Although Triumph was originally an independent car-maker, it was taken over by Standard in 1944. Several early post-war attempts to sell ‘Standard-Triumphs’ all failed, but after Standard also failed to take over Morgan, Sir John Black told his engineers to develop a rival sports car.
Work on the 20TS project began in 1952, the prototype being shown at Earls Court in October of that year. A very tight budget obliged the engineers to base the original design around a modified 1930s-style Standard Flying Nine frame, which was clearly not stiff enough. That first car was neither fast enough, nor attractive enough, and lacked proper road behaviour.
A rapid and complete re-design produced the definitive TR2 of 1953, which had a new and more rigid chassis frame, coil spring independent front suspension, a 90 bhp development of the Standard Vanguard engine, modified and more chunky rear-end styling, and a top speed of more than 100 mph. The first production cars were delivered in the autumn of 1953 at the bargain price of £787, and were immediately seen as serious competition for MG, whose old-fashioned TF’s top speed was 20 mph slower.
Although the TR2 was fast and remarkably cheap, its handling was still somewhat suspect, and it was fortunate that an outright win in the 1954 RAC Rally of March 1954 brought an instant competition record to the notice of motoring enthusiasts. Sales rose gradually (especially in North America) as the car improved, and as the available extras (including a removable hard-top, wire-spoke wheels, and overdrive) proliferated. The remarkable fact which also began to emerge from countless magazine road tests was that a TR2 could not only be a race and a rally winner, it could also be extremely economical: 32-35 mpg was normal for the early cars. |
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In the autumn of 1955, only two years after the first TR2 had been delivered, it was replaced by the TR3, which had minor styling changes, and 95 bhp. In the next year the engine power crept up again – to 100 bhp – and from late 1956 the TR3 became the world’s first quantity-production sports car to have front-wheel disc brakes as standard.
More improvements followed. From the autumn of 1957 (for launch in January 1958) the car was built with revised front-end styling and other equipment improvements. Soon affectionately known as the TR3A, this was a title never officially adopted by the Triumph concern. It was the TR3A which really found great popularity in North America, where most sales were made, and which established the marque’s fine reputation in that continent in advance of the introduction of Spitfires and newer TRs in the 1960s.
A 2,138 cc engine became optional in 1959, after it had been used successfully in the 1958 Alpine Rally by the factory team, though few cars with this engine appear to have been sold. TR3A production continued until 1961, when the model was replaced by the TR4, which had a completely new body shell. A final series of cars was built in 1962 to satisfy Triumph’s North American dealers. Unofficially known as TR3Bs, and only for sale in the USA, most had 2,138 cc engines, and all used the TR4-type synchromesh gearbox.
There were 8,628 TR2s, 13,377 TR3s and 58,236 TR3As, along with 3,331 TR3Bs. The vast majority of these cars were exported, most of them to the USA.
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