Time Machines: Triumphs on display

By Glen Woodcock,

For most people in Toronto the letters TTC mean the Toronto Transit Commission – the manager of subways, streetcars and buses used by thousands each day.
But for a group of automotive enthusiasts, those letters stand for Toronto Triumph Club. These are people dedicated to preserving the memory of Triumph automobiles, built in England from 1921-81.

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Triumph GTR4 Dove in rally form

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Each year at Toronto’s Canadian International Auto Show (CIAS), the story of one particular marque is told in the Classics Concourse on the 700 level of the South Metro Toronto Convention Centre. And for 2012, it’s Triumph’s turn.
David Fidler is coordinator of the display and, along with club president David Tushingham, has been working for the past year to put it together.
“We were approached by John Rosenthal and Tom Tonks of CIAS management in February, 2011, just after last year’s show,” says David. “We’ve thrown all our resources into it for the last 12 months and have searched far and wide for rare cars.”
The display will concentrate on the TR line of two-seat sports cars, since few of the brand’s sedans (saloons, in British terminology) were sold here, and even fewer survive.
Cars are not just coming from the TTC’s 310 members, but from Alberta, Pennsylvania, New York and North Carolina. Forty-three cars tell the TR story – including three on loan from the Vintage Automobile Racing Association of Canada.
The display is a chronological record of the British marque’s postwar sports cars, with every TR model and variant. The oldest car is a 1935 Gloria Southern Cross; the newest a 1981 TR8. The rarest cars are a GTR 4A Dove from the early 1960s, one of only three remaining, and two of only 329 Italia 2000s built from 1959-61, which, Fidler says, “look like small Ferraris.”
Other cars range from a 1948 Triumph 1800 roadster through the TR2, TR3 and 3A, TR4 and 4A, TR6, TR7, TR8, Spitfire and four-seat Triumph Stag.
Like all vintage car clubs, the TTC’s membership is aging, “But we’ve done better than most at attracting young members,” says Fidler. One of those young members, Shawn Vromman of Bolton, Ont., will be showing his restored 1969 GT6 – a hardtop version of the Spitfire.
But not all the cars are restored examples, like Fidler’s own 1969 TR6. Several are survivors representing exactly what the Coventry factory produced back in its glory days.
The Triumph Cycle Company started building motorcycles in 1902 and assembled its first automobile in 1921. In 1930, the name was changed to Triumph Motor Company. In 1944, the business was bought by Standard Motors and production moved from Coventry to Standard’s factory at Canley. In 1960, Standard Triumph became part of Leyland Motors and built its last car, essentially a re-badged Honda Civic, in 1984.
Triumph’s heyday was during the sports car boom of the 1950s and ’60s when North Americans were discovering the joys of open air motoring in responsive little roadsters that were an absolute joy when the road turned twisty. They captured the imagination – and the spirit – of a generation of young drivers.
For more information on the TTC, go to www.torontotriumph.com.

Tags: 1935 Gloria Southern Cross, Canadian International Auto Show, CIAS, GTR 4A Dove, Honda Civic, Time Machines, Toronto Triumph Club, Triumph automobiles, Triumph Motor Company