Triumph TR2: the cheap 100 mph sports car that started the line (1953–1955)

Every Triumph TR descends from this car. The TR2 launched the line in 1953 and made its reputation on a single, irresistible claim: it was the cheapest production car you could buy that would do 100 mph. For a young buyer in the 1950s, that was the whole pitch, and it worked.

Rugged, simple and quick for the money, the TR2 set the formula that every side-screen Triumph would follow, and it is now the rarest and most vintage-feeling of them all, the starting point of the whole story that runs through the TR3 and on to the TR6.

The cheapest 100 mph car

The TR2’s headline was speed for the money. Its 1,991cc Standard wet-liner four, lifted from the Vanguard saloon and tuned with twin SU carburettors, made 90 bhp, and in the right form the car would top 107 mph. At its price that made it the cheapest production car of its day able to exceed the magic 100 mph, a figure Triumph proved with record runs on the Jabbeke highway in Belgium.

Triumph made the point unmissable in May 1953, sending a lightly streamlined TR2 to the Jabbeke motorway in Belgium, where test driver Ken Richardson recorded almost 125 mph, an enormous number for a 2-litre car at the price. Buyers got the message, and so did competitors: a TR2 won the RAC Rally outright in 1954, and privateers raced and rallied them everywhere from club events to Le Mans.

That value-for-money performance, in a light, simple, separate-chassis roadster, is what made the TR2 a hit, particularly in the United States, where most were sold. It funded the cars that followed and established Triumph as a serious sports-car maker almost overnight.

Long doors and short doors

The TR2 changed in one obvious way during its short life, and it is the quickest way to date a car. The earliest examples, from 1953, had door skins that ran all the way down to the bottom of the body. Owners kept grounding them on high kerbs, so from October 1954 the factory shortened the doors and fitted a sill panel beneath, creating the short-door car.

Both share the small, recessed grille, the look later enthusiasts call the small mouth. The long-door cars are the earliest and rarest, and command a premium for it; the short-door cars are slightly more practical and more numerous. Either way, total production was only 8,636, which makes any genuine TR2 a scarce car today.

What it is like to drive

The TR2 is the most basic and the most characterful of the TRs. The engine is gutsy and flexible, happy to pull from low revs, and the car feels light and eager. It is also unmistakably a car of the early 1950s: side-screens clip into the cutaway doors, the ride is firm, the cockpit is snug, and the earliest cars have drum brakes all round, since the front discs that would define the TR3 arrived later. The reward is a pure, unfiltered, mechanical driving experience that feels genuinely vintage in a way the later TRs do not. It is also, by sports-car standards, frugal: the unstressed engine was famous in period for bettering 30 mpg driven sensibly, part of the same value-for-money story as the purchase price.

Buying guide: what to look for

As with every TR, the separate chassis comes first, because a corroded one means a body-off restoration. Check the rails, especially towards the rear and around the suspension mounts. On the body, inspect the floors, inner and outer sills, the lower wings and the boot floor.

The four-cylinder engine is durable and simple, and parts supply across the side-screen TRs is excellent, so mechanical condition is rarely a dealbreaker. The greater concern on a car of this rarity is originality and correctness: matching numbers, the right details for a long-door or short-door car, and honest history all add significantly to value. A genuine, well-documented TR2 is a sound and rising classic.

Current value and where it sits

As the oldest and rarest of the side-screen TRs, the TR2 sits at the foundation of the range in both senses. A project runs £15,000 to £25,000, a usable car £28,000 to £40,000 and an excellent example £42,000 to £58,000, with the earliest long-door cars worth the most, and good ones are firmly sought-after.

Owners’ clubs and parts

The TR Register and the TR Drivers’ Club both have dedicated followings for the earliest cars and deep knowledge of the differences between long-door and short-door TR2s. Parts supply for the side-screen TRs is among the best of any British classic, which keeps even a car this old genuinely usable.

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