Six-cylinders are better than four
Matt sticks to what he knows for the PC Winter challenge
You’ll recall my TR6 project was bought on something of a whim, as detailed in my most recent Staff Car Saga (PC, January 2018). What I neglected to mention in that report was the vehicle of choice for my trip to Redditch to view the TR back in August 2017 – this Carmine Red Triumph 2500. I’d bought the car the previous weekend and, despite having slumbered on a Southend driveway for ten months, it made the return journey up to Cambridgeshire without incident. These Triumphs are made of stern stuff, see. Admittedly it wasn’t running quite right but adjusting the points and fitting a NOS condenser sorted that easily enough. What better vehicle to create the right impression then – turning up to view the TR in its six-cylinder big brother just made sense. So, the ‘new’ saloon (as opposed to my Saffron Yellow long-termer) has been lurking at the PC workshop for some time then, though I’ve kept it under wraps due to it being my car of choice for our annual Winter Warmers challenge (see p66).
Initially I thought the car was a mere TC model due to the fact that it is currently running on twin SU HS6 carburettors… however, having already agreed a deal to buy the car, I then made an extremely interesting discovery.
Revealing the truth
The car is actually a very late ‘facelift’ 2.5PI that was built in mid-1975 but not registered until February 1976. It has a PI engine number and the commission number tallies up with PI build records… plus there is a hump in the nearside rear boot board under which the original mechanical fuel pump would have lived when the car was fitted with Lucas petrol injection.
When and why was the PI gear removed? Who knows, but the car has much historical interest nonetheless, with the commission
‘The chuff-chuff noise up front was traced to a failed exhaust gasket’
number placing it something like 400th from the very end of 2.5PI production before the carburettor-fed 2500S model took over as the flagship ‘Big Six’ model and the 2000/2500 range was ultimately put out to pasture in 1977.
So, to the business of preparing the car for our Winter Warmers voyage to North Yorkshire. Though it ran surprisingly well given its recent history, it wasn’t without its issues. Not big issues, granted, just niggles that spoiled the straight-six driving experience somewhat.
Striving for greatness
With the 2500 up on the ramp for an exploratory procedure and general probing of the underside, the perished rear trailing arm bushes were immediately obvious. An order went in to Superpro and a few days later new polyurethane replacements arrived, along with some new differential bushes and a number of other bushes for the rest of the car. Once fitted, they tightened up the rear noticeably, helped further by the addition of a good secondhand set of higher rated rear springs in place of the baggy originals. The chuff-chuff noise from the engine was traced to a failed exhust gasket, so John Simpson spent a few hours pulling things apart and fitting a new one, plus a fresh downpipe
gasket… cutting his sizeable hands and forearms to shreds in the process. Sorry John, and thanks.
Non-functioning headlamps were down to a previous owner fitting halogen bulbs and neglecting to add relays to spread the load – the end result being a cooked headlamp switch. Dad wired in some relays and a new switch was fitted, restoring normal operation – happy days. While fiddling with the steering column the ignition barrel decided to fall apart inside, so a new one was sourced. The final task was to change the oil – we keep our favoured Heritage 20W-50 in stock in the workshop and Millfield Autoparts supplied an original paper oil filter same day, so that was done in a matter of minutes back on the ramp.
With all of the works complete, a trip up the yard to Barnack Test Centre resulted in a fresh MOT certificate and she was good to go. A trek to Wales with a bunch of Triumph mates was the perfect shakedown ahead of Winter Warmers and all went well… bar suffering a puncture (atop the summit of Lord Hereford’s Knob in the Black Mountains, no less) and a failed heater. The latter issue resulted in us spending a 500-mile driving weekend shivering in a bitterly cold car, which didn’t bode well ahead of a trip to North Yorkshire in December. Still some work to do then…
matt.george@practicalclassics.co.uk