’s where the Trojan bubble car came from and I drove one occasionally in the early seventies 😂😂😂
I have had one of their go-karts since 1970. It is a Tro-kart and dates from around 1959. My original Villiers engine gave up the ghost so it is currently making do with an ebay special.
Great stuff! In the 70's a friend's dad had various old vehicles in his garden, including a late type Trojan van that we used to 'drive'.
Thanks Nick, that was really good.. I remember the perkins engined vans very well. What a fascinating little car though! Id really like one! (It would really be at home on roads in Herefordshire!!) That low speed torque & soft springing really worked...a good trials car. BTW someone mentioned a Redwing aeroplane. There used to be a Robinson Redwing at Red hill aerodrome, it was for sale,, sadly i got on the case too late. It had a 5cyl radial, Armstrong Siddley I believe. 2 seat, side by side,, like a Blackburn B2. Keep up the good work, its excellent.
@@gilbertdavies The Redwing features in my next film.
What a lovely film. Thank you!
Hello there. My father was an apprentice tool maker from 1938 to 1943 at the tromán works on the Purley way croydon
Thank you for this fascinating history lesson, I had heard of the name but knew little about Trojan.
I first came across the Trojan Van, when I was a lad in 1966. The local garage had it for repair and I was fascinated by the underfloor 2 stroke engine. I was working in a motorcycle shop at the time. Later, while still in the Motor Trade, I worked on a 1953 motorhome which was converted from the front engined diesel van version. It had a Perkins P3 3 cylinder engine and was rather underpowered and slow. It was solidly built though.
I remember the old Trojan vans and the more modern Perkins engined vans were introduced in the year that I was born so they were quite common when I was a kid.
I am sure there were some 3 wheeler Trojan vans a bit like the Reliant ones, that had motorcycle style front forks. I could be wrong, it was a long time ago!
Nope, wrong. Not Trojan 3 wheelers. Raleigh and Reliant made those.
@@flunkyminion There were others too, but not Trojan. The Hienkel was their only 3-wheeler.
Thank you for this fascinating glimpse of Trojan. Its good that people like you keep alive the names of these innovative engineering companies.
A capable and adventurous company right up to the end it would seem.
Very nice, thanks from Australia.
The days when cars had character not like the modern boxes.
Thank you from the USA for an enlightening documentary.
Great video
Very interesting to see !! I particularly like the 1920s promotional films !! 👍👍
@@timcolledge6813 So do I!
Learned something new today! Great review of a seemingly pretty good car
Thanks for this very interesting and relaxing video.
I remember first finding out about Trojan cars from a card in the pack of PG tips tea. My grandfather had started a garage business with his eldest son just after the first world war and my mother told me that they sold like hot cakes and that they could never get as many as they could have sold.
Fantastic again some incredible engineering
The "Mothers Pride" plant in Belvedere used Trojan delivery vans. Rumour has it a couple were buried when the old petrol pump and tank were taken out.
I had to do a quick search online. Watching that vehicle clambering its way over such punishing roads (on razor-thin tyres, no less) I wondered if Trojan cars had been sold here in Australia because so many of our roads at the time would have been just as punishing. And, yes, they were, although I couldn't find actual numbers sold.
I recall my Grandad telling me that there used to be garages with "No Trojans" signs outside; no doubt their mechanics would have scratched their heads over the Trojan's mechanics. When a lad, I remember seeing an RE parked in Banstead High Street, unoccupied but its engine ticking over. The ancient grey matter tells me that I could just see something revolving behind a gap in the boot lid (if that's the right name for it); could I have?
Besides Brooke Bond, I remember that Wall's had some Trojan ice cream vans; I think that they were P3 powered.
I started a BMC repair business in Wellington NZ in 1970. It was called "Mini Motors" and ran until 2001.Nobody ever told me the name had been used previously or challenged the copyright.
I had friends loose the rights to their business/trade names when big companies wanted the name.
A truly remarkable manufacturer which produced rugged, practical, and affordable vehicles! How refreshing! 🇺🇸
Brilliant - one can see where Ferdinand Porsche might have got ideas for his, 'Peoples car'!
Apparently that design was Czech , Hungarian or something.
Yes, the Czech company had a lawsuit going, but strangely it got dropped when the Corporal decided to make his country bigger.
@@garypoulton7311 Eventually (post-war) Tatra were compensated.
