DO YOU REMEMBER - THE TRIUMPH 2500S?
By Andrew Roberts |
2nd November, 2020
Some cars – no names – merely peter out at the end of a long run. A few conclude their career in a morass of special edition versions, festooned with stripes and wheel trims. And a select few ceased production on a high note – the Ford Capri 280 Brooklands, the Mini in 2000 and the Triumph 2500S.
The last-named was introduced in 1975 as the final incarnation of Triumph’s 2000/2500 range. In essence, it combined the 2,498cc unit of the cheaper 2500TC with additional equipment; alloy wheels, power steering, “Sundym Glass” and, for the manual gearbox versions, overdrive. The specification also included twin SU HS6 carburettors and – a “first” for the range - a front anti-roll bar.
The S saloon and estate enhanced the appeal of a familiar model that now appeared if not precisely dated, then undoubtedly mature. The clever face lift of 1969 enhanced the 2000/2500’s appeal but as compared with a Ford Granada Ghia Mk. I the Triumph harked back to the previous decade. It also made its bow in the same year as the Wolseley “Wedge”, another BL product, and one that found great favour with the British motoring press.
However, the 2500S was a car of many virtues, not least its quiet sense of dignify. It was also more spacious than the Rover 2200TC and more low-key in appearance than a Vauxhall Ventora FE. The cabin was a central selling point, causing one copywriter to indulge in new levels of hyperbole. ‘Sit inside a Triumph 2500S and you could well be somewhere else. Some penthouse of unashamed luxury perhaps’. Even the walnut veneered facia apparently possessed a ‘mellow’ quality.
Somewhat more accurately, a test by Autocar noted the Triumph had ‘all the attributes beloved of the middle-class buyer, especially its well-conceived “traditional British” interior’. Similarly, Motor Sport believed for anyone who appreciated ‘a car of crisp Michelotti outward styling combined with a vintage specification and interior, the Triumph 2500S, at £3,353.22, should make its mark’.
The S also maintained the 2000/2500’s profile at a challenging time for one of Britain’s most famous motoring names. BL formally merged the marque with Rover in 1972 and in the following year, Donald Stokes announced it would ‘eventually cease to compete’ with the Viking badge. Instead, Triumph was to ‘concentrate its energies on smaller but refined four-seater saloons in the luxury high-performance category’.
In 1975 Autocar claimed ‘the new British Leyland management decides to overthrow the planned order of things, the big Triumphs will continue for some time yet’. However, Longbridge had already decided that their current under development five-door Rover would replace both the P6 and the 2000/2500. When Leyland unveiled the SD1 in June 1976, time was clearly limited for the big Triumphs, and production ended in 1977.
BL was not to offer a similar model until in 1986 with the Rover 800; plans for a four-door version of the SD1 were never realised. Motor Sport argued that:
By ignoring directly-comparable replacements for the conventional P6 Rover and Triumph 2000/2500, complementary to the SD1, BL opened the floodgates to Volvo, Audi, Ford, BMW et al, and one doesn’t have to know much about the motor industry to judge how successful they are.
And perhaps that is why the 2500S deserves to be remembered, as it marked the swansong of a highly respected Triumph. It was also the end of an era for a particular genre of executive transport – one that achieved a ‘high status in the sphere of civilised motoring’.
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