The eight best Triumph road cars

With its origins in bicycle sales and manufacturing in the late 1800s, the business, founded by a German gentleman of the name Siegfried Bettmann and joined a couple of years later by compatriot Moritz Schulte, went from strength to strength. The company went from bicycles to motorcycles and then, following the acquisition of the Dawson Car Company in 1921, to automobiles.

Sadly the company went bust in 1984 under the ownership of British Leyland, but not before producing some fantastic cars. Granted, there were some less good models, and the Triumph name wasn’t exactly synonymous with reliability or build quality (thank you, British Leyland), but there are some real standouts.

Triumph 10/20

You have to start at the beginning, don’t you? Because without the Triumph 10/20 none of the other models on this list would have come into existence.

Designed by Lea-Francis (another business based in Coventry, which was paid a royalty for every example sold) the 10/20 entered production in 1923. With a 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine, a riotous 23.5PS (17kW) and a three-speed gearbox it could steam along at up to 52mph, not bad at all in the early 1920s when the alternative was, well, walking. Prices ranged from £305 to £460, and in the UK today it is believed there are just two cars with their original bodywork on the road out of a total of 2,500 cars. The business had dipped its toes into the world of four-wheeled motoring, and the 10/20’s relative success paved the way for the next.

Triumph Super 7

The Triumph Super 7 was the first Triumph sold in large numbers, and went into production in 1927 as a response to the highly successful Austin 7. Stanley Edge, the original draughtsman for the Austin 7 was recruited to the project and when the Triumph came to market it was longer, wider and featured hydraulic brakes, at a time when the Austin had front brakes operated by a handbrake only and rear brakes engaged with a brake pedal. The Triumph had a more sophisticated engine, too, with an 832cc four-cylinder unit. From its launch in 1972 to the end of its production run in 1934 a whopping 17,000 were made, including a more expensive, supercharged 747cc model that could top 80mph.

Sadly, despite a broad range of new models alongside the Super 7 and after it, financial difficulties in 1936 meant the motorcycle and bicycle businesses were sold, and the car company found a new owner, scrappage and steel company T W Ward, in 1939. A man who’d designed some of Triumph’s engines in recent years, named Donald Healey (does that name sound familiar?), was put in charge, but the outbreak of World War Two meant an end to car production. For the time being, at least.

Triumph Roadster

The Roadster was the first post-war car built by Triumph, as well as the first car produced under yet another new owner, this time the Standard Motor Company. Before the outbreak of war Standard had built tractors, engines and chassis for a number of different companies, including another Coventry business, the Swallow Sidecar Company, better known today as Jaguar. Its move to buy Triumph, however, came from the desire of its owner Sir John Black to build a sportscar that could rival anything with a Jaguar badge. The Roadster was announced in 1944 and by 1946 Triumph had its Jaguar competitor.

Because steel was in such short supply at the end of the war the Roadster used a steel chassis but its body panels were made of aluminium, stamped into shape using equipment that had formed the bodywork for Mosquito bombers. Wider at the front than it was at the rear and with bench seating for three, the Roadster was fitted with a 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine and later a more powerful 2.0-litre unit.

It wasn’t exactly a pretty machine, but if its place on this list wasn’t secured by being the first post-war Triumph then it would be for the inclusion of a ‘dickey seat’, a separate perch for two that would emerge out of the boot, while another separate windscreen would fold out in the opposite direction. Modern cars should have dickey seats. They just should.

Triumph TR2

Anyone who knows their Triumphs will know the ‘TR’ nameplate, and it all started with the TR2 in 1953.

With a 91PS (67kW) four-cylinder engine it wasn’t exactly fast, and with drum brakes all-round nor was it the most sophisticated two-seater sportscar on the road, but it was simple and relatively affordable. It also drove significantly better than the prototype known as the 20TS, or TR1, described by BRM F1 driver Ken Richardson as ‘a death trap’. What really made the TR2 a key model for Triumph was its spaciousness. That might sound odd in a dinky sportscar, but its big boot proved crucial when it came to finding customers in the UK and particularly in the USA. More than 8,000 were made, of which nearly a quarter were sold across the Atlantic. Triumph was going global.

