Two Coventry-built cars celebrate 50th birthday this year...

[dutchman]

Two Coventry-made Triumphs are set to celebrate their 50th anniversaries with parades at one of the UK’s biggest classic car gatherings of 2016.



Both the Triumph GT6 and the 2-litre Vitesse will be celebrated at the Silverstone Classic, which takes place from July 29-31 at the home of British racing in Northamptonshire.

In recent years, the famous Silverstone Grand Prix circuit has staged processions featuring E-Type Jaguars, Ferrari F40s, Porsche 911s, Ford Mustangs and historic Formula One cars among other cavalcades.

The GT6 and the 2-Litre Vitesse were considered to be two of the most affordable British sports cars of the sixties and they turn 50 along with the popular Lotus Europa, which will also be celebrated at the Silverstone event.

The Triumph Vitesse was originally launched by Standard-Triumph in 1962 as a 1.6-litre six-cylinder performance variant of the Triumph Herald.

Styled by Giovanni Michelotti and characterised by a reworked front end it was available in both saloon and convertible form.

In 1966 it was relaunched as the Vitesse 2-Litre and was fitted with a new and more potent 1,998cc engine which saw its top speed reach 100mph.

Triumph marketed the car as “the two seater beater” and around 10,000 were produced between 1966 and 1968 when it was replaced by the Vitesse Mark 2, which continued in production until 1971.



The Triumph GT6 was launched as a coupe version of the Spitfire and was also designed by Giovanni Michelotti. In production from 1966 until 1973, more than 40,000 of them were built.

Paying tribute to both models, Midland-based automotive author Mike Gould said: “I always rated the Triumph sports cars above MG and the GT6 was one of my favourite cars with its shape that looked like a poor man’s Jaguar E-Type.

“It had a naturally smooth 6-cylinder engine – much better than the old 4-cylinder B-Series of the MGB.

“Once British Leyland came along there was an obvious clash with the MGB GT and it was dropped in favour of the Abingdon car.

“The Triumph sports car brand was, of course, continued by the ill-fated and unjustly maligned TR7.

“The ‘Lynx’ long-wheelbase 2+2 GT variant of the TR7 was powered by the Rover V8 engine and would have been a great car had the unfortunate circumstances of British Leyland not overwhelmed it.

"A prototype is in the collection of the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.

“The Vitesse was powered by the same engine in a Triumph Herald body and maybe could be considered as one of the first of the ‘GT’ saloon variants predating Volkswagen’s iconic efforts.

“I remember a teacher at my school in Birmingham and would occasionally give lifts to pupils waiting for the bus. It was these rides through the streets of Moseley that sparked my interest in cars.”

As far as potential classic car purchases go Mr Gould said both models were still fairly plentiful.

He added: “As usual with classic cars, there’s a wide range of offerings on the market ranging from restoration projects to concours examples with prices to match.

“There’s a thriving Triumph owners club - http://www.club.triumph.org.uk to help anyone with one of these iconic Coventry cars.

“I always considered Triumph cars to be well designed although the build quality often left something to be desired – the crazy practice of part building some models at Speke in Liverpool for final assembly in Canley can hardly have helped though.

“Rimmer Bros, suppliers of classic British car parts, tells me availability of components for both the GT6 and the Vitesse is pretty good - so with the support of specialists and the owners’ club it looks like either model would be a great classic car buy and a good way of enjoying this admired local car marque.

“It’s a great shame that its last Triumph model was the ghastly Honda clone, the Acclaim, which was even built in Cowley in Oxford rather than in Triumph’s home town of Coventry.

“Sadly both the Canley factory and even the satellite at Speke are now given over to commercial developments but owning a Triumph car is one way of keeping the name alive.”

[rebbonk]

Always liked, and wanted, both of them.

Sadly, the Vitesse suffered from panel alignment problems, so even a good one often looks quite poor. The one in the picture doesn't look too bad though.

Even sadder, the GT6 is far too low for me these days.