Edward Turner (motorcycle designer)

In 2008, an address where Turner lived and worked in Peckham, South-East London was awarded a Blue plaque by Southwark Borough Council, following a popular public vote in 2007. The Blue Plaque at 8 Philip Walk, where he lived whilst working for his father’s bottle-brush factory itself now at 6 Philip Walk, was unveiled by his son, Edward Turner Jr on Sunday 25 October 2009 in the presence of his siblings, Jane Meadows and Charmian Hawley.

When the Royal Mail issued six postage stamps on 19 July 2005 each featuring a classic British motorcycle, Turner was the only designer cited by name in the accompanying presentation packet notes. This was in relation to the 47 pence stamp featuring his 1938 Triumph Speed Twin.

In November 1970 the ailing company’s last major press and trade launch was held. In the lineup was an ohc 350 cc twin with twin carburettors and five-speed transmission, designed by Turner (already retired) as his last project, and further refined by Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele. It was to be sold as both the Triumph Bandit and BSA Fury, each distinguished by minor cosmetic changes and paint schemes, with 34 bhp and capable of 110 mph. Although included in that year’s brochures, financial problems forced cancellation of the model before any production. Several pre-production prototypes still exist.

This model represented an attempt by BSA-Triumph to compete in the wider 350 cc category, being a large-selling engine-displacement at the time. In an early 1970s issue of Cycle Buyers Guide (a yearly listing of all available motorcycles) it was stated that in the year prior to that issue, Honda had sold more 350 cc motorcycles than Yamaha had sold motorcycles.

In 1967, Turner, at 66, retired from the BSA Board and Harry Sturgeon took his place. Unlike Turner, Sturgeon was convinced Triumph had to be involved in racing, and John Hartle won the 1967 Isle of Man TT production event on a Bonneville, just before Harry Sturgeon suddenly died, and was replaced by Lionel Jofeh.

1966 saw Turner working on a large-displacement, four-cylinder engine design which was not built.

From 1963 all Triumph engines were of unit construction.

Turner retired as Chief Executive of the Automotive Division (which included motorcycles) in 1963, but retained his BSA Directorship. He was apparently by this time unhappy about the direction the company was taking. Bert Hopwood had hopes of being appointed Turner’s successor, but the job went to BSA’s Harry Sturgeon.

In 1962, the last year of the “pre-unit” models, Triumph used a frame with twin front downtubes, but returned to a traditional Triumph single front downtube for the unit construction models that followed.

By 1961 Turner was under pressure to retire. Bert Hopwood resigned from AMC, and accepted Turner’s offer to work for Triumph as Director and General Manager. It was at this time that Hopwood conceived the idea of a three-cylinder bike and engineer Doug Hele completed the drawings. Daimler was sold to Jaguar, and Edward Turner’s V-8 was put into a Jaguar Mark 2 body with an upgraded interior and trademark Daimler grille, and called the Daimler 2½ litre V8.

In 1960 Turner went for a tour of the Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha plants in Japan and was shaken by the scale of production.

For 1959 Turner designed the hemi-head Daimler 2.5 & 4.5-litre V8 engines used in the Daimler SP250 sports car and Daimler Majestic Major respectively. The valve gear was more similar to the Chrysler Hemi than the Triumph motorcycle, itself based on Riley.

In 1958 a twin-carburettor version of the 650 engine emerged. Triumph test rider Percy Tait hit 128 mph on a prototype Bonneville T120 at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) test track. The “Bonnie” was a show stopper at the 1958 Earl’s Court Motorcycle Show.

Two Turner-designed scooters were introduced, about 1958 the high-performance Triumph Tigress (also sold as the BSA Sunbeam) and in 1963 the Tina (later called the T10), a Turner-designed 100 cc automatic transmission scooter for shopping.

