Triumph TR Series

Magazine Subscription

Subscribe to Classic Motoring Magazine and save over 20%

Subscribe NOW

Available at all good newsagents including WHSmith

Fancy owning a motorsport legend? Paul Davies looks at true classics that made their names on rally stages and race tracks, and still provide fine drives today

When the Morgan family rejected Sir John Black’s offer that his Standard Triumph company should build their Plus 4 sports car, the resulting Triumph two-seater became not just a best seller on both sides of the Atlantic but also a race and rally winner. More than a little miffed that Morgan – who already used a version of the Standard Vanguard engine in their ‘retro’ sports car - spurned his advances, Sir John decreed his company would make their own roadster. The result was the Triumph TR2. Built on a version of the pre-war Standard Flying Nine chassis, with independent front suspension and rigid rear axle from the razoredge Mayflower saloon, the first of the family of TR sports cars offered 100mph performance from its two-litre, four pot, motor. Private entrants soon recognised the potential, and Manchester motor trader Johnny Wallwork gave the car its first success: outright victory on the 1954 RAC Rally no less. With need for more publicity, it wasn’t long before development driver Ken Richardson – who famously reported the car as “a death trap” when asked to assess the prototype – was given the job of setting up a motorsport department. His first big event was the 1954 Mille Miglia where – sharing the driving with Maurice Gatsonides – he finished 27th overall. The tough TRs made their name on the big rallies of the fifties, like the Alpine and the Liege- Rome-Liege. Gatsonides (better known to us for his Gatso speed camera!) was one of the team’s top men, winning a coveted Coupe des Alpes in ’54. In ‘56 the team – by now joined by Tommy Wisdom and a young Paddy Hopkirk - surpassed themselves with five Coupes. By 1958 they were on a roll, with Hopkirk winning most of the British international rallies, including the Circuit of Ireland, and Gatso coming sixth on the Monte Carlo. It wasn’t unknown in those days for TR2s and TR3s to fill the top ten entry on British club rallies. Racing was also part of the heritage. Edgar Wadsworth and Bob Dickson ran a factory prepped TR2 at the 1954 Le Mans 24 Hours, finishing 15th, and the car became a favourite for club racers throughout Europe and – most importantly for sales – in the USA. But major success at Le Mans with, largely, production cars eluded Triumph. Richardson’s team developed a 160bhp, twin overhead camshaft, engine (nicknamed Sabrina after a well-endowed film star of the day, because of the bulging cam covers on the front of the head – think about it) for the lightweight TRS special of 1959. The cars were initially not successful, but re-bodied versions took the team prize in ‘61. Motor sport successes continued, through the disc braked TR3A (1957) to the re-bodied TR4 of 1961 and the independent rear TR4A of ’64. When Leyland Motors took over Standard Triumph in 1961 Ken Richardson’s competition department was closed, only to be re-born almost immediately under the management of Graham Robson. John Sprinzel, Roy Fidler and the versatile Vic Elford rallied the TR4, whilst in the USA Bob Tullius was unbeatable in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) racing. Although the four-cylinder TR was to continue until 1967, the car’s competition life ended some years earlier when the light and nimble Spitfire and the super-strong 2000 saloon came on the scene. But things have gone full circle. The car is now a regular in historic club racing, and only a couple of years ago a winner in the Historic Rally Car Register’s road rally championship.