TALES FROM THE SHOP FLOOR
Former ace rally navigator and Triumph competition boss Graham Robson on the highs and lows of life in the Canley crew
For 28 tumultuous years Triumph boasted a works competitions department not only entering cars in rallies, but in long-distance races, too. In that time Triumph worked for three different parent companies, had seven different competition managers, prepared vehicles in five different locations and campaigned cars as different as the original TR2 from the 300bhp TR7 V8, and the Standard Eight from the Triumph 2.5 PI.
There were technical high points and technical low points: the TR7 V8 was so nearly a world-beating sports coupé but the Vitesse was an embarrassing failure; the ‘Sabrina’ twin-cam engine was promising, but the TR’S lack of wheel travel was always a problem. Yet there were victories where none had been expected – innumerable class wins with sidescreen TRS, and the Spitfire’s humiliation of the Alpine-renaults in the Tour de France – and ‘might-have-been’ projects such as a Sabrina-engined TR4S homologation special in the 1960s, or a truly lightweight Escort-beating Sprint-engined Toledo in the1970s. In the end, though, it was intra-company politics that killed off the final programme – and after 1980 it was never revived.
For nine years, and with Ken Richardson at the helm, TR2S, TR3S and TR3AS (from which the special Le Mans-competing twin-cam TRSS were evolved) were used, initially with great success, but latterly they were overwhelmed by other marques. No one could understand why the TRS were never made faster, lighter or more nimble in all that time, even though the FIA’S international regulations would have allowed it to be done. Except for their use of experimental disc brakes, even the 1955 Le Mans cars were mechanically standard, with no attempt being made to tune or lighten them.
Only two real improvements – the use of front disc brakes on the 1957 team cars, and the arrival of the 2.2-litre ‘wet-liner’ engine option from ’58
– were ever introduced, and quite a few private owners such as David Seigle-morris showed that they could beat the works team in a straight fight. Even so, until big rivals such as AustinHealey became formidably fast and heavy, Triumph was very successful in long-distance rallying, with an outright win in the 1954 RAC Rally, repeated successes in the Alpine Rally, and brave showings in the increasingly rugged Liège–rome–liège marathons to show for it.
Occasionally, just occasionally, Richardson was persuaded to enter different models to suit promising regulations. Highly tuned Standard Eights and Tens worked well: Jimmy Ray won the 1955 RAC Rally, Maurice Gatsonides was second in the Tulip a year later, while Ron Goldbourn took second place in a Pennant in the 1958 RAC. Even so, a fleet of Standard Vanguard IIIS flopped in the Rallye Montecarlo and the new Heralds could never make their mark – albeit Geoff Mabbs used his own machine to win the 1961 Tulip Rally.
Following the great success of the glassfibrebodied 160bhp TRSS winning the team prize at Le Mans in 1961, there was pressure from non-sporting areas within the company for the old-type TRS to be dumped. The new owner, Leyland Motors, abruptly closed the effort down, released Richardson and waited until 1962 before technical director Harry Webster could open up a new, slimmed-down effort.
The revived department, which I managed for Webster, then tried to make up time. Four new TR4S, including 3 VC, were adapted only by reading the regulations to identify what could be homologated without spending a fortune on fresh tooling. Within two years the TR4S had gained an additional 35-40bhp, lost at least 100lb (45kg) in weight and were once again close to the Austin-healey 3000s. But, unhappily, not quite up to parity.
The cars were reliable, though, even when equipped with a Weber-carburetted 2.2-litre engine, and Mike Sutcliffe took fourth place on the 1962 Alpine Rally. There were team prizes to celebrate in the UK, Europe and, finally, in Canada, where 3 VC and two of its works stablemates came to the end of their careers.
At the same time the team set out, reluctantly, to see if it could turn the Vitesse into a rally car, but, because it was a 1.6 -litre machine, there was always going to be head-to-head competition with whatever Ford could make of the new Lotus Cortinas. Vitesse entries in the Rallye MonteCarlo were disappointing, and even Vic Elford’s attempt to produce a good finish in the Spa-sofia-liège marathon was frustrated by an engine fire that destroyed the car.
The following two seasons featured a renewed assault on world-class motorsport as the works team revitalised two separate models at the same time, aided by a considerably enhanced budget. The original Spitfire was turned into a firebreathing little 1.1-litre racer, with a team of steel-bodied rally cars being joined by light aluminium-bodied Le Mans track cars – all of which had Gt6-style coupé roof panels. The Triumph 2000, meanwhile, was given a 150bhp engine and many other performance features to turn it into a massive off-road rallying tank.
