THE TRIUMPH’S A TRIUMPH
THE 2000 AND 2500
A NEW CLASS OF CAR THAT CREATED A NEW CLASS OF BUYER
Britain’s The Guardian newspaper chose 1963 as the year that defined the ‘modern era’ — an era when politics and culture collided. In the UK, in 1963, while all The Beatles wanted to do was hold your hand, Ronnie Biggs and friends robbed a train. In the US, things were on a different scale: Martin Luther King had a dream, and JFK was assassinated.
As we look back from the beginning of 2019, all this was quite a long time ago. The train robbery, especially, was comically oldfashioned. The first police radio call about it stated, “A robbery has been committed and you’ll never believe it — they’ve stolen the train.” As things turned out, they’d stolen a little more than just the train.
This really is the stuff of another era. At the time, London hoodlums’ preferred method of transport was a Mk2 Jaguar — good-looking, good handling, and fast for the time. The Kray brothers were stealing their Jags, but, without their means, most new-car owners were buying Austin A60s, Wolseleys, Humbers, and similar — cars that looked like shoe boxes with tail fins.
Triumph and competitor Rover had a cunning plan. They had identified a growing class of car buyers: people who wanted something that looked and went better than the run-of-the-mill fare. These newly identified buyers, semi-suburban Mister Jameses, wanted smart looks, more performance, and better handling. They also wanted a car that was modern, maybe even a little exotic, and cheaper than the Jaguar. Triumph hatched a plan to tap into that market segment.
By 1963, Standard-triumph had been manufacturing cars for a long time, but among the things that it didn’t have was a reputation for providing suitable cars to this soon-to-be rapidly growing group of buyers.
Back to the beginning
The company was established in the Midlands in 1889 by a couple of German immigrant entrepreneurs. Keen to attach their business to the ‘new wave’ of transport, they had launched as bicycle manufacturers. Before too long, they were making bicycles with motors, and the name ‘Triumph’ entered the motoring lexicon.
In its first three decades, Triumph progressed from bicycles to motorcycles to cars. The next decade was difficult for the company, and, in 1936, Triumph Motorcycles was separated and sold off to provide some cash. By 1939, the still-struggling Triumph Motor Company was in receivership. World War II halted car production, although war production kept the factory open and operating.
In 1944, the assets of the Triumph Motor Company were acquired by the Standard Motor Company and became Standard-triumph International. Previously, Standard had been mainly supplying motors to Jaguar, but, after a disagreement with Jaguar head William Lyons, Sir John Black of Standard set out to build a car that rivalled Jaguar. Triumph would fit right into his plans to build such a car.
Vanguards and Standards
While some of the early attempts clearly missed that target — by a long way — they are still worth noting as a part of our motoring history. The Standard Vanguard was launched in 1948 and, in its various guises, was common here during the years it was in production. At the beginning, this car, which looked a bit like a washed and shrunk US car of the time, was powered by a fairly agricultural four-cylinder motor that really did come from the Ferguson tractor — at the time, Standard was manufacturing the motor for the tractor, and engineered a version of it for its own cars.
A Triumph
Along the way, the Standard Vanguard, commonly known just as the ‘Vanguard’ here, had some interesting stablemates. The TR series of sports cars, probably the only production sports car ever to have a tractor motor, and the Triumph Herald both did well enough to warrant inclusion in some kind of hall of fame. The TR2 was even a record holder, setting the speed record of 125mph (201kph) for a two-litre production car in 1953. In the 1950s, the TRS were very popular sports cars in the US, with many Hollywood acolytes driving TR2S and TR3S.
The success of the Triumph sports cars prompted Standard-triumph to phase out the use of the Standard brand and concentrate on the word ‘Triumph’. By 1963, ‘Standard’ no longer implied the standard but rather the idea that it was the bread-and-butter model. Customers were reported to be asking their dealers to show them the deluxe model instead of the Standard.
The British motor industry was suffering the early symptoms of industrial disease, and Standard-triumph, once again strapped for cash, accepted an offer from Leyland for £18M.
“We would have accepted half that,”