Triumph TR6

Story Photos And Videos By Miguel Caparros

British stylist had two possibilities when designing the exterior of a car, absolutely gorgeous, like the Jaguar XKE of 1962, or at the other extreme is the Bristol 403, one ugly mother . It seemed that they rarely hit in between from the 1950's to the 70's.

The Triumph TR2 & 3 of the early  50's were not beauties yet they sold well and had a good following. When Triumph was getting ready to replace the TR3 they decided to go to one of the Italian Houses for a body design (the Italians seem incapable of designing an ugly car).  For 1961 They made some mechanical updates but kept most of the mechanical's from the TR3. Micheloti designed for the TR4, a stunning body that still looks good today.
Included in the design was a state of the art soft top and the first iconic 2 piece removable hard top that looked like a coupe when on, the rear section could stay attached and the section over the seats removed for open air driving. The TR4 went through gradual upgrades over the 7 years to the mechanics. These included an Independent rear suspension, and an upgrade from the 2.2 liter 4 cylinder engine to the the more modern 2.5 liter 6 that is silky smooth and has a wonderful sound. That final incarnation was known as the TR 250 in the US and the TR5 in the rest of the world.

Not wanting to mess with success, British Leyland, who now owned Triumph, Contracted Micheloti for a refresh of the original 1961 design, working with Triumphs stylist. A more radical transformation with simple sheet metal changes has never been so successful, The result is the car you see here. The TR6 continued until 1976 when it was replaced by a completely new car that eventually outsold the 90,0000 units of the TR6 but history has not been so kind to the TR7.