1971 Trident Clipper V8

This 1971-model Trident was found derelict, and minus its engine and gearbox, in a garage in 2013. Complete with a UK V5 registration document, where it is only listed as being a Trident Coupé, it is believed to have started life as a Ventura.

The chap who bought it clearly didn’t lack ambition because he decided to replace the missing components with a V8 & more, restoring it as the more powerful Clipper. The car was worked on between 2013 and 2016, and then sold on. The car’s new owner enjoyed it for a year before selling it to Bruce, the vendor.

Now in Bruce’s care for the past three years, he essentially started anew despite the raft of work that had already been carried out. Now meticulously restored to his exacting standards, this V8-powered Clipper evocation is actually way, way better than the factory cars ever were.

A well-known car, it was invited to the London Concours’ Lost Marques banner and was driven there by James Elliott, the editor-in-chief of Octane who went on to write about it in the magazine.

Bruce has since realized that while he loves his Trident, he owns too many classic cars to be able to use them all as much as he would like so is rationalizing his collection. (His equally well-fettled Jaguar 340 will also be for sale with us.)

Being offered with a reserve that represents only a fraction of the sum it owes him, if you have ever fancied owning a V8-powered Trident then this is, we respectfully submit, THE one to buy.

The bodywork and chassis were found to be in very good order when it first stripped down in 2013, although the bonnet was in a poor condition. In order to keep as much of it as possible, the damaged areas were removed and replaced by a bonnet bulge and vents. This is not original but it does look better than the factory bonnet to our eyes, at least.

But, being as fastidious as he is, the vendor felt the car could be even further improved, so handed it over to Clive Langley of Winchfield Cars in Finchampstead. Clive is the man responsible for the Trident’s stunning coachwork. As you can see, Clive is a very talented chap.

And yet, for all its tight shutlines, straight panels and stunning paint, the degree of work he carried out is much, much deeper than the cosmetic. You see, the factory quality control was never great so a lot of his time was spent doing stuff like getting the doors to shut properly. Thanks to new and improved seals, the car is now watertight, which is not something that could have been said of them when they were new.

The headlamps are UK-spec items rather than the more usual continental items fitted with adaptors, and they’re shielded by headlamps brows, a stylistic tweak the vendor admits to stealing from those on Ken Morgan’s Clipper. Ken, you will recall, was the founder of the Trident Club and Bruce had coveted his personal car for many years.

The Everflex sliding fabric roof has been refurbished, the front bumpers have been straightened, and the rear bumper has been re-chromed.

The wheels were recently handbuilt by Phil Halliwell. They’re still like new and are fitted with matching Blockley tyres, which are also new.

As we will never tire of explaining, our experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly. Their presence does not, of course, preclude the need for a thorough inspection - something the vendor would welcome, by the way – but do give you a shortcut into their attitude towards maintenance.

The car also comes with a spare set of wheels which could be used as for winter tyres, or perhaps with a set of dedicated track rubber.

The entire interior (other than the dash, transmission tunnel and roof lining) has been restored since the vendor bought the car. As you can see from the photos, the work, which was done by Trim Mania, was carried out to an incredibly high standard.

Even the original Contour front seat frames were restored and built back up with new webbing, foam and leather in place of the Vauxhall Astra items the car was fitted with when he bought it. The refurbished seats look sensational, and the rear ones have been re-engineered to fold down to give access to the boot, something the original design doesn’t offer.

Another example of the care with which the car has been re-engineered is the seatbelt mechanism; due to a flaw in the original design, none of them actually retract. Except this one, which benefits from a modification courtesy of the talented Mr. Langley.

It’s worth noting that the fact the vendor has gone to so much trouble to get the seating and safety equipment absolutely right goes to the heart of his curation of this example.

Another illustration, should you still be doubting his commitment to making this car the very best of its type, comes by way of the door fillets. The glovebox lid was sent to Silvercrest Woodwork and Design who used it to match the grain. The finished door cards are a huge improvement on the somewhat basic originals and now look like an OE item. But almost certainly better, obviously.

