With the Standard Motor Company acquiring all rights to the Triumph name in November 1944, five years after the Triumph Motor Company had gone into receivership, the company’s post-war emphasis was on new-model launches. Company boss, Sir John Black, longed to see a new sports car, a desire that saw him trying to purchase the Morgan Car Company; but when that ended in failure, renewed efforts were made to develop a Triumph sportster in-house, the end result being the 20TS prototype unveiled at the 1952 Earl’s Court Motor Show.
The one-off show car was based around a modified Standard Flying Nine chassis, employing the engine and gearbox of the Vanguard and the rear axle and front suspension of the Mayflower. But when Black asked development engineer and test driver, Ken Richardson, to try the newcomer, his feedback was disastrous. Richardson was damning in his criticism of the 20TS, leading Black to offer him a job at Standard-Triumph to work on the project.
Major changes were made, including a redesigned chassis frame, bigger brakes, development of the powerplant and modified styling. The end result was the Triumph TR2, which made its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show of March 1953. Production wouldn’t get under way until July of that year, by which time a TR2 with streamlining modifications but a standard engine had achieved high-speed runs of almost 125mph at Jabbeke in Belgium. Even in standard production guise the TR2 was hailed as a genuine 100mph car, and soon the newcomer was generating headlines worldwide.
The build-up of TR2 production was slow, with only around 300 cars built by the end of 1953, though this would increase dramatically the following year. Triumph didn’t rest on its laurels, embarking upon a series of TR2 updates; a factory hardtop was launched in 1954, while the TR2’s doors were redesigned (and made shorter) the same year. Then by 1955, after a
