Top Ten Trivia
Lesser known facts about Triumph’s wonderful Michelotti-styled TRs.
Standard-Triumph made several abortive efforts to break into the sports car market in the early postwar years, but finally cracked that lucrative nut with the TR2 of 1953. Styled by Walter Belgrove, this had sweeping wings and cutaway doors with sidescreens rather than winding windows, as was normal for sports cars in this era. It was a highly advanced looking design compared to opposition from the likes of MG, and it proved to be rugged, reliable and capable of 100mph, no mean feat in the early 1950s.
By the time that Leyland rode to the struggling Standard-Triumph’s rescue in 1961, the cash-strapped Coventry concern already had a successor nearly ready for production. This was the TR4, with a bigger body, full height doors and wind-up windows courtesy of Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti. Much of the mechanical underpinnings were essentially carried over from the TR3, but improvements did include a steering rack instead of the former steering box. The engine was the same wet-liner four- cylinder unit, now offered in a 2138cc capacity as standard.
The TR4A of 1965 brought independent rear suspension to the party, using coil springs and semi-trailing wishbones to offer impressive levels of handling, grip and comfort. This was carried over into the TR5, whose six- cylinder engine had Lucas mechanical fuel injection to give a headline- grabbing 150bhp. This was only a stop- gap model though, and just 2947 were produced in a 13-month run, plus a more impressive 8484 examples of the TR250 which lasted a month longer – essentially the same car, but with carburettors instead of fuel injection for the American market.
The TR5/ TR250 gave way in 1968 to the new TR6, a car that carried over the TR5/ 250’s engine and running gear along with the central body section, but grafted on a new nose and tail by Karmann of Germany. That, however, is outside the scope of this feature.
1
The four- cylinder engine used in the TR4 was carried over from the TR2/ 3. It featured wet liners, a design that Triumph’s Harry Webster once said was inspired by Citroën’s Traction Avant engine. It is clearly
related to the engine that Standard built for the TE20 Ferguson tractors, but they are quite different in detail and you will be disappointed if you think an old TR engine will simply bolt into a tractor, or vice versa. For one thing, in a car the engine is isolated from the body, but in a tractor the engine and transmission form a spine that has to withstand epic twisting and bending forces. So no, the TR was never powered by a tractor engine!
2
Triumph had a habit of re-using prototype names and there were numerous proposals called Zest, but Zest chassis X684 has special relevance to this story. This was built by Michelotti on a TR3 chassis with a widened track, and became the TR4. This chassis later became the trialfit guinea pig for the six- cylinder engine when a 1998cc unit from the Vanguard was dropped in and it was registered for the road as 6206 VC. In 1967 it was restyled by Micho with an aerodynamic nose and pop-up headlights, but still with a beam rear axle that betrayed its 1962 origins. It was eventually sent to Karmann in Germany, who took its tail treatment as their inspiration for that of the new TR6.
3
Even before the TR4 had been unveiled to the public in September 1961, plans were afoot to create a homologation special for competition use. Called the TR4S, this would have had a different chassis (derived from Michelotti’s Conrero project) but a slightly modified TR4 body. It would also have had the Sabrina twin- cam engine and independent rear suspension. The TR4S was canned as soon as Leyland took over and the Sabrina engine faded into obscurity, but the IRS appeared on the new 2000 saloon in 1963, and was used on the TR4A from 1965.
4
Perhaps the hardest working of all the factory cars was a TR4 with the registration 5 VC. It started no fewer than 11 major events for the Works team from the Tulip Rally of May 1962 to the Shell 4000 Rally of April 1964. Mind you, it was a bit like Trigger’s broom in that it had six chassis in that time, including a switch from RHD to LHD and a re-registration in the state of Oregon as CAG 410 – even though the Shell 4000 Rally itself was in Canada!
5
The TR4 Dové was a GT version of the TR4 that was commissioned by Wimbledon Triumph dealer, L.F. Dove and Co and built for them by Thomas Harrington of Hove (who also built the Harrington Alpines). This appeared two years before MG’s BGT, and featured a new GRP rear panel, a 2+2 seatlet and a fibreglass roof permanently attached to the car with an opening rear hatch. To add poshness to the project, Dove added an accent to the e of Dové; it should therefore be pronounced Dovey, but nobody does.
6
The TR5 was the first British production car to get fuel injection and much is made of the power boost it gave, but it was originally intended to help clean up emissions for US cars. In the end, North American cars had to have Stromberg
carburettors before they were clean enough to comply with the regs. And as Graham Robson wrote in Autocar at the time, fuel injection did not increase peak power much. ‘ Lucas injection in itself is probably responsible only for 5-10bhp,’ he wrote, ‘ but its greatest advantages are that the mixture can be controlled to such fine limits, and in such varied conditions, that a camshaft with much more extreme timing could be proposed while retaining docility and a satisfactory idle.’
7
The late Mike Cook, former Advertising and PR Manager for Standard-Triumph in the USA, once related how disappointed the US top brass had been upon seeing the TR250, because virtually nothing had been done to distinguish it visually from the aging TR4/4A. So the sales team brainstormed ideas in the parking lot of the USA HQ in Teaneck, New Jersey. They came up with a rakish set of three stripes that crossed the nose just ahead of the front wheelarch, some fake Rostyle wheel covers and painting each alternate bar on the radiator grille black to blank it out. They also chose yellow-striped hoses under the bonnet which, according to Mike, have been the bane of restorers ever since.
8
The six- cylinder engine in the TR5 was essentially developed from Standard’s SC (Small Car) engine that started out as an 803cc four-pot in the Standard Eight of 1953 and ended up as a 1493cc unit in the Spitfire and MG Midget 1500s. With two extra cylinders added, it ranged from 1596cc in the first Vitesse to 2498cc in the 2500/ 2.5PI saloons, the TR5 and later the TR6. The engine that later appeared in the
Rover SD1 2300/ 2600 was actually a muchmodified OHC version of this six- cylinder engine which lasted until 1986.
9
The 250K was a unique version of the TR250 styled by Pete Brock (who penned the Shelby Daytona Cobra racers) and championed by Kas Kastner, Triumph’s US Competitions Manager. It was built on a shoestring budget in 1967 to run at the 12 Hours of Sebring, but broke a wheel one hour into the race. The car still exists, but Triumph never gave it serious consideration and so it remains a one- off. Donald Healey did walk past it on the Sebring grid though, and according to Kas said: ‘ That’s the most beautiful car I’ve seen this year.’
10
When the TR Register was founded in 1970, production of the TR6 had barely got started and the TR7 was not even a twinkle in Harris Mann’s eye. The original aim was to preserve the sidescreen TR2, TR3 and TR3A cars, and as late as 1975 owners of the Michelotti TRs could only be associate members. In fact, only after the Triumph factory had closed in 1980 (and following much anguished internal debate) was the club opened up to the modern TRs. This year, the TR Register celebrated its 50th birthday.