700-MILE TR5 FOR SALE
With an estimate of £40,000-£50,000, it’s said to be in tip-top condition
‘I’ve reluctantly decided to sell it and very much want it to go to a good home’ SUKI SINGH
A700-mile Triumph TR5 built from scratch by a top specialist in 1998 is being auctioned by Coys this Saturday (15 July).
The late TD ‘Tony’ Fitchett used all factory parts in his creation, which included the last known available original chassis, officially the rebuild of a 1968 car. The engine has all new innards and ancillaries and all the panels were unused originals.
Tony, who died in April 2014, had kept the car as part of his personal collection. It was sold by his family to retired police inspector and keen car collector, Suki Singh.
The Triumph, which has an estimate of £40,000-50,000, goes under the hammer at Coys’ Blenheim Palace sale.
Coys states that a Triumph specialist had said it would cost up to £75,000 to replicate the work carried out on the car.
Suki says: ‘I knew Tony very well and was very pleased to be able to buy this TR. His family said Tony would have loved me to have it.
‘The car is absolutely authentic and people have said it should be in a museum for use as a source of reference for restorers. The problem is that I like to drive my cars and would feel very guilty doing so with this one. In one way, I could say that if this is a car only to look at it might as well be a painting. I have reluctantly decided to sell the Triumph and very much want it to go to a good home.’
Other stand-out classics in the sale include the 1994 Audi Cabriolet 2.6E once owned by Diana, Princess of Wales (est: £35-40k) and a 1953 Jaguar XK120 roadster that’s been in the same ownership for 60 years and is reported to have covered just 18,000 miles, having spent years in the Totnes Motor Museum (est: £90-110k).