Britain has just celebrated the Queen’s 70th Jubilee, a remarkable milestone that has us wondering: how different was motoring life when Her Majesty was crowned?
Well, we still had a good crowd of automakers, and sports cars were important at home and for export – a business the industry simply had to crack to secure a post-war future.
It’s no wonder, then, that Triumph sought to gain publicity for its new TR2 roadster with a high-speed run on Belgium’s Jabbeke Autobahn, made famous by the Jaguar XK120.
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It was to be driven by Formula 1 engineer Ken Richardson, who had played a key role in its creation after telling Triumph boss Sir John Black that his 20TS prototype was “the most horrible car I have ever had. never driven”.
Its first test was clocked at 105 mph, which was okay for a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine but below expectations. Much to Triumph’s relief, he reported that one of the plug’s wires had come loose.
Back at full capacity, the TR2 hit 125mph – “no mean achievement but exceptional when you realize the car costs around £550” (or £10,780 today) – then 111mph after the cover metallic was replaced by the usual fabric hood (erected ).
The TR2 became Triumph’s best earner, especially popular in the United States. As for the MVC 575, “the most important Triumph ever built”, it was recently restored and can be seen in the British Motor Museum.
Are German cars welcome?
The effects of the war were still very evident in Britain seven years after Nazi Germany’s surrender, so we had ‘mixed feelings’ about an export deal signed with West Germany . His most interesting cars were the BMW 501, the Mercedes-Benz 300S, the Borgward Hansa (because it had an automatic gearbox), the Porsche 356 and the Volkswagen Type 1 – the first imported examples of which were vandalized at the Harwich docks .
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-06-08 11:00:00
