TriumphTR6

Notable Triumph TR6s

The TR6s with stories of their own: the first cars off the Canley line and the last, a racing car that won two national championships, two press cars and a pace car, and the kits that went to Belgium.

A mid-blue Triumph TR6 with a black front spoiler on a cream museum floor.
The British Motor Museum's own TR6 on show at Gaydon, then the Heritage Motor Centre, in December 2007.MilborneOne, CC BY-SA 4.0

The TR6's notable cars are of a quieter kind: no source read records a works rally team for the TR6, or a car at Le Mans. They mark the ends of the line, the car that finally won for it on the race track, and a few that the magazines and the importer kept a record of. Five have records of their own, shown below, and two have pages: Group 44's TR6 and the last TR6.⁠1​2​3

The register

The first cars. Rimmer's list of first cars opens with CC25003L, a carburetted car built on 19 September 1968, and says that CC25001 and CC25002 have not yet been found in the factory's build records. CP25001, the first injected number, was most likely a prototype, by Rimmer's account, and the Vintage Triumph Register lists it as the first prototype. The next numbers were kits, which TR-Register Deutschland says went to Belgium. The first production TR6 PI came off the line on 28 November 1968: CP25156.

The first racing winner. Jim Dittemore's TR-6, prepared by Triumph's American competition department under Kas Kastner, took the TR6's first national win, at Sears Point in March 1969, and the racing page follows the rest.

The champion. Group 44's TR-6 raced in the Sports Car Club of America's C Production class from 1969, was shown by British Leyland at the London Motor Show of 1972, and won the D Production championship in 1975 with John McComb and in 1976 with Paul Newman. Whether it was one chassis throughout, no source read says.

Press and pace cars. Motor Sport tested a TR6 PI with overdrive from Standard-Triumph's press fleet at Acton in 1971, and its assistant editor, Clive Richardson, wrote about his own new CR, bought in February 1973, in two long reports; the road tests page gives what both found. In November 1970 a TR-6 of the new 1971 model year was one of the official pace cars at the American Road Race of Champions, the importer reported.

The Belgian cars. The kits assembled at Malines, in Belgium, carry a 1 before their commission number's prefix and a P at the end; identification gives their ranges.

The last cars. The injected cars ended with CR6701 on 7 February 1975, and the TR6 itself with CF58328U, a carburetted car for America, on 15 July 1976. Severson writes that the last car went to Bob Tullius, Group 44's founder.

Which of these cars survive, and where, no source read says, except that Moss Motoring recorded the last TR6 with Bob Tullius Racing in 1994.⁠1​4​5​6​7​8​9​10​11​12​13​14

Notable cars

  • Built 1968

    The first TR6

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1968

    The first TR6 PI

    Whereabouts unknown

  • Built 1975

    The last TR6 PI

    Whereabouts unknown

Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  1. Graham Robson (foreword), Triumph TR6 1969–1976 Parts & Accessories Catalogue, Rimmer Bros, edn 2.2 (source code TR600313), p. 5, Vehicle identification: the first and last cars; p. 5: CC25003L; CP25001; the CKD ranges; CP25156; CR6701; CF58328U. Reference
  2. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, October–November 1975, Oct–Nov 1975 (vol. 21 no. 6), pp. 1–2, the 1975 title. Primary
  3. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, September–October 1976, Sep–Oct 1976 (vol. 22 no. 5), pp. 1–3, the 1976 title. Primary
  4. Vintage Triumph Register, "TR6" (history, year-by-year changes, US production table, buyer's guide), Spotter's Guide, '68 and '76. Reference
  5. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, April 1969, Apr 1969 (vol. 15 no. 4), p. 3, Sears Point. Primary
  6. Bill Boddy, "Matters of Moment", Motor Sport, Nov 1972, p. 19, p. 19, the Group 44 TR6 at Earls Court. Primary
  7. Bill Boddy, "Rumblings" (TR6 PI and 2.5 PI Mk II), Motor Sport, Mar 1971, p. 34, p. 34, the test car from Acton. Primary
  8. Clive Richardson, "The Tale of a TR6", Motor Sport, Nov 1973, p. 54, p. 54, the staff car; the cars assembled at Malines. Primary
  9. Clive Richardson, "The continuing tale of a TR6", Motor Sport, Dec 1974, p. 53, p. 53, the staff car a year on. Primary
  10. Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, December 1970, Dec 1970 (vol. 16 no. 12), a 1971 TR-6 among the pace cars at the 1970 ARRC. Primary
  11. TR Register, "Buyer Beware: TR6" (2 pp. PDF leaflet), p. 1, the Belgian cars' numbers. Reference
  12. Bruno Dwinger, "Geschichte, Typenkunde und Kaufberatung: British Leyland Triumph TR 6PI und TR 6 (Vergaser) – Die Karmann Autos", TR-Register Deutschland, c. 2010, 13 pp. (PDF), p. 2, the CKD kits for Belgium. Reference
  13. Aaron Severson, "Grandfather's Ax: The Many Evolutions of the Triumph TR4, Part 2: TR5, TR250, and TR6", Ate Up With Motor, 7 Nov 2012, TR in twilight: the last TR6 to Bob Tullius. Reference
  14. Moss Motoring, "Twenty-Five years of the TR6: A Nostalgic Profile", Oct 1994, the last TR6 in 1994. Reference