The first unit construction twin-cylinder motorcycle made by Triumph, the 350 cc (21 ci) ‘Twenty One’ 3TA, designed by Turner and Wickes, was introduced for the 21st Anniversary of Triumph Engineering Co. Ltd in 1957. Unfortunately it also had the first “bathtub” rear enclosure, which proved to be a major styling mistake, with dealers reputedly having to remove enclosures to sell bikes. Turner’s new unit Triumph Speed Twin, the 5TA, introduced in 1959 was a 500 cc version of this engine and was similarly styled. The 6T Thunderbird and T110 models also acquired the bathtub rear fairing. Although quickly mimicked by competitors, eventually Turner relented on this unpopular feature, the ‘bathtub’ becoming more and more abbreviated until disappearing altogether on the final 1966 versions. Sportier versions of both the 5TA (the Tiger 100) and 3TA (the Tiger 90)were produced from 1960 to 1974 and 1963–1969, respectively.

In 1956, after a boardroom struggle over power and control, Jack Sangster became Chairman of BSA Group, succeeding Sir Bernard Docker. He appointed Turner Chief Executive of the Automotive Division (comprising BSA, Ariel, Triumph, Daimler and Carbodies – makers of London taxicabs).

By 1954 the sportier 200 cc version was available, and called the Tiger Cub.

The production 650 cc Thunderbird was a low-compression tourer, and the 500 cc Tiger 100 was the performance bike. That changed in 1954, along with the change to swing arm frames and the release of the 650 cc Tiger 110, eclipsing the 500 cc Tiger 100 as the performance model.

In 1952, Turner married Shirley Watts. They had two daughters and a son.

In 1951 Sangster sold Triumph to BSA for £2.5 million, having previously sold Ariel to BSA in 1939. As part of the sale agreement, he joined the BSA Group as a member of the board. Turner’s holdings in Triumph gave him 10% of the sale.

For 1950, Turner went for a “low-chrome” policy, and banned the use of chrome fuel tanks. A chrome tank did not reappear till the 1981 Bonneville T140LE Royal Wedding edition.

Turner became involved in the establishment of the US-based Triumph Corp. in Maryland, a distribution company created to serve East Coast US markets. After 1950, America became Triumph’s biggest customer.

The 6T 650 cc Thunderbird, as designed by Turner, and further developed by Jack Wickes, was launched on 20 September 1949, when three models covered 500 miles at 90 mph (800 km at 145 km/h) in a demonstration at Montlhery. Essentially an enlarged tourer version of the Speed Twin, the 6T was designed to satisfy the substantial American export market, and was advertised as capable of a genuine 100 mph (161 km/h). The Thunderbird became a favourite of police forces worldwide.

In 1948, Turner was persuaded to allow the entry of three 500 cc twins in the Senior TT, but none of them finished, so the experience only added to Turner’s opposition to factory racing.

The Mark I sprung rear hub was introduced in late 1947.

Ernie Lyons won the first Manx Grand Prix on a Tiger 100 built by Freddie Clarke using an alloy wartime generator engine and the unreleased sprung hub in 1946. Turner, away in America, and anti-racing, was furious when he heard, but threw Lyons a victory dinner anyway, and a small batch of replica T100 were made for sale. Clarke resigned and joined AMC as Chief Development Engineer. Bert Hopwood had an argument with Turner over racing, left Triumph, and stayed away for 14 years.

The Speed Twin, Tiger 100 and 350 cc 3T models emerged in 1945. They now had telescopic forks, originally designed by Turner, but modified by Freddie Clarke after it was found that fork oil would spew out on bottoming.

By 1943 Bert Hopwood completed the design, but it was never produced. Triumph’s prototypes were released in February, before BSA’s planned launch. The design later became the post-war TRW model. In late October, Turner went back to Triumph. Hopwood had been working on a design for a 700 cc inline four-cylinder engine that could produce 50 bhp, but Turner’s return to Triumph put an end to that plan.