The 1964 and 1965 seasons were therefore frenetic and successful. On the Tour de France in 1964, the rally Spitfires borrowed the front ends of the long-nosed Le Mans cars and tackled the gruelling 10-day road rally, where they not only matched but annihilated the French Alpinerenault team. The Triumph of Rob Slotemaker and Terry Hunter won its capacity class and made the French Triumph importer very happy indeed. A week later one of those surviving cars competed with honour, and again won its class, in the Paris 1000km sports-car race at Montlhéry, while in October another Spitfire took second overall in the Rallye International de Genève.
It was a similar story in 1965 for the Spitfires, for the race cars not only travelled all the way to the USA to finish second and third in class in the 12 Hours of Endurance at Sebring, but, suitably refreshed and with more than 110bhp from the 1.1-litre engine, returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And won its class there, too.
The factory was so pleased that it set about developing a new race car provisionally called ‘GT6R’, but the change in regulations for 1966
‘Henderson kept things going on a shoestring, personally engineering a four-wheel-drive 1300 that won in rallycross’
meant that the project was cancelled before the first prototype had been completed.
That was not all. The blue cars were then fitted with the newly launched 1.3-litre version of the engine and later in the summer entered in the prototype category of the 1965 Coupe des Alpes. Starting in the same group as the Porsche 904s – with works cars featuring Pauli Toivonen, no less – they outlasted the formidable 2-litre German cars that all retired in the heat of a French summer and won the category outright with Simo Lampinen at the wheel.
Then came the upheaval of 1966, when new FIA regulations outlawed homologation freedoms such as alternative cylinder heads, lightweight bodies and more, rendering the team more or less redundant. In the next two years it was only Roy Fidler, in several of the department’s old 2000s, who won a number of events in the British Rally Championship. He became champion in 1966, keeping the flag flying, while a bold attempt to pair a prototype 2.5 PI saloon with recently crowned F1 World Champion Denis Hulme in the 1967 RAC Rally was stymied when the event was cancelled on the night before the start due to foot-and-mouth.
In the meantime, Ray Henderson had taken over the competitions department in 1965 and kept things going on a shoestring. He personally engineered a four-wheel-drive Triumph 1300 for rallycross, which Brian Culcheth used to win races until a suspension breakage pitched his car into a roll and to destruction.
In 1969, though, there was a further upheaval: the new boss, British Leyland, insisted that the whole corporation should have only one ‘comps’ department, that it should be based at the MG factory at Abingdon, and that manager Peter Browning should scour the entire BL range for promising motorsport candidates. Choosing to develop Triumph 2.5 PIS from the basic 2000 layout, which had been used earlier in the decade, Browning threw everything at the 1970 World Cup Rally that ventured from Wembley Stadium in London to Mexico City, where the tournament was being held. Culcheth took second overall: only the combination of Hannu Mikkola and a works Ford Escort 1850 GT could beat him. Paddy Hopkirk in fourth in the second PI came in behind Mikkola’s teammate Rauno Aaltonen. At which point the ungrateful Lord Stokes criticised the department for not winning and speedily closed it down again, with Browning resigning in disgust.
Four years later there was yet another change of heart, the motorsport effort at Abingdon was revived and Triumph was a prominent member of its activities for the following six years. First it was the 16-valve Dolomite Sprint that took the attention, an FIA Group 1 car that proved to be ultra-successful in saloon car racing with Broadspeed, and in rallying for Culcheth. But once John Davenport was hired as director of motorsport, it was always the TR7 and its evolutions that took priority.
The wedge’s record is well-known. In the first two seasons, the original four-cylinder coupé struggled for pace and reliability, but from 1978 a Rover-v8-engined version of the car, homologated as the TR7 V8 because the TR8 road car had not yet been announced, took over and Tony Pond in particular soon mastered its 300bhp capability. Despite serious engine problems from time to time, in loose-surface events the TR7 V8s came close to matching the all-conquering Ford Escort RS 1800s and the best of the European opposition, while on Tarmac the car was often devastatingly fast. Pond twice recorded outright victories on the Ypres 24 Hours Rally in Belgium and the Manx Trophy International, while teammates such as Per Eklund regularly ran him close.
For 1981, proposed changes to the car’s handling, adding fuel injection to the engine and improving its reliability were all on the horizon, but the latest BL hierarchy had other ideas. With their eyes lusting after the racing potential of the big Rover SD1S, and with thoughts of a new Group B car in the form of the MG Metro 6R4 already taking shape, the TR7 V8 programme was ruthlessly cancelled.
And with it, Triumph’s involvement in the sport was ended – permanently.