Triumph TR6

One of the best looking Triumphs ever made? Quite possibly. An international best-seller? Absolutely.

A glance at the TR6 and you could conclude it was more of the same, another iteration of the TR recipe that had evolved from the TR2 through to the TR3, TR4 and TR5. In fairness it was, but it wasn’t just more successful than any of those machines but it was faster, more powerful and better to drive too. Why? Because the TR6 was a six-cylinder machine, with a 2.5-litre straight-six producing 150PS (110kW). Rear-wheel-drive with power going to the wheels via a four-speed manual, Autocar tests at the time concluded the TR6 would hit 62mph in 8.2 seconds on its way to a top speed of 120mph. Eight point two seconds might not sound too special today, but consider the fact a 1.5-litre MX-5 does the same sprint only 0.9 seconds quicker. That was seriously brisk back in the late 1960s. There were even bucket seats, independent rear suspension and disc brakes.

Built from 1969 to 1976, more than 86,000 were sold, of which only 10 per cent were in the UK. The rest were exported all over the world.

Triumph Spitfire

Small, front-engined two-seaters had proved popular for Triumph for 20 years now, so it would have been foolish for the company’s management to do something entirely different. That is why, in 1962, Triumph unveiled the Spitfire. Well, if you’re going to name a new car, you might as well borrow the name of the most famous plane of all time.

Designed by Giovanni Michelotti and codenamed ‘Bomb’, the Spitfire was based largely on the Triumph Herald saloon. With a tiny body and a soft-top roof it weighed just 711kg. Sold at first with a 1.2-litre four-cylinder it wasn’t exactly quick but it gave car fans everywhere a cheap way into sporty motoring. Over five model variations, starting out with the Spitfire 4 in 1962 and ending with the Spitfire 1500 in 1981, more than 300,000 were sold.

Another success story for Triumph, although it very nearly never happened. Triumph had hit yet more financial trouble in the late 1950s, and in 1960 the business was sold to Leyland Motors Ltd. Although the Spitfire had been canned before then, the new owners found the prototype and, seeing how much work had already been done, thought it would be wasteful not to go ahead with the project.

Triumph Stag

Triumph Stag. It’s a name that just works, doesn’t it? Which is more than can be said for some of the actual cars. But we’ll gloss over that…

The Stag was another Michelotti design, and it’s probably one of the smartest small sportscars of the era. Low, long, with a funky B-pillar roll hoop to meet US safety regulations and, believe it or not, four seats, the Stag was to be a Mercedes SL rival, and to do so it needed power. Enter Triumph’s Director of Engineering Harry Webster, who developed a 2.5-litre V8 that was scaled up to a 3.0-litre by the time it entered production with the Stag. With 147PS (108kW) it wasn’t the most sophisticated of units, and many of them really hated being engines, too, often deciding to give up the ghost within 25,000 miles if not looked after carefully. Which would have been just about bearable if dealers at the time had communicated how one might do that. But still, look at it. And if you ever get a chance, listen to it. An engineering masterclass it might not have been, but that doesn’t always matter. 

Triumph TR8

This list wouldn’t have been complete without a 1970s wedge, would it? Triumph launched the TR7 in 1974 with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine but some customers started asking for a car with a little more go. So Triumph pulled out the four-pot and in its place inserted the 3.5-litre V8 from the Range Rover.

Dubbed by some as the ‘English Corvette’, the 3.5-litre V8 produced between 130PS (96kW) and 150PS (110kW), depending on the emission regulations in place in various markets. That isn’t much at all, barely 30 more horsepower than the four-cylinder car, but what it had going in its favour was that it wasn’t the Triumph-designed engine you’d find in the Stag. Having said that most were sold in the US, and by the time they’d made it to the USA they were very expensive given the performance on offer.

Only 2,500 TR8s were made, and as British Leyland did such a good job of strangling the business with poor decisions, and as small British-built sportscars started to fall out of fashion, Triumph was all but dead by the end of 1981 and completely gone by 1984. The TR8 and TR7 were the last sportscars to carry the Triumph name.