Triumph TR2 Buyers Guide

Start with the numbers. The commission number is on a plate on the bulkhead under the bonnet (hood), and the engine number on the cylinder block; the TR Register advises checking that the commission number matches the one on the registration document, and then asking the club's registrar for the model about the car. A Heritage Certificate from the British Motor Museum gives the specification the car was built to. Triumph TR2 chassis numbers explains what the numbers and their letters mean.

The commission number also dates the parts. The early cars, to about TS550, had an aluminium bonnet, boot (trunk) lid and spare-wheel door; the short doors began at TS4002, the fixings for a hardtop at TS5260, the larger rear brakes after TS5481 and overdrive on three gears at TS6157. The change points by commission number list the rest. Revington TR, which compiled the list, adds a warning of its own:

Dwinger and the TR Register agree on where a TR2's body rusts and where it is damaged.

No source read gives advice on repairing the long-door cars' doors.⁠source 1​source 2​source 5​source 3​source 6

The TR2's frame was built strong, the TR Register says, but it has to be checked for rust, for distortion from accidents and for poor repairs, with no unusual welds or patches.

Dwinger adds the outriggers that carry the body, the ends of the frame, the spring towers, the lower wishbone mountings and any creasing behind the front axle, and advises a lift. In 2008 he found no new frames available, and no source read says whether any are made today.⁠source 2​source 1

The wishbone mountings should have no play. The stub axles turn in brass trunnions, which wear, Dwinger writes, because their lubrication is often forgotten or the wrong grease is used; the factory's chart specifies oil for them. The rubber gaiters of the upper ball joints split, and the joints then wear.

In our translation: the worm steering was never really up to the fast TR. Dwinger means the factory's cam-and-lever box, which he also describes by its cam and lever. The relay lever wears, and rack-and-pinion conversions, which need the castor corrected, work but are not original. The factory's steering is described on the Triumph TR2 specs page.⁠source 1​source 3

The wet-liner four usually survives well, and its sound is easy to judge: irregular knocking or rattling is always serious, and the tappets may be heard but should not dominate. Dwinger's checks:

The engine's weak points were known from the start. Before production the test engine broke big-end bearings and exhaust valves at the Motor Industry Research Association's track, and the factory fitted tougher exhaust valves after engine TS481E, though the workshop manual gives no reason, and a cross-drilled crankshaft from TS881E. The works drivers, Richard Heseltine wrote in 2010, were told not to exceed 5,000 rpm. In 1954 a TR2 retired from the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park with a failed big-end.

Engine numbers begin with TS and end with E, and the Heritage Certificate gives the one the car was built with.⁠source 1​source 7​source 3​source 5​source 8​source 9​source 10

Every gear should engage without baulking. First has no synchromesh, which is normal: a TR, Dwinger writes, will take any corner in second. Grinding that stops when the clutch is pressed points to the gearbox (transmission) bearings, and a noise when it is pressed to the release bearing; to test for slip, try to move off in third with the handbrake on, and a sound clutch stalls the engine. The overdrive should engage and disengage promptly and cut the engine's speed by about a fifth. On the early cars it works in top gear only; from TS6157 it works in second, third and top.

At the back, the leaf springs' eye bushes and the links to the lever dampers wear, and tired springs show flattened or shifted leaves. There should be no more than 8 to 9 mm (about ⅓ in) of backlash at the differential flange, and the propeller shaft's universal joints should be checked by hand. The rear hub seals were revised at TS5114 and, Revington TR notes, still leaked; on the 1954 Alpine Rally one TR2 retired when a rear hub broke up.⁠source 1​source 11​source 5​source 12

Every TR2 left the factory with drum brakes. Boddy found them powerful but fierce when pressed lightly, while Motor Trend found they needed "more pressure than usual". Later disc brakes, fitted to many cars since, are not original on a TR2.

Wire wheels were an extra. Their splines wear, which shows as a click when the car pulls away, and spokes break, so check the splines, the adapters and the hubs and every spoke. Dwinger advises truing and balancing them every two years, with no more than 1 to 1.5 mm of runout and no more than 30 g (1 oz) of balance weight on a bare rim. The steel disc wheels were made wider from TS1869, in May 1954, and stronger wheel nuts came from TS1927 that June; that summer Motor Sport reported two TR2s losing front wheels at club meetings.⁠source 7​source 13​source 10​source 1​source 5​source 14

The interior should follow the original pattern, and reproduction carpets and trim are good; Vynide was the standard trim for the seats, and leather an extra. The instruments should be original, Dwinger writes, although some can no longer be found, and the fuel gauge with its hanging needle is scarce; reconditioning is possible but costly. He stresses the sidescreens' originality too.

The weather equipment was criticised from the first. American owners in 1955 named "the side curtains", the sidescreens, among their dislikes, and Boddy noted that the doors could be opened only from inside, through zip openings in the sidescreens. Sports Cars Illustrated found the car "obviously built to a price", the fit of its bonnet and boot lids leaving something to be desired. What the period testers made of the car is told on the Triumph TR2 review page.⁠source 1​source 11​source 6​source 7​source 15

Many TR2s are not TR2s underneath.

Dwinger warns of cars rebuilt with later parts up to the TR4's, of rack-and-pinion steering and of glass-fibre panels. Such cars may drive well; they are not original, and the Heritage Certificate shows what was. Many American cars have come back to Britain: all had left-hand drive, so check the original specification and the quality of any conversion, and the TR Register warns that "not all US cars spent their entire life in 'dry' States".

The Belgian cars, with an N after the commission number, and the Triumph TR2 Francorchamps coupés carry parts Impéria made itself, among them the coupé's locks, roof panel, ash inner frame and mechanical overdrive, which accounts of 2014 and 2016 found hard to come by. A racing history is not originality either. Triumph TR2 parts sets out what was still made and what the TR3 shares.⁠source 10​source 1​source 2​source 16​source 17