Tr5 number one goes up for sale
The first Triumph TR5 made will hit the market for the first time in 25 years when it goes under the hammer next month.
Brightwells is selling chassis number CP1, which was hand-assembled at Canley’s project development department in July 1967, in its 11 April Bicester sale with a £5060k estimate.
Auction spokesman, James Dennison, says: ‘It was originally used in period as a UK press road test car and then completely disappeared from view.
‘Its existence is only known to a tiny handful of TR experts and it has never been publicly offered for sale before, nor has it ever been shown in public.’
The car’s current custodian – who previously worked for British Motor Heritage – has owned it since 1993, and spent 12 years restoring it, with BMH’s facilities working on its chassis and bodywork.
The Royal Blue car comes with invoices covering previous work on the car, oldand new-style registration documents and a letter from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust dated July 1989. The letter confirms that the car’s existence was previously unknown to them and that it must have been built, not on the production line but in the experimental department, although its provenance has since been authenticated by TR Register experts.
The TR5 appeared in contemporary newspaper and magazine articles, including Motor’s May 1968 road test, which praised the new model’s improvements over the TR4A and described the ‘magnificent’ fuelinjected straight-six as ‘the answer to the enthusiast’s prayer’.
brightwells.com