Background
In the late 1960s, the accepted look for European sports cars was still very much based on the curve rather than the straight line.
Triumph’s 1968 decision to launch its square-jawed TR6 against curvy and lithe opposition like the Alfa Spider, Lotus Elan and MGB was therefore not only bold but also somewhat risky, especially as it came hard on the heels of the flawed and extremely short-lived (just 13 months) TR5 that preceded it.
What the Michelotti-styled, Karmann-modded TR6 had in its favour, however, was a decent chassis – front anti-roll bar, rack and pinion steering, semi-trailing arm independent rear suspension, and front disc brakes – and a strong reputation for brawny, macho performance that went right back to the first TR2 of 1953.
That reputation was raised a notch in 1967 by the TR4’s adoption of a 2.5-litre version of the Triumph 2000 saloon’s characterful straight six engine.
The engine was carried through to the TR6 via the ill-fated TR5, which featured (Triumph claimed) the first petrol injection system in a British production car. Most of the problems of the hurriedly launched and equally hurriedly withdrawn TR5 were largely sorted in the TR6, but the fuel injection system on the 150bhp UK TR6s (American spec cars had twin Stromberg carbs and 104bhp) continued to be the car’s Achilles heel, unfairly encumbered as it was by a poorly-performing Lucas fuel pump.
Over time, most TR6 owners replaced that Lucas pump with the far superior Bosch unit which gave the car the combination of power and reliability it deserved.
From 1968 to 1976 the 6’s relative mechanical age didn't seem to deter buyers. More than 94,000 of them were built over the car’s seven-year production history, the overwhelming majority of them for overseas markets.
The TR6 was the last of the separate chassis TRs. By 1976, car magazine road testers who were keen to usher in what they saw as an exciting new era of monocoque sports cars were running out of faint praise with which to damn the doughty Triumph.
Perhaps they should have been careful what they were wishing for, because the wedge-shaped American-designed TR7 that replaced it in 1976 in no way continued the TR’s brawny heritage.
If you’re looking for a no-nonsense, hard-charging convertible sportscar that could be maintained by a reasonably dexterous gibbon with an adjustable spanner, then the TR6 might well be just the thing for you.
With a 0-60mph time of just over eight seconds and a top speed of 120mph, the TR6 is fast enough for most people, and well-maintained examples make for drivable, usable, rewarding everyday cars.
And when they’re as fabulously restored from top to bottom as this absolute beauty, they’ll turn heads and draw admiring glances wherever they go.
