TRIUMPH TR6

‘No shirt, no drink,’ says Will Holman, as he attempts to avoid clichés while enjoying the evergreen Triumph TR6.

You can forget it if you think I’ll be describing the TR6 as a ‘hairy chested sports car.’ I’ve never seen a sports car’s chest, hirsute or waxed, so let’s leave that one locked up in the

Big Box of Motoring Clichés. Besides, the kind of fur-lined flying jacket wearing folk who use such clichés are also prone to describing cars as ‘she.’ I’m all for letting people be whatever they feel like being, but I don’t know any girls who have a hairy chest.

All this aside, the TR6 is without doubt a lairy old beast. Triumph excelled at building affordable sports cars with performance and style that blew the competition into the weeds. From the TR2 onwards, the range was always ahead of the pack, and when the sophisticated TR5 started to look slightly dated, the British firm employed German design house Karmann to update it.

It must be one of the most successful facelifts ever undertaken, as the resulting TR6 went on to sell more than 94,000 cars, easily becoming the best-selling TR variant – up to that point, because while fans of the earlier TRS rarely like to be reminded of it, the TR7 would later become the best-selling variant of them all! That was all in the future when the TR6 broke cover in 1969 though, its arguably plainer and more aggressive lines neatly updating the curvaceous lines of the previous TR4/TR5 that had been drawn by Giovanni Michelotti, even if under the skin the TR6 stuck with the original 1952 TR2’S separate underslung chassis and bolt-on body set-up. But the Americans were still building cars with a separate chassis until a few years ago, so who cares?

For dyed-in-the-wool TR aficionados worldwide the tried and tested formula proved no bad thing anyway, as it retained the same brawny, no nonsense image that they so loved. As had been introduced in the TR5, the TR6 also featured the sonorous 2.5-litre straight-six engine (courtesy of the Triumph 2.5PI saloon), rack-and-pinion steering, independent trailing arm rear suspension and front disc brakes. Oh, and in came a front anti-roll bar for good measure.

European cars got a walloping 150bhp from their Lucas mechanically fuelinjected unit, although that dropped to 124bhp from 1972. The difference is not as huge as it sounds because the measuring systems changed at the same time, and the reduced output was partially down to a revised cam that made for a smoother engine anyway, so don’t get too hung up on the numbers.

However, it is worth noting that over in the States Triumph offered a twin-carburettor setup that produced just 104bhp. The firm deemed American mechanics too ignorant to deal with the fuel injection system and they may or may not have been right. Where they went wrong was in assuming that British ones would be much better with it, and horror stories of the Lucas PI system abound. These days though there are ways and means of getting the mechanical fuel injection singing – and when it’s on song, the TR6’S six pot makes a howl that surely even Toyota Prius drivers would struggle to dislike.

Along with this you get a four-speed plus overdrive gearbox, allowing plenty of B-road stirring with reasonably relaxed cruising ability thrown in. That separate chassis means the overall effect can be a bit agricultural at times, but in a world where cars are now so sanitised that manufacturers have to add binging noises played through speakers to let people know they’re reversing, the TR6 is a breath of fumetinged fresh air.

They’re easy to work on too, and parts availability is excellent. Plus, with a network of specialists vying for your hard-earned beer tokens, prices are keen. In fact the only real downside of TR6 ownership, in the UK at least, is that the summer just isn’t long enough to enjoy them as much as you’d like to. You could always smother the thing in anti-rust wax and buy a hard top for it, though.

The Triumph TR7 that followed did away with the traditional TR formula in favour of monocoque construction, and the controversial Harris Mann wedge styling wasn’t an instant hit (although personally I love a wedge). Not only that, although the TR7’S overhead cam, alloy headed engine was more modern and fuel efficient, the fourcylinder unit lacked the TR6’S visceral straight-six roar – the 7 definitely had a waxed chest. With classic low-slung roadster looks, a characterful period cabin and a driving experience that’s always a muscular pleasure, you can’t go far wrong with a TR6 – whether your chest is hairy or not.