Triumph TR E-Book

Kevin Warrington

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Beginning with the arrival of the company founder from Germany, this book tells the story of the early years, the rescue of the brand name by the Standard Motor Company following the Second World War and the inspired idea to use the Triumph name on a new sports car - the TR. The Triumph TR cars were built on a minimal budget yet would go on to achieve significant success in motor sport and encompass a range of cars that would remain in one form or another for nearly thirty years. Triumph TR - From Beginning to End gives a complete description of all models, competition success, a study of the derivative models, owners' accounts and living with a TR today.This new book will be of great interest to motoring enthusiasts, historians and particularly fans of Triumph sports cars. Fully illustrated with 220 new colour photographs and 25 archive black & white photographs.

Leseprobe

TRIUMPH TR

From Beginning to End

Kevin Warrington

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Kevin Warrington 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 188 8

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

CHAPTER 1IN THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER 2THE BIRTH OF THE TR

CHAPTER 3THE SIDE SCREEN ERA

CHAPTER 4TR SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS

CHAPTER 5THE MICHELOTTI CARS

CHAPTER 6TRIUMPH IN THE ALPS – TR4s IN COMPETITION

CHAPTER 7KAMM TAILS AND KARMANN – THE TR6

CHAPTER 8HARRIS MANN’S WEDGE – THE TR7 AND TR8

CHAPTER 9TR RETURNS TO RALLYING

CHAPTER 10VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Index

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The images acknowledged with the BMIHT credit are from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust. These are © BMIHT. All publicity material and photographs originally produced for/by the British Leyland Motor Corporation, British Leyland Ltd and Rover Group, including all its subsidiary companies, are the copyright of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust and reproduced here with their permission. Permission to use images does not imply the assignment of copyright, and anyone wishing to re-use this material should contact BMIHT for permission to do so.

There are so many people to thank for their support and assistance in writing this book and creating the photographs. The following books are amongst those consulted to confirm much of the detail and are recommended as further reading on the subject:

Triumph Cars – The Complete Story, Robson, Graham and Langworth, Richard (MRP Publishing Ltd, 1988)

Triumph TRs – The Complete Story, Robson, Graham (Crowood, 1991)

Triumph TR, Piggott, Bill (Haynes Publishing, 2003)

Triumph TR7: The Untold Story, Knowles, David (Crowood,2007)

The Works Triumphs, Robson, Graham (Foulis & Co., 1993)Works Triumphs in Detail, Robson, Graham (Herridge & Sons,2014)

Members of the local Triumph clubs in Hampshire, Berkshire and Dorset were unfailing in their help and support, especially in helping me to locate cars to photograph, particularly thanks to the TR Register and TR Drivers’ Club. Having found the cars, I must acknowledge my thanks to all the owners who indulged my desire to photograph their vehicles. In particular, I would like to highlight Michael Eatough and Steve Harridge (TR2), Ben Wood and David Erskine (TR3), Phil Webb (TR3A), Nigel Jordan, Phil Bishop and Hillary Bagshaw (TR4/4A). Hillary was able to supply the same car and identify the original location to replicate the photographs used in the earlier ‘Complete Story’ book. Michael Field allowed me to photograph his TR5,Tony Alderton provided a couple of pictures of his TR250, the TR6 pictures are mostly of a car formerly owned by me and a second car owned by Phil Bishop, and the TR7s were provided by Phil Lines and David Reeve. The Peerless was provided by Peter Hudspath, who fortuitously arrived at an event that I was attending in a different capacity; the delightful Italia is owned by Paul Harvey and the Grinnall by Phil Horsley. Ian Cornish and Neil Revington both allowed me access to photograph their former works cars, 4 VC and 6 VC. Other pictures are from my collection; where the photograph was not taken specifically for use in this book, the vehicle registration details have been deliberately removed.

An enjoyable day was spent with Brian Culcheth who shared some of his photograph collection and reminiscences of his time as a works driver.

The background research material for the Doretti and Peerless sections was sourced from the model registers, and Adrian C. Sinnott and Paul Harvey provided extensive information for the Italia. Thank you all for your help – it really was much appreciated.

INTRODUCTION

So much has been written before on the subject of Triumph’s aspirational sports cars that writing a new history brings with it various challenges, not least of which is that almost everything of historical note has been amply covered in works by authors with far greater insight than I could ever hope to possess. It is inevitable that, in writing this new book, I have drawn extensively on material that has been previously published as so much of it is established historical fact.

It is important to understand the origins of the business, so I have started the story with its foundations. Like so many businesses in the Coventry area, it began as a cycle manufacturer that went on to build motor cars; before that, it had been a manufacturer and reseller of sewing machines.

For much of its life, the Standard-Triumph company dealt with numerous difficult financial issues, the more significant of which are addressed in this book. Not least of these were the social, economic and industrial challenges that were created once Standard-Triumph found itself a part of the British Leyland empire.

Perhaps because of the need to generate cash flow, the company was willing to sell its technology to others who developed motor cars in what today might be described as ‘niche’ markets, based to a greater or lesser extent on Triumph TR underpinnings. Some of these cars, particularly the Michelotti-designed Italia, built by Vignale on a TR3 base, are highly sought after and financially appreciating classics, while others are less well known but just as interesting. In addition, major components, from suspension systems to engines and transmissions, have made an appearance in sports cars built by manufacturers that can only be considered as rivals to Triumph.

‘Triumph by name,Triumph by nature’ describes the success of the TR on both the circuit and in rallying. This book will also document some of the key milestones in Triumph’s sporting success.

CHAPTER ONE

IN THE BEGINNING

The Triumph TR can be said to have been born in the austerity years following the Second World War, a product of the Standard-Triumph Company. Its essential DNA had been formed in the products of the former Triumph Company, a firm with its roots in Coventry and, like so many enterprises to have evolved from that Midlands city, having strong connections with sewing machines and bicycles. The Triumph Company quickly established a well-deserved reputation for quality motor vehicles with a sporting character to their design. Insolvency in 1939 and a short-term rescue resulted in the acquisition of the remnants of the business by the Standard Motor Company in 1945. An inspired decision of Standard was the use of the Triumph brand, initially for the sports cars and, eventually, for the entire output of the company.

If the closing years of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first have been dominated by information technology and communication, the closing years of the nineteenth century and most of the twentieth were marked by a desire for personal transportation. The growth of the bicycle industry led to the formation of many businesses that were to become household names with more developed forms of transport, and much of this industry settled on the city of Coventry in the West Midlands of England. Coventry itself is an ancient settlement with origins predating the larger local cities of Birmingham and Leicester, becoming a manufacturing centre for precision engineering as early as the eighteenth century with the development of clock-making. A local skilled workforce was therefore ready for the development and manufacture of the safety bicycle, starting in 1885 with the ‘Rover Safety Bicycle’ and leading inexorably to the addition of an internal combustion engine to form the motorcycle. While the motor car as we know it has its origins in the design of Karl Benz’s of 1885, it was the city of Coventry that was to become a significant design and manufacturing centre for the industry until quite recent times.