BUYING GUIDE TRIUMPH TR2/TR3/TR3A BUYERS GUIDE TRIUMPH TR2/TR3/TR3A
Triumph’s post-war range had rather inauspicious beginnings. In 1945, when the Standard Motor Company had taken over the bankrupt remains of Triumph, Sir John Black, its uncompromising boss, decided that what the recovering world (and his company!) needed was a sporty car that would tempt Americans to hand over their precious dollars. Export or die was the government’s mantra, applicable to industry in general, and especially the automotive division. There were no more military orders to be had, so the huge unused factories dotted around the Midlands would henceforth be making cars.
MG at Abingdon had been doing exactly that when the War Department handed back control, having launched the somewhat quaint TC within weeks of the end of hostilities. That was possible because the TC was essentially a 1930s car, wooden frame and all. Even then, steel unitary construction, as per the Morris Minor, had been recognised as the future.
Meanwhile, Standard had a couple of designs taking shape, the sporty model being known simply as the Roadster (though nowadays better known as ‘the Bergerac car!’). Like the MG TC, it had a distinctly old fashioned air and relied on obsolete mechanical parts. Unlike the TC, it was more boulevard cruiser than sports car. Initially, power came from the 1800 four previously supplied to SS (Jaguar), but after a year that was supplanted by the all-new wet-liner engine that bore such a close resemblance to the unit seen in Ferguson tractors. They were not the same unit, though the Roadster’s engine was a close relation of the ‘Little Grey Fergie’ power unit.
