The
Triumph TR6 is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
six-cylinderThe straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six-cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase...
sports carA sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
and the best-seller of the
TR rangeThe Triumph TR range of cars were built between 1953 and 1981 by the Triumph Motor Company in the United Kingdom.* Triumph TR2* Triumph TR3* Triumph TR3A* Triumph TR4* Triumph TR4A* Triumph TR5* Triumph TR250* Triumph TR6* Triumph TR7* Triumph TR8...
built by
TriumphThe Triumph Motor Company was a British car and motor manufacturing company. The Triumph marque is owned currently by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann of Nuremberg initiated S. Bettmann & Co and started importing bicycles from Europe and selling them with his own...
when production ended in July 1976. This record was then surpassed by the
TR7The Triumph TR7 is a sports car manufactured from September 1974 to October 1981 by the Triumph Motor Company in the United Kingdom. It was initially produced at the Speke, Liverpool factory, moving to Canley, Coventry in 1978 and then finally to the Rover plant in Solihull in 1980...
. Of the 94,619 TR6s produced, 86,249 were exported; only 8,370 were sold in the UK.
The bodywork closely resembled that of the previous model, the
Triumph TR5The Triumph TR5 was built for a 13 month period between August 1967 and September 1968 by the Triumph Motor Company in Coventry, England....
, but the front and back ends were squared off, reportedly based on a consultancy contract involving
KarmannWilhelm Karmann GmbH, commonly known simply as Karmann, in Osnabrück, Germany was until 2009 the largest independent motor vehicle manufacturing company in Germany...
.
All TR6 sports cars featured inline six-cylinder engines. For the US market the engine was carburetted, as had been the US-only
TR250The Triumph TR250 was built between 1967 and 1968 for 15 months by the Triumph Motor Company in the United Kingdom, during which time approximately 8,480 cars were built, all of which were for the American market. Many can now be found outside the United States, primarily in Europe...
engine. Like the
TR5The Triumph TR5 was built for a 13 month period between August 1967 and September 1968 by the Triumph Motor Company in Coventry, England....
, the TR6 was
fuel-injectedFuel injection is a system for admitting fuel into an internal combustion engine. It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive petrol engines, having almost completely replaced carburetors in the late 1980s....
for other world markets including the United Kingdom, hence the TR6PI (petrol-injection) designation. The
LucasLucas Industries plc was a famous British manufacturer of components for the motor industry and aerospace industry. It was based in Birmingham. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
mechanical fuel injection system helped the home-market TR6 produce 150 bhp at model introduction. Later the non-US TR6 variant was detuned to 125 bhp in order for it to be easier to drive, while the
USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
variant continued to be carburetted with a mere (but more reliable) 104 hp.
The TR6 featured a four-speed
manual transmissionA manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox or standard transmission is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications...
. An optional
overdriveOverdrive is a term used to describe a mechanism that allows an automobile to cruise at sustained speed with reduced engine RPM, leading to better fuel economy, lower noise and lower wear...
unit was a desirable feature because it gave drivers close gearing for aggressive driving with overdrive available on 2nd, 3rd and top gears on early models, yet "long legs" for open motorways. TR6 also featured semi-trailing arm
independent rear suspensionIndependent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked – movement on one side affects...
, rack and pinion steering, 15 inches (38.1 cm) wheels and tires, pile carpet on floors and trunk/boot, bucket seats, and a full complement of instrumentation. Braking was accomplished by
disc brakeThe disc brake or disk brake is a device for slowing or stopping the rotation of a wheel while it is in motion.A brake disc is usually made of cast iron, but may in some cases be made of composites such as reinforced carbon–carbon or ceramic matrix composites. This is connected to the wheel and/or...
s at the front and
drum brakeA drum brake is a brake in which the friction is caused by a set of shoes or pads that press against a rotating drum-shaped part called a brake drum....
s at the rear. A factory steel
hardtopA hardtop is a term for a rigid, rather than canvas, automobile roof. It has been used in several contexts: detachable hardtops, retractable hardtop roofs, and the so-called pillarless hardtop body style....
was optional. TR6 construction was fundamentally old-fashioned: the body was bolted onto a
frameBody-on-frame is an automobile construction method. Mounting a separate body to a rigid frame that supports the drivetrain was the original method of building automobiles, and its use continues to this day. The original frames were made of wood , but steel ladder frames became common in the 1930s...
instead of the two being integrated into a
unibodyMonocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
structure; the TR6 dashboard was wooden (plywood w/ veneer).
The TR6 can accelerate from zero to 60 mi/h in 8.2 seconds and has a top speed of 120 mi/h according to
Autocar magazine.
As of Q1 2011 there were approximately 2723 licensed and 1320
SORNSorn is a small village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated on the River Ayr. It has a population of roughly 350. Local services include: a pub, a church, a general store, a motorbike shop and a television shop. There is also a village hall and a bowling green and primary school...
TR6s registered with the DVLA.