Despite the ongoing inclement weather – it is still, January, after all – I thought we should continue to look at the bright side of life (thank you, Monty Python) and stick with our current convertible theme for our Prime Finds during January. After all, it’s important to have something to look forward to, and there will be sunny days ahead when it will be possible to drive around in a rorty little two-seater with the roof down – I’m almost tempted to buy one for myself…
In the last two weeks we’ve had a thoroughbred Italian stallion in the Pininfarina-designed shape of an Alfa Romeo Spider, and a French cruiser – but sporting Italian tailoring from Frua – in the chic and elegant style of the Renault Caravelle. So this week, we’ve come back to the UK for our traditional sports car, and they don’t come much more British or more traditional than a Triumph TR.
Triumph’s TR series is one of the mainstays of the British classic car scene – I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event where there hasn’t been at least a couple, and at larger shows, a couple of dozen, TR’s. The most common are the TR4 and 6 –there are almost four times as many TR6’s on UK roads today than any other TR, with over 4000 of the 94,500 units sold still licensed for road use. It’s a handsome car – another wearer of an Italian suit, this time by Michelotti – as were its two predecessors.
TR’s through the ages
However, we are going to go back a little further, to the 1950’s, before Triumph began its series of collaborations with the Italian designer, and the TR3.
The first TR was in fact never officially known as that – it was a one-off prototype called the Triumph 20TS, built in 1952. After being shown at the London Motor Show in October of that year, it was further developed into the TR2, which was introduced to the world in March 1953 at the Geneva Motor Show, after which the 20TS was unofficially called the TR1, but as a model for sale, it never existed. However, the TR2 marked the beginning of a line of sports cars that ran until the TR8, which ceased production in 1981. Of those, it was to be the third best seller, with almost 75,000 sold between 1953 and 1962. Today just over 900 TR3’s of all types remain on UK roads with another 167 SORN – a similar survival rate to the TR4 and 4A.
The TR3 was – unsurprisingly – an evolutionary development of the TR2, with updated styling, more power and better brakes. Mechanically, it shared the same straight four-cylinder 1991cc engine from the Standard, but tuned to produce an extra 5bhp to 95bhp – later increased to 100bhp – and a four-speed ‘box, with an electrically-operated overdrive offered as an option. Performance was brisk – in a 1956 road test, Motor magazine managed to take a TR3 to a maximum speed of 105.3mph (169.5km/h), with 0-60mph being achieved in just 10.8 seconds, not bad figures for the time.
Like it’s older sibling, the TR3 was a pretty rugged little car, with few creature comforts. It certainly wasn’t a car for driving in the rain for any length of time, as weather protection was primitive – a snap on/snap off hood with a pair of removeable plexiglass side “curtains” for windows, and that’s it. The TR3 was really designed to be driven on high days and sunny days, with very low-cut doors topped with padding to comfortably enable what I consider to be the definitive way to drive a classic – with one elbow resting on the door.
The styling sits between the pre-war exposed headlights/ running boards look of cars such as the MG TD/TF and the later Italianate elegance of the TR4, 5 and 6. It’s a pretty car, but not delicate. Later updates in 1957 such as the full-width grille did little to alter the general look of the car, and it continued little altered until production ceased in 1962, by which time the TR4 was already on sale.
The final derivative was unofficially known as the TR3B (the ’57 facelift was – equally unofficially –known as the TR3A). Only 530 of these were built, 29 of them to Triumph Italia specification – they had a little extra power from their enlarged 2,134cc engines, which pushed the car up to 110mph.
The Italia is an interesting – and exceptionally lovely – sidebar in TR3 history. Just 330 were built between 1959 and 1962, designed by Michelotti and built by Vignale, and were perhaps the trigger for Triumph to use Michelotti to design the TR4, 5 and 6, as well as several of their 1960’s saloons. In any case, while not a sales success for a variety of reasons, they are today among the most desirable of all TR-based cars – the styling certainly has dated much better, to my eyes, at least, than the 1950’s TR3 on which it’s based; it’s always a delight to see one.
Another thread from the TR2 that the TR3 picked up and continued was in the field of motorsport. The TR2 had enjoyed considerable racing success, originally inspired by customer cars. Besides a streamlined TR2 reaching almost 125mph at the Jabekke Tests in May 1953, customer cars also finished in three of the first five places in the 1954 RAC Rally, including the top two. This led to the company establishing a factor competition department, and TR2’s and then TR3’s were successfully campaigned in major rallies around the world, and even entered Le Mans.
The TR3 picked up where the TR2 left off, with numerous success in rallying, hill-climbs and endurance races such as the Mille Miglia and won no fewer than six coveted Coupes des Alpes.
The TR3’s combination of rugged good looks, strong performance and sporting success all combined to make it a very popular car back in the day, and it remains so among the classic fraternity, and our Prime Find for this week looks to be a sound example of an early TR3.
The car we are featuring was originally scheduled to be up for sale with Anglia Car Auctions at the end of this month, but the auction has now been pushed back to the weekend of February 13/14th, thanks to the current lockdown restrictions. Built in 1956, “our” car has had the same owner since 1964. It’s gearbox was recently rebuilt and it also comes with spare ‘box, a hard top and some additional spare parts. It sports the original, smaller grille but importantly, was the first of the TR range to be equipped with disc brakes on the front wheels, a first on a British production car. 13,377 of these first type of TR3’s were built, with the vast majority going to the USA. Indeed, only 1,286 were sold in the UK, and around 100 are still on our roads.
There are plenty of photographs on the auction listing and I have to say that while I’m not generally a fan of white cars, this TR looks quite splendid in its Old English White coat – renewed some twenty years ago – and strongly contrasting blue upholstery, which also covers the dash and door cards. Unusually for a TR, it sits on steel wheels as opposed to the ubiquitous wires, and I think looks the better for it. Interestingly, our car also sports two occasional rear seats – surely only suitable for a very small person and I’m not sure they serve any genuinely useful purpose – I’d be inclined to remove them.
Although in generally good shape, the photos do show some flaws, particularly around the edge of the boot lid which looks pretty scruffy and needs some attention probably sooner rather than later, but this is not presented nor priced as a concours car – Historics sold a very similar, but recently restored, car for £25,000 in December; this one carries an estimate of between £13,000 to £16,000, which doesn’t seem too bad. It certainly leaves some financial headroom to improve it.
You can see the lot entry here – as usual, and particularly with auction cars, we recommend arranging an inspection before putting in a bid.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk