Nice !! I had 6 Heralds and 2 Vitesses in my time... from 1978 to 1988. My sister and I cut our teeth on the basic mechanic things... she was 2 years old than me, so got quite a lot more use once Mum had given the car to us (she bought a Hillman Imp).
At 06:00 the Achilles heel of the Herald, Vitesse and Spitfire early marques revealed! Look at the clue - that crazy positive camber of the rear wheels in it's unladen state. That is the rear axle, a swing-axle design which under any sort of enthusiastic (not hard) cornering would allow the outer wheel to tuck under dangerously, losing all grip between tyre and road surface and sending the car out of control! Quite frankly today I would judge that as criminal negligence to produce such a setup and accidents were certainly caused as a result. I have the scars to prove it!
They had a ride like a skate board the engines were good for about 40,000 miles, the back axel on them was very prone to failure the bonnet was a pain to shut and they were rot boxes they were CRAP, cars today far superior vw golf , toyota aygo , and many more get real for goodness sake there.
Actually Harry Webster hogged the credit of discovering Michelotti by himself! 'twas actually Martin Tustin a then Director at S-T who first met Michelotti. His daughter Sue even acted as an interpretor/translator as she knew French and Michelotti could speak no English but passable French.
