Desirable Cars
TRIUMPH CLASSIC ICONS

Desirable Triumphs

In 1953, a Triumph TR2 hit 124.889mph on a closed Belgian motorway — a world record for a 2.0-litre production sports car, driven by a man sitting on a cushion instead of a proper seat.

Straightforward Performance, Real Character

Few marques built such a consistent run of accessible, enjoyable roadsters. The TR2's reputation was cemented almost overnight in May 1953, when development engineer Ken Richardson took a lightly modified example, fitted with an undershield, rear-wing spats, and a metal cockpit cover for streamlining, to the Jabbeke motorway in Belgium and recorded 124.889mph — a genuine world record for a two-litre production sports car, beating a heavily modified Sunbeam Alpine driven by Stirling Moss and Sheila van Damm in the process. Motor magazine subsequently called it the lowest-priced British car capable of exceeding 100mph, a genuinely significant claim for a company that had barely three months to finish developing the car before its Geneva debut.

That combination of genuine pace and accessible pricing carried through the TR line for decades afterward, right up to the TR6 and the smaller, equally characterful Spitfire. Below are the models we've covered so far.