The Jabbeke Triumph TR2 Joins The British Motor Museum
23rd March, 2020
It is Wednesday 20th May 1953, and the location is the Jabbeke highway in Belgium..
When Ken Richardson took to the wheel of MVC 575, he set a new record for a two-litre production sports car.
As the narrator puts it ‘it’s safe to predict a great future for new Triumph sports car’.
And Richardson even sat on a cushion, rather than a seat, the better to improve its streamlining!
Standard-Triumph’s chairman Sir John Black was no doubt pleased to learn that the Triumph’s 124.783 mph also exceeded the top speed of the Stirling Moss/Sheila van Damm Sunbeam Alpine.
Motor Sport of June 1953 wrote ‘We have waited a long time for the sports Triumph to be anything more than an exhibit on show stands, but this sensational news from Belgium makes it look as if the Coventry sports car is well worth waiting for’.
A few months earlier Standard-Triumph officially launched the TR2 at the Geneva Motor Show, but the original 20TS prototype made its bow at the 1952 London Motor Show.
However, many automotive scribes were not keen on its road manners.
As Bill Piggott notes in his book TRIUMPH TR - TR2 to 6: The last of the traditional sports cars Richardson was asked by Black to give his opinion on the new model.
The chairman’s words were admirably succinct - ‘We have built a new sports car, and we would like you to join us to develop it as no one here seems to know anything about sports cars!’.
Richardson found that the chassis of the 20TS was prone to flexing, the brakes juddered, the steering was too low-geared, and the driving position was awkward.
There were the further issues that his Standard Vanguard could exceed its top speed of 78 mph – and his team had a mere three months to redevelop the Triumph before the Geneva Show opened on the 9th March 1953.
The launch of the TR2 proved a success and Black was understandably keen to promote further publicity and so MVC 575 would attempt its speed run before an invited audience of journalists.
By the end of that day, the TR2’s reputation was established around the world.
John Bolster wrote in Autosport that the TR2 was ‘the most important sports car to be introduced for some time – the first car to bring 100 mph performance within the reach of the man of moderate means’.
S-T used MVC 575 as a test car until 1956 and seeing it today makes it almost impossible to believe that it was dismantled some 15 years later.
This most famous of TR2s has joined the British Motor Museum collection thanks to £250,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).
Once seen, never forgotten - https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/
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