In 1942, Turner designed a generator, using an all-alloy Triumph vertical twin engine, for the Air Ministry. After a heated disagreement with Jack Sangster, Turner quit his position at Triumph and promptly became chief designer at BSA, where he worked on a side-valve vertical twin for the War. Bert Hopwood was made Triumph’s new designer and Sangster put him to work on a 500 cc side-valve twin competing for the same contract.

Turner’s “sprung hub” was supposed to go into production in 1941, adding 17 lb to the weight of a bike. But the war delayed its introduction until 1948.

Turner’s wife Edith died in a car crash near Coventry on 8 July 1939; the same crash which killed Gillian Lynne’s mother and two other friends. Turner kept in contact with Gillian Lynne thereafter.

In July 1937, Turner introduced the 500 cc Speed Twin, selling at £75. It was smaller and weighed five pounds less than the £70 Tiger 90, and proved very successful. The 5T Speed Twin (some say based on the engine design of Turner’s Riley Nine car) became the standard by which other twins were judged, and its descendants continued in production until the 1980s. The original 27 bhp parallel-twin was capable of exceeding 90 mph (145 km/h) and weighed 361 lb (166 kg).

In 1936 Triumph decided to create separate motorcycle and car companies, and sell the motorcycle company. Ariel owner Jack Sangster bought it and changed the name to Triumph Engineering Company. The Ariel Square Four changed from the 4F 600 cc OHC version to the 4G OHV 995 cc version that year.

The first lightweight for Triumph since 1933, a 150 cc OHV Terrier T15, four-speed unit construction single with a sloping engine, was introduced in 1953. As a result, Triumph directors Turner, Bob Fearon and Alex Masters rode from Land’s End to John O’Groat’s for a 1,000-mile Terrier demonstration and publicity stunt – the “Gaffers’ Gallop.”. .

The first Ariel Square Four 4F was shown at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1930 in chain-driven overhead camshaft 500 cc form. This was heavier and slower than Turner’s original prototype due to production changes made necessary by the Great Depression. To make up for the extra weight, Turner increased the engine capacity to 601 cc for the 1932 Model 4F6. Ariel went bankrupt in September 1932, but was bought by Sangster, who promoted Turner to chief designer.

By 1929, at Ariel, Jack Sangster had Edward Turner and Bert Hopwood working under Val Page in design. Turner, now 28, married Edith Webley.

By now, living at various addresses in Peckham and East Dulwich, in the London Borough of Southwark and running Chepstow Motors, a Peckham Road motorcycle shop with a Velocette agency, Turner conceived the Square Four engine in 1928. At this time he was looking for work, showing drawings of his engine design to motorcycle manufacturers. The engine was essentially a pair of ‘across frame’ OHC parallel twins joined by their geared central flywheels, with a one-piece four-cylinder block (or Monobloc) and single head. The idea for the engine was rejected by BSA, but adopted by Ariel. Thus it became the Ariel Square Four, and not the BSA Square Four. Turner was then invited by Jack Sangster to join Ariel.

Turner built his first bike in 1927, using his second design, a 350 cc OHC single. The Motor Cycle published a photograph of Turner’s patented engine, mounted in his motorcycle called the Turner Special. The Special was registered for road use with the London County Council as YP 9286. It used Webb forks, and a three-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox.

On 16 April 1925 “The Motor Cycle” published drawings by Turner of an OHC single he had designed, using a series of vertically stacked gears to drive the overhead camshaft. A subsequent redesign used bevel gears to drive a vertical camshaft, operating the valves through rockers. The only shared aspects of the two designs were the bore and stroke, 74 mm × 81 mm (2.9 in × 3.2 in), with the barrel being sunk into the crankcases. The head could be removed from either design complete with undisturbed valve gear.

Edward Turner (24 January 1901 – 15 August 1973) was an English motorcycle designer. He was born in Camberwell in the London Borough of Southwark, on the day King Edward VII was proclaimed King. In 1915, Turner had his first ride on a motorcycle, a Light Tourist New Imperial.