@@redtobertshateshandles yes, a Hans Ledwinka design. Porsche was a bit of a goose stepping plagiarist.
They also were a spares concession for Lambretra scooters in the late 1960s
@@houstonceng Peter Agg, the Lambretta importer, bought the Trojan company in 1960.
Love It ! ( my Dad's 1943 Willys MB (ex-North Africa) in Profile pic )
I saw one at a car show at the Amberly museum about ten years ago. Didn't hear it run, though.
Hi I had a Trojan Mini Motor the aluminium drive on the wheel shreaded the tyre , then they come up with a carburundam drive that solved the problem but still a bugger in the WET
An RAF officer should have been successful competing in a Trojan: the RAF had a large fleet of vans and pickups so he probably got in a lot of practice! The RE looked a stylish car, but why on earth did you have to stuff all the luggage down the passenger footwell when they could easily have provided access under the bonnet? Still got my Dinky and Matchbox Trojan vans!
Where would they have put the battery, oil resrvoir and petrol tank then?
@@StephenAllcroft They are all fairly small components which could easily be accommodated under the seats or in the narrow section of the nose, leaving space behind the dashboard for luggage.
And here I was wondering what was under the bonnet...
@@guidor.4161 🤣🤣
Good on you Jimmy don't let up 😂
Thank you so much I never heard of this wonderful weird little car of course it's British because they made weird. I bet these cars are as rare as hen's teeth in Great Britain
I wouldn't call the Rolls Royce weird; simply the British built the best cars, Trojan included.
Remarkably simple engineering.
Very interesting. Never heard of them before now.
40 mpg in those days! We haven't made much progress in our house since then... i10 does 49mpg & diesel VW Transporter does 39mpg!
In the companies twilight years Trojan were a significant sub-contractor and car builder in the world of motor sport including F1, Formula 5000 annd Can-Am in association with the original Bruce McLaren team and also Ron Tauranac . They also owned the Elva kit car brand
They also ran a an F1 team under their own name on 1974
@@andrewwmacfadyen6958 Is mentioned in the film.
Almost as easy to drive as my EV. Never heard of the RE before, bit like a weird angular home counties Beetle.
Lone to see that transmission
@@tjm3900 Very similar to a Model T Ford
As a child living in nearby Streatham i was taken on a school trip to tour the Trojan factory. I dont remember the exact year but probably sometime between 1954 and 1958. At that time they were producing electric vans . These might have been those being used by Harrods, im not sure. I remember a long discussion between our teacher and the engineer who was showing us round. The subject was the wet cell batteries being used and how they were the limiting factor for electric vehicles. I well remember the engineer stating that battery technology could never be improved and the slow charging rate plus limited range made electric vehicles ideal for local low cost and quiet deliveries in urban areas but totally impractical for most other vehicles As the owner of an EV myself now with a range of 300 miles i often think about that conversation. I think Trojan went out of business soon after our visit
@@Dmountnugent Trojan was dissolved in 2013, they were an active engineering company until c.2000. Battery technology has improved although only the lead acid battery is 100% recyclable.
RK 9788 is still with us. It's taxed to the end of November 2025.
So, Nick; you'd rather like a vintage Trojan - but would you prefer an underfloor engine for the lowest possible C of G, or would you be happy to enjoy the accessibility of the RE configuration?
On a two-stroke, most of the heavy stuff is down low.
Rear engine layout for spark plug access for me.
And most oil kept in the crankcase rather than the top end.
@redtobertshateshandles Surely a 2 stroke of this period would have used pre-mixed petroil?
@@Del350K4 The 3 door tourer for me, seen at 7:01. The RE was fairly ghastly and saloon cars are useless load carriers.
@FlyingForFunTrecanair I love the way you summed up each rejected variant so pithily : )
Wow amazing thing isn't it?
how many gears does it have?
and also wanted to know the connection with the shift lever and pedals are in control too.
@@tvpoco8498 The standard model had two forward speeds and reverse. The RE and Wayfarer had three forward speeds and reverse. I’m not quite sure of the function of the clutch pedal as the epicyclic gears could be engaged just by moving the selector lever. A friend has several Trojans although they’ve not run in some time. I will find out, it would be good to have a ride in one and film it!
4:28 he bumps the car behind him as he pulls out!
You can see it move back slightly as he hits it!
Nothing much has changed in 100 years 😂
Yes indeed!