Other work includes the installation of quality interior lights, fast and effective electric windows, re-varnished woodwork and a specially commissioned badge for the Mota-Lita steering wheel. The carpets are also new, and sit on top of the correct heat- and sound-proofing.

Oh, and the radio works. So what?, we hear you cry. Well, even this was a bit of an epic; the racing-spec HT leads were causing electrical interference, and while replacing them with shielded road items was a cheap and easy fix, the diagnostic work cost him hundreds of pounds.

So, when the vendor says that “the electrics actually work” his pregnant pause afterwards makes us think that might have been a bit more of a task than he is letting on…

The boot is neatly carpeted and has a natty roller blind to cover your goodies, and the dashboard has an even cooler twin-spindle Blaupunkt radio.

Flaws? Very few. There is a small mark on the top of the dashboard, a couple of black marks on the carpet, and the door seal on the nearside door is new and hasn’t squished down yet. This makes the door sit a little proud on the bottom left-hand corner, so it could do with adjusting.

The car has had much spent on it including a rebuilt Ford 289 engine and a Borg Warner T10 gearbox, the same specification that would have been fitted to a Clipper from new. In fact, even the gear lever is correct - and we are informed that these are very hard to find.

The Trident’s bespoke stainless exhaust was built by Powerflow, and if the name is familiar it might be because they’re the guys Beaulieu use to build exhausts for its cars. Designed to have an Aston Martin-like note, it is quieter than the original but still has the sort of attractive rasp we all want from our V8 supercars. Please take the time to listen to it yourself – but make sure you do the decent thing and turn the volume up…

It also now has proper fuel fillers and pipes, and the fuel pump is the right flow rate to feed the greedy non-standard Edelbrok carburettor. The rear axle has been rebuilt too, the rear dampers replaced, and the brake servo fettled.

In fact, rather than read dry facts or leaf through the dozens of recent bills and invoices, why not just pop along and take a look at the car for yourselves? It’s utterly wonderful, starts on the button, ticks over evenly, and accelerates like you would expect of something with 250bhp, 302lb/ft of torque, and a kerb weight of around 1,200kgs.

The starter solenoid, located by the battery, is a bit recalcitrant and sometimes needs a little tap to wake up the starter on the V8 - this may well fix itself with regular use.

The Trident doesn’t have a current MOT certificate, and while it is exempt by virtue of its age, we would strongly encourage the new owner to have the car re-MOT’d at the earliest. The cost of an MOT is a small investment when offset against the purchase and upkeep of any classic car, and it gives an independent, third-party assessment of the car’s condition, which not only provides reassurance to the owner (and any subsequent purchasers) but might also be invaluable in the event of a bump when negotiating with the police and any interested insurance companies…

It also comes with a number of expired MOT certificates plus a thick sheaf of invoices and bills to confirm the work that has been done to it over the years.

It also has copies of the magazines articles it has featured in over the years (bar a couple from the Trident Club but these should be available direct), some spare badges, and a hand-written parts interchangeability list. There are also a few hand-written letters, some typed documentation, and a whole raft of the sort of miscellaneous paperwork a car accumulates when it’s owned by folk who understand how rare it is.

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been maintained and modified to a very good standard.

If you’d like to inspect the car prior to placing a bid – something we would encourage – then please use the Contact Seller button to arrange an appointment.

How do you price a car like this? With so few ever built, they don’t come up very often – and even when they do, this one is so vastly superior to the rest that’s no real help anyway.

And, as is almost always the case with our hobby, it’s no use totting up the various bills and using that to determine what you’d like back; with a purchase price alone of £32,000, the vast sums the vendor spent on the car were paid out of love and a sense of duty rather than any expectation that he might come close to getting it all back.

Yet, this is, as we might have mentioned, possibly the very best of its type. Stuffed full of improvements, upgrades, and the sort of attention to detail that allows chaps like Bruce to sleep at night, it’s going to sell for a premium compared to those few that have come onto the open market in recent years.

Which is a convoluted way of saying that we think the virtual hammer will drop somewhere between £33,000 and £45,000. Which is a lot of money we know, but then you are getting an awful lot of car.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.