Hopkirk’s rally Triumph

The car that Paddy Hopkirk, Tony Nash and Neville Johnson drove to fourth in the 1970 World Cup rally has emerged from a shed in West Sussex. It’s a Triumph 2.5 PI saloon loaded with period modifications including some aluminium panels and a 200bhp Group 5 TR6 engine, costing Triumph a total of £6000 on top of the car itself. After the 20,000-mile rally, the car was refreshed and made battle-ready again, to be sold via an advert in Autosport… the £1650 asking price would’ve bought a new Ford Capri 3.0-litre.

It was recently extracted by Tim Cousins, who continues the story, ‘It went to a privateer owner in Scotland, did some events up there and then moved to Cumbria. There’s a sticker in the window from a garage in Egremont. It must have led a hard life because it was last used in 1977, when a gentleman I knew bought it. He put it away with the intention of restoring it – he assembled huge amounts of spares, even a whole donor car – but the restoration never happened and the gentleman has now passed away. I’ve known of the car for 35 years but to actually get at it, I had to drag four or five other cars and a fire engine out of the way first!’

Tim reports that many of the car’s specialised features are present, including the oxygen system for running the Lucas fuel injection at high altitudes, plus the three fuel tanks (though one bag is missing) and the four Bendix pumps to serve them.

‘It looks rough but the shell is probably better than it appears,’ Tim says. ‘It’s certainly saveable.’

Drivetrain missing but several spare engines were found with the car

One of the three long-range bag tanks this car was equipped with

Painted-on registration is famous in Triumph circles

The late owner bought it in 1977 with a view to resurrecting it