LITMIR.BIZ

       My father in his TR3 on Christmas Day 1958 in Brooklyn, New York. With the optional steel hardtop in place the car was a little more hospitable in winter, although the small heater still struggled to overcome the drafty side curtains. The car was a daily driver for more than seven years.

      You might say that I was born into the British car family fold, and more specifically, Triumph cars. Although I have also owned MGs and Austin-Healeys through the years, my true allegiance belongs to the Coventry-based line of TRs, Spitfires, and GT6s.

      This all began in the summer of 1960 with my first ride in a TR3. Unfortunately, it is not an unforgettable experience that is indelibly etched in my mind because I was on my mother’s lap. The 1956 Triumph was their only car in those days, which was no small feat given the winters in Minnesota. No one recalls if the top was up or down; Dad was loath to put the top up. Just imagine how many of today’s safety laws were violated that day.

      A few years after that first fateful trip, the TR3 was put up on blocks and parked lengthwise at the back of the two-car garage. The two-seater could no longer support the growing family and the engine required a rebuild. The 2-liter was pulled with the best of intentions but sat neglected in the opposite corner of the garage.

      As children, my brother and I sat in the car and pretended to be driving, I in the driver’s seat, of course, with a jack handle poking through the hole in the transmission tunnel to serve as the make-believe shifter. Can you blame us? At the time, the car was so unique compared to anything on the road or in our garage. The cut doors, the cozy cockpit, the dashboard with a host of dials and gauges, and the small physical size.

      Dad noticed my aptitude for cars and he began to share the lore of the sports car invasion in the 1950s. After all, he was right in the thick of it with his car. Despite the talk of MG, Austin-Healey, Jaguar, Porsche, Alfa-Romeo, and others, it was Triumph that still held the greatest allure for me. The first book I bought and read again and again was Graham Robson’s 1973 Story of Triumph Sports Cars.

      Sure, Dad’s stories helped bias me but Triumph had much to boast about in those early days: racing success at Le Mans, rally success at Monte Carlo and around the world, the first manufacturer with a production car capable of 100 mph, and the first to offer disc brakes as standard equipment.

      Dad was my poet laureate of the sports car invasion with his TR3. He could wax nostalgic about those early days and there was something magical to me about all of it. You will not be surprised to learn that my first car was a Triumph. A faded, 1970 Damson Red Spitfire Mark 3 replete with rusted rocker panels and a worn-out lump that burned more oil than gas. But I was not deterred in my quest to live my own version of the glory days. Engine pulled and rebuilt, rockers filled with Bondo, and off I went. Sadly, my limited high school budget prevented me from fully realizing my own version of sports car glory, but that is what inspired this book.

      Looking at the history today, there isn’t a Triumph enthusiast who doesn’t know these things. But despite all those successes, Triumph has become a forgotten marque in the landscape of 1950s and 1960s sports cars. MG has become the ubiquitous British sports car because, let’s face it, they stamped out a lot of cars. This is validated every time someone drives a TR3 and people ask “Is that an MG?” This is almost understandable because the car has no markings and the nose badge was small with only “TR” at the bottom of the shield. Some people even thought the car was an “Undo” because of the script on the wheel knock-offs.

      The shorter-lived Austin-Healeys, particularly the Big Healeys, are fetching large sums at auction these days. And the sexy lines, luxurious appointments, and twin-cam V-12s have pushed Jaguar to legend status. So what happened to Triumph, which once dominated sales over all of them?

      I’ll be honest and tell you that my bias going into this project was for the early cars. The TR2 through TR6, and particularly the TR2, TR3, and TR4. That prejudice changed dramatically in the writing of this book. I have found a new appreciation for the GT6 and the Wedge cars that punctuated Triumph’s production run.

      Triumph built as many family cars as sports car between 1923 and 1982, but this book is dedicated to the sports cars: those handsome, sometimes “hairy-chested,” brutes known as TRs and their cousins, Spitfire and GT6. I give you some of the background and back-office dealings that shaped Triumph’s history, but stories of meetings, mergers, and financial tomfoolery, while integral to the story, are not nearly as exciting as the cars.

      Triumph was a company that knew that its road car sales could be built through racing success. In fact, it was the cornerstone of its marketing platform throughout the run of TRs. Therefore, I examine the factory endurance racing and rallying efforts. Amazingly, throughout its history, Triumph also had a number of near misses that, had things gone right, could have substantially altered the fortunes of the company. Just when a groundbreaking model was on the boards, it was thwarted and the company seemed to race from one financial disaster to the next. Regardless, the cars that it did build were also unique, historic, and groundbreaking. In fact, some of Triumph’s innovations endure today in other designs or marques.

      It is a great history; I hope you enjoy the ride.

      To finish that story I started: the 1956 TR3 was pulled from its resting place at the back of the garage and underwent a multi-year restoration. Today, it is running around Southwest Florida and was recently awarded Gold status by the Vintage Triumph Register.

      CHAPTER 1

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