Triumph TR..

There is only one thing better than a Triumph TR, and that is …………….. TWO Triumph TR’s, except for the TR7 which was ugly, not built in Coventry, and a car which should have been called anything but a TR.

Right from the Start, the TR’s were built to be winners, and they won many races in their own class, and occasionally gave much bigger stuff a real ‘drubbing’.

This is a TR2, nice sculpted intake, frog eyes, compact, fast, good handling.. a winner..

 

This is a TR3, the one with the super-sized ‘grin’, still with frog eyes, but a larger engine, compact, fast, good handling.. another winner..

This is the TR4, styling by Michelotti, slightly froggy eyes, the last of the four pot TR’s (a Standard Vanguard 2.0L), compact, fast, good handling especially with IFS.. yet another winner..

The TR5 was essentially a TR4A with 2.5L straight six motor, and it was the fastest production TR ever with a claimed top speed of 125mph.

The Triumph TR6 was a TR5 between the front and back wheels, but received a Karmann front and back end., was compact, fast, good handling and was yet another winner..

It was also the best seller of what I like to think of as REAL Triumphs, which had to be made and driven out of the gates of the Standard-Triumph, Canley Triumph, whatever you like to call the plant in COVENTRY..

This is the Triumph TR7 (PU as in pig ugly) and horrifyingly the best seller of all which just shows how low good taste had fallen. It was not a REAL Triumph TR because it was made up in Speke (Liverpool), no disrespect to the guys there.

 

Oh, and by the way, you could have any colour you liked and it didn’t have to be red. I have just shown you each car as equally as I could.

It was difficult to get these cars in the UK because almost all production went west to the USA. In fact, it was difficult to get any soft-top sports car in the UK for the same reason, and when you consider that we invented the soft-top, noisy, upholstered roller skate, and had no issues with soft-tops and bad weather, it was all rather annoying.

For the TR7, Triumph could have sent these to Mars for all I cared. They were ugly, unreliable and should never have been given a TR number. PU 7 is a much better name, and I don’t give a hoot that it gave birth to a V8 powered TR8.

Repeat after me.. The TR7 is NOT a real Triumph.. got it?

All of the others were great cars, and the Americans loved them, especially for racing. Well, lucky them. We would have raced them too, ya know, and those of us who could get a sporting Triumph, we invariably got pole position at any traffic light grand prix..