Fun fact - The Trojan was the only car to be advertised in the Church Times.
I photographed our vicar in my Trojan. And told him the tale.
@@bigvinny333 Yes indeed it was!
Early in the vid, I was fully expecting the car to sprout wings & a tail, but no such luck....
@@jamesonpace726 You’re getting muddled up with a T28 Trojan 🤣
Chassis👍
2:00: "The Trojan has Wonder Springs". Yes, and obviously no dampeners....
@@alexclement7221 Not needed at low speed with long springs. The rear axle of my Vauxhall is similarly suspended although dampers would be nice at 60 mph.
I want one
@@mobileentertainment575 Please form an orderly queue!
4:44: "First away in traffic". Along with a large cloud of oil smoke and unburned hydrocarbons, I see.....
@@alexclement7221 As long as it upsets Greta No-Fun-Berg, who cares?
What an amazing vehicle. Should make one today, but it wouldn't meet emission or safety standards.
Something sad there.
A follow on from previous comment. Before his time at trojan he worked in Thornton heath for a company called redwing who built aeroplanes. Does anyone know anything about them.
@@markdennison5951 Thanks for your comments. Oddly enough, the Redwing features in my next film and there'll be a full history in a while 👍
6:47: As an American, I must ask: Were British shoes and sock as dreadful as this ad would suggest? Re-soling shoes TWICE in 200 miles and 2 pairs of socks?
Also, I must also question the prices:16 shillings for the re-soling, or about $4 U.S. at the time, as well as $2 U.S. for the socks. Then the Trojan itself; roughly 150 pounds sterling at a time when that would equal about $750 U.S. In those days, that would buy you TWO Ford Model T's, or one Chevrolet plus cash left over. Maybe something even better, like an Essex?
@@alexclement7221 Never believe an advertisement?
Were Trojan involved with the AC Cobra chassis?
NO, that was the work of AC Cars.
@@nicolaterry9445 No
Was smoking a major selling point back then?
My Sentra would have never made it down that mud road.
I love the car but I hate the little tiny headlights I have to be put some big cans on that
Bring back simplicity, in everything... What a lazy bunch of saps we have become, driving around in our club lounge suites !!!
There is beauty in simplicity; my Aeronca C3 is another good example.
They look like fantastic little cars, but you'd need a strong stomach on a rough road, and that "with rear brakes only" sounds quite hair-raising!
Yes, they're a little unrefined, and I'd prefer a four stroke engine.
They are much much better than they may appear.
Rear wheel brakes only were standard at the time on most cars.
I really enjoyed this and learned a lot about a truly original thinking British company.
3:00 How wide are the tires?
Very narrow, no more than three inches.
@ Wow 😮
Bad marketing, they should have given the car a good solid salt of the earth girls name, it would of sold more.
Bessie, Bertha, Mary Jane, Thelma, Ruby, Sarah, literally thousands to chose from.
@@dysnomia-anarchia Oddly enough, my small tractor is called Bessie!
I am just here for the jokes!!! 🤠👍
@@worldtraveler930 🤣🤣🤣 the best comment yet!
So, let me get this straight; there was only ONE brake drum, on the passenger-side of the rear axle, and the chain drives the driver's side of the rear axle and is also used for transmission-braking, which introduces all the slack of the cogs and chain into the braking dynamic? Sounds like a borderline-dangerous car to drive, and getting even braking from side-to-side seems nigh on impossible....
Braking was possibly better than those vehicles that had a differential and only one brake on the prop shaft - the wheel with the lesser grip would readily lock up.
@@alexclement7221 Solid rear axle. No differential, so the single drum brakes both rear wheels without bias. The transmission brake was an afterthought to satisfy a British requirement for two independent brake systems. Very common on British vehicles until the 1950s.
The rear axle was solid (no diff), so a single drum will work just fine. Plus many modern cars (eg 4WDs and Automatics) have a transmission brake. Is used to de-mobilise the vehicle, not for stopping it.
Thank you for being you. Trojan really made a mark. I have a front wheel drive fuel injected 2/Goliath 1951 750 mL. Unfortunately a tree from the nature strip hit the car but they are so rear now. Can I save it? I’m not sure here in Australia. They throw history away.
I don't know what a Goliath 1951 750 ml-o-matic is, but the injury sounds painful?
Trojan and Citroen (2cv)should have got together They both had practicality and innovation in mind