Triumph index
Rover and Triumph always made uneasy bedfellows within the Leyland range. It was inevitable that one marque would eventually come out on top, and by the mid-1970s it was clear that Triumph had been demoted to playing second-fiddle. One by one, its models were either discontinued or replaced by cars wearing the Rover badge until, by the middle of 1984, the Triumph name had been comprehensively wiped from the motoring scene.
Triumph story part one: Bankrupcy to Standard-bearer
Triumph's early years leading upto its bankrupcy in 1939, and the post-War years, when The Standard Motor Company moulded the marque into the successful 1960s dynamo.
Enter...
Triumph story part two: The Leyland years
The story of how Triumph rose to prominence after the company was taken over by Leyland - and how it faded away when it became part of the Specialist Division.
Autocars of Israel
The Israeli firm Autocars was established with help from Reliant, but later spent around five years under the wing of first Leyland-Triumph, then BLMC. During that time, they built a Triumph 1300-based four-wheel-drive utilty vehicle alongside their range of passenger cars and vans, and were poised to add a Mini-based plastic-bodied car to their range when BLMC called time on the partnership.
Standard Motor Products
In the 1950s Standard-Triumph entered into a long-lived venture to produce recycled Triumphs in India...
Triumph 2000/2500 index
Launched in the same year as the Rover P6, the Triumph 2000 would soon find itself sharing showroom space with its deadly rival, as a result of parent-company Leyland's purchase of Rover in 1965. The Triumph outlived the Rover by a year or so, but in truth, both models were replaced by the Rover SD1 range, making this the last big Triumph.
Triumph 1300>Dolomite index
This range had a rather curious history by any standards. It started out as the front-wheel-drive 1300 but ended its days as the rear-wheel-drive Dolomite (not to mention the one-off 4-wheel-drive rally version which came somewhere in the middle). Along the way it had its nose altered and boot extended, and for a while it answered to the name Toledo...
Triumph Fury prototype
Triumph and Michelotti cooked up this wonderful prototype during the Sixties, Robert Leitch tells the story...
The sports car projects: Bullet, Lynx and Broadside
Triumph needed a next generation of sports cars to replace the rapidly ageing TR6/GT6, and with the help of Michelotti the new cars were soon forthcoming.
Triumph TR7/TR8 index
Harris Mann's wedge concept found its ultimate expression in the TR7, yet it failed to win the hearts of the TR diehards. The V8-engined TR8 might have won them over, had it ever been sold in the UK, while more attractive convertible arrived just in time to see the axe fall on BL's sports car production.
Rover-Triumph SD2
The SD2 came about following the creation of the British Leyland Specialist Division from the component companies of Jaguar, Rover and Triumph. As the name implies, the SD2 was the second in the series of Rover/Triumph cars - this time created to reside in the 1500-2000cc class, and replace the Dolomite in doing so.
TM1 project document
Following the Ryder Report and the bankrupcy of BLMC in 1975, the joint ADO77 and SD2 projects were cancelled as separate entities - to be replaced by TM1. Excerpts of the original project document can be found here...
Triumph Acclaim index
Project Bounty marked BL's first collaboration with Honda in the UK, and forged an alliance that lasted until BMW took over. Indeed, the Honda legacy is still evident in the current-day Rover 25 and 45.
In production
Pictures of Triumphs rolling off the line at Canley
Police Triumphs
While never as popular as Rovers, Triumphs were nevertheless favoured by certain forces.
Connections: Carbodies
Aside from their main post-war business of building taxis, the Midlands coachbuilding firm (now known as LTI) produced the bodywork for all Triumph 2000/2500 estate cars, and also came up with a number of other interesting proposals, including a Triumph 1300 estate and a Triumph 2000 fastback.
Connections: Reliant
Reliant's connections with the BMC>Rover started early on, when they adopted the engine of the pre-war Austin Seven and began to develop it for their three-wheelers. But in later years, the Triumph brand would become a recurring theme in a series of events pertaining to the company.
Community pages
Here we bring together pages from the site's Community section which feature Triumph models...
Triumph links:
Standard Motor Company links:
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