The Triumph Herald burst onto the scene in 1959 and instantly became a family favourite. Although the company took what was considered to be an old-fashioned approach to construction – basing this new saloon on a separate chassis – it quickly became popular choice, offering a cheap and stylish form of transportation.  Styling by Giovanni Michelotti was very modern and forward thinking at the time, and it still looks great today. Although based on a separate chassis, the Herald was advanced in other areas such as the independent coil spring front suspension, rack and pinion steering as well as independent rear suspension by transverse leaf spring.

The car was launched in April 1959 as a Saloon or Coupè with the Convertible arriving in 1960. The car was re-launched in April 1961 with an 1147 cc engine as the Herald 1200 with a slow selling Estate arriving soon after. Coupe production ended in 1964. The 12/50 arrived in 1963 and was popular – 12/50 means 1200 cc and around 50bhp (51 to be exact) and the car featured a fold back sunroof, front discs from the Vitesse plus a fine mesh alloy grille and was only sold as a saloon. Shortly after, the standard Herald 1200 was boosted to 48bhp.

In the end over 521,000 Heralds were built of all types.  The Triumph Vitesse, Spitfire and GT6 models are all based on modified Herald chassis and running gear with bolt-together bodies.