Description
Due to a ghost buyer, I put my Heron Europa Gt up for sale again.
the car is made of English paper and is not considered imported into France.
I am selling it because I cannot register it in France.
It is in its original registration from the factory.
It is a small car that is very pleasant to drive. the parts that make it up are from Triumph or Ford.
GHOST BUYERS PLEASE MOVE ONThe Heron car brand is one of the many small English car craftsmen who specialized in the construction of small sports cars in the 60s and 70s. Led by a young entrepreneur named Derek Bishop, Heron Plastics Ltd, based in Greenwich on the south bank of the Thames suburb of London, was initially a simple supplier specialising in the manufacture of plastic bodies of racing cars for stables.
This small firm initially worked on order for well-known brands such as Austin, Diva or Lola by producing plastic or more precisely fiberglass body kits ready to be mounted on rolling chassis. Among the multitude of British craftsmen offering this kind of polyester kits, the one marketed by Heron Plastics Ltd stood out from the competition by its very attractive low price which immediately caught the attention of many enthusiasts....
Quite quickly, Derek Bishop imagined his own bodywork, and rather satisfied with the final result obtained, he began to market his first car, the Heron Cabriolet, even though the niche already seemed very crowded. The Heron in its convertible version presented itself without fault of taste, and Derek Bishop was concerned with producing a good quality package. But he came up against a weakening of the kit market in the early sixties, like all his colleagues.
With the concern for performance of any business manager and also in order not to be left behind by his competitors, he very quickly diversified his offer with a brand new model carefully studied and thought out whose style was derived from the convertible. It was a small coupe with a sporty tendency, rather sober but quite elegant, the astonishing and unusual Heron Europa presented for the first time at the Racing Car Show in 1962, then in its final version at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1963 ....
Both the Heron Europa and the Heron Cabriolet were built on a reinforced central beam chassis, and were equipped with running gear and suspension borrowed from the Triumph Herald for reasons of economy. These fairly light cars had disc brakes at the front and drums at the rear, which allowed their driver to drive them quite sharply without any unpleasant surprises while still having honorable performance....
A new special chassis was built specifically for the unusual Heron europa, which used the slightly modified running gear of the Triumph Herald. Its engine was installed in a longitudinal position under the front hood. An extremely low and rather streamlined body was designed, which adopted a truly unusual look. The front end without bumpers offered a long engine cover that extended to the windshield. The small two-seater airframe ended with a large rear window that descended onto a rather harmonious truncated rear....
The interior layout of this amazing Heron Europa was also quite well made. In fact, the dashboard was equipped with six counters, four small and two large, which allowed complete monitoring of the mechanics by offering all possible controls. In addition, for a car with a sporty tendency, a rather luxurious side had been preserved, with colored leather and aluminum inserts of the most beautiful effect. The padded transmission tunnel, the leather-covered aluminum steering wheel and the thick carpets also contributed to the general comfort....
As for the mechanics, the little Heron Europa was equipped in its most powerful version with an engine from the Ford UK range. This engine is a Cortina 4-cylinder in-line engine of 1, 498 cm3 which developed 120 horsepower which gave it very respectable performance for the time with a maximum speed of 190 km/ h. The transmission was provided by a Hewland gearbox with five synchronised speeds. Unfortunately, since these cars were often sold as kits to avoid taxes, the complexity of the assembly scared away a large part of the potential customers. The thirty or so cars built by Heron in four years of existence, including only twelve Europas, did not finally cover the heavy investments, and the small factory closed its doors in 1964 ....
