Triumph Held On To Rumble Seats Long After They Were Cool

Many motorists on the roads today probably won't even know what a rumble seat is. If they saw one being used, they'd probably — and rightfully — think, "How on earth is that even legal?" Well, for the unaware among us, a rumble seat is effectively a small bench seat that folds out of the rear deck of a classic car. The back of the seat folds up, and your legs fold into the space that would otherwise be occupied by said back of the seat.

Typically, rumble seats are quite small, and ideal for younger children. Sometimes, they will feature a small fold-out front screen to keep the bugs out of your eyes and teeth, but superfluous additions such as seatbelts and airbags of course do not feature, so rumble seats went out of style roughly 100 years ago.

However, one British automaker didn't get the memo, and continued to produce sports and touring cars with rumble seats — or "dickey" seats as they're known over there — right up until the postwar era. The automaker in question is Triumph. Today, Triumph is best known for churning out quintessential little sports cars such as the famed TR series – the TR4 is actually one of your favorite British cars of the last 70 years. But prior to its success in the 1950s and '60s, Triumph was a little stuck in the past.

While most other automakers had left the rumble seat firmly in the past, Triumph continued to offer both its 1800 and 2000 Roadster models with the unusual seat design until 1949.

Rumble seats initially took inspiration from the jump seats fitted to the very first automobiles. These seats were mainly in place for butlers and the like, who couldn't possibly travel in the same space as the landed gentry who afforded the automobile in the first place. Cars became more affordable as the years rolled by, but that extra seat was still useful in coupes and roadsters.

While sedans may now be going extinct, buying one back then was certainly a viable option. But then you lost the sleek lines of a sporting tourer; with a rumble seat, it was a win-win situation. Unless you were actually in the rumble seat, of course. Essentially, those occupants just became a crumple zone — you wouldn't want to hit a bump if you had your friends in the back.

Some were more comfortable than others, with side curtains, roll-out cover tops, and even pop-up windscreens — as in the case of the Triumph Roadsters — but the rumble seat was always far from being an ideal way to travel. As such, the style was largely phased out during the 1930s, but Triumph — keen to stick with its more traditional approach — decided the "dickey" was worth persevering with.

By the time the Triumph 1800 and 2000 Roadsters were due for their demise, the rumble seat experience had at least peaked in terms of comfort, even if safety was still overlooked. Rear passengers in the Triumph had individual seats, plush carpeting beneath their feet, and a pop-up, wood-framed windshield — basically everything apart from a seatbelt, if we're honest. While some new cars don't include a spare tire anymore, back then a spare wheel was conveniently located just behind the rumble seats. 

Triumph put the stylish Roadsters to rest in 1949, and began focusing on the wonderfully popular TR range, with the TR2 representing a huge leap forward in terms of style and modernity. Despite the rumble seat having clearly enjoyed its day in the sun, right up until dusk it would seem, another automaker did toy with reintroducing it.

Almost another 20 years had passed, when the patently odd AMC teased a concept dubbed the Vignale AMX, which boasted a 'Rambleseat' with a pop-up windscreen. AMC churned out plenty of quirky and underrated cars, but would-be rear passengers are probably thanking their lucky stars that this concept never made it through to production. Its rumble seat was sleeker than earlier efforts, although safety still wasn't factored in. The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act went through shortly after and the fun-police in power took offense to the death-wish design, so any dreams of ramble-reunions were quickly dashed.