TR5 anniversary
The rarest TR – and for many, the best – turns 50. We tell its story.
It’s time to get that weird stain out of your party trousers, don a cardboard hat with cheese-wire elastic, and stack some cheese-and-pineapple onto a structurally-questionable paper plate: the TR5 has reached its half-century. As the strains of
‘Happy Birthday ’ peter out and Auntie Maureen inadvertently grinds a sausage roll into the shag pile, it’s time to peer at the family album to see if there’s a picture of the TR sitting in the kitchen sink, sporting a shampoo-mohican.
With some panting and one final push, the first TR5 emerged from Triumph’s Canley production line in August 1967. Production lasted only fourteen months, so the ’5 has only 3000 brothers and sisters, meaning it was always going to be rare in Triumph family terms. Some 50 years on, the TR5 is the most expensive and sought after family member and has become so much more than the short bridging model between the TR4A and the top-selling TR6. Rarity goes some way to explaining the TR5’S desirability
today but we need to
get to know the birthday boy better to find out why it should be at the top of every Triumph devotee’s wish list.
Refining the breed
Turning to the front of the album and looking at the TR5’S parentage, you can see that Triumph opted for engineering evolution rather than revolution since creating the first TR2 prototype in 1952; the TR3 introduced front disc brakes; the TR4 fell under the plastic-surgeon’s knife with Michelotti’s distinctive Italian makeover; and the TR4A debuted independent rear suspension, giving it a taut rear end. But if the TR was to be as athletic as other supermodels in the mid-sixties sports car market, especially its main rival, the six-cylinder Austin Healey 3000, a heart transplant was urgently required. The factory’s response was to take the six-cylinder 2-litre engine fitted to the big saloons and tickle it up a bit for the flagship TR model. A long-stroke crankshaft increased capacity to 2.5 litres, there was a free-flowing cylinder head, and long duration camshaft, but as lightning lit up the sky and electricity streaked around the laboratory, the cry was heard: more power, Igor. Cue the maniacal laughing. Yes, Triumph’s masterstroke – some would say downfall – was to fit Lucas petrol injection (PI). This was a notable first; Lucas’s mechanical injection system had clocked up numerous Grand Prix wins in the Sixties and been used in low-volume road-going Lamborghinis and Maseratis, but it had never been fitted to a mass-produced car. A short programme of development saw the MKII Lucas PI launched on the TR5, unfettering 150 gee gees, combined with remarkable tractability. The TR5 answered Triumph’s critics, with a 40 per cent hike in power and over two seconds shaved from the 0-60mph time. The DJ’S put on another record: ‘There may be trouble ahead.’
Ground-breaking innovation can come at a cost, of course: while most of the TR5’S mechanical components were tried and tested, often carried over from other models, the rapidlydeveloped petrol injection soon gained a reputation for proper aggro. This wasn’t helped by the fact that few service staff had been trained in advanced plumbing and Pi-fettling, so the average mechanic who was used to twiddling carburettor screws saw the system as the work of the devil and could but shout angrily at it.
Externally, Michelotti’s major nip-and-tuck operation from 1960 was beginning to look a bit saggy by 1967, the tasteful application of some 5-themed bling not cutting it in the ten-yearsyounger stakes, which is one reason for its short production run.
If the TR5 is the car you always promised yourself, the seats may look a little close to the ground, but you needn’t wait for the hip operation before attempting ingress or egress as Triumph have made the ergonomics pleasingly hernia-free. You get
some Triumph-quality walnut veneer for the dashboard; big dials to measure one’s velocity and how spinny the engine is; a clutch of smaller ones for all the sensible measurements; and stalks for the lights and even the overdrive.
Smoothly does it
Aha, the DJ has put on another track: ‘Don’t Look
Back In Anger. The maniacal laughter in Triumph’s lab may have given way to angry villagers with flaming torches for some, but a well-sorted TR5 with its injected engine offers a splendid blend of silky-six smoothness, willing grunt throughout the rev range, and a 150bhp top end that would have blown your socks off 50 years ago. More than that, the Lucas PI engine defines the car. With more Pi-whisperers today, the reputation for rough running and unreliability is a considerable injustice. After turning the key and hearing the whizz of the high-pressure fuel pump, a good ’5 will start easily hot or cold, but the idle always was a bit lumpy.
It’s a myth that the TR5 is a piece of gym equipment that gives the driver a cardiovascular workout. OK, the steering is heavy when parking but it’s precise and reasonably weighted at anything more than walking pace. The gear lever clicks through the gate with rifle bolt precision and with judicious overdrive deployment on second, third and fourth, there’s a ratio for