Triumph TR2 History

After Triumph boss Sir John Black failed to buy Morgan, he had a cheap two-seater built on a shortened Standard Eight chassis using the Vanguard's 2-litre wet-liner four; the resulting 20TS prototype was shown in 1952 and developed into the TR2 for 1953. It launched the long-running TR (Triumph Roadster) sports-car line.

Tuned to about 90 bhp, the TR2 reached roughly 107 mph — making it the cheapest production car of its time capable of exceeding 100 mph — and a streamlined example hit 124 mph at Jabbeke, Belgium in 1953. Around 8,600 were built before the refined TR3 took over.