Triumph - A  Brief History

Triumph was established in Coventry in 1885 as a bicycle manufacturing business. The company then went on to produce its first motorcycle in 1902 and a three-wheel car followed in 1903. It was another twenty years before the first Triumph 4-wheel car was produced in 1923 at the newly acquired factory in Clay Lane.  From then on Triumph gained a good reputation for building high quality small to medium sized cars, and in 1936 the motorcycle part of the company was sold off.  By the late 1930's despite great success in motor sport, Triumph were in financial difficulties and in 1939 went into receivership. In 1945 Triumph was purchased by the Standard Motor Company and in the hands of Sir Stanley Black, went on to achieve great success with the many fine cars being built at the Canley factory in Coventry.  These cars included of course the first of the TR sports cars the TR2, which had its debut in 1952 at the London Motor Show.  What was to become another evergreen for Triumph, the Herald, with its legendary 25 ft turning circle, was launched in 1959. Many more great cars were produced during the 1960's & 1970,s but by then Triumph had become part of the British Leyland group and the last car to bear the Triumph name was the Honda designed Acclaim which was produced between 1981 & 1984.

 Mayflower

Renown

TR3 / TR3A

TR4 / TR4A

Vitesse

Spitfire

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