The TR250 was a derivative of the Triumph TR5 and built in England exclusively for the U.S. market. It essentially was a one-year car, produced in the overlapping years of 1967-68. It was done in response to pricing pressures in the sports car market and changes in U.S. emissions standards. This example from 1968 is a total project car and has rust and mechanical issues to be dealt with. Located in Dewey, Oklahoma, the little car is available here on eBay where the opening bid of $5,500 has not yet been tendered.
All TR5 cars were built with a Lucas fuel-injection system which caused them to be higher in price than the predecessor TR4. Less than 3,000 of them were assembled and more than half of those were exported, but not to the U.S. The U.S. version called the TR250 was converted to twin Zenith-Stromberg carburetors and accounted for 100% of the near 8,500 built for American consumption. Estimates are that only about 600 of them survive today, including many that went back to Europe, likely one at a time. So, even though the seller’s car is in rough condition, it’s in rare company.
This TR250 does not run and is likely incomplete with the seller unsure of what might not be there. There is rust present in several places, including the doors and rocker panels. The trunk lid is warped but it will close. The car left the factory with blue paint, but that was changed to red several years ago and only the exterior surfaces of the car were sprayed. The interior is perhaps the worst part of the TR, bearing the look of a car that sat outside with no raised top, allowing wildlife and Mother Nature to invade it.
While the car moves around the garage on dollies, the seller says the tires will not hold air. So, the buyer will have to drag it onto a flatbed or bring a set of good tires and rims with him. When the car was new, its 2,498cc inline six-cylinder engine would have produced 111 hp, less than its fuel-injected companion at 150. So, the TR250 was less spirited than the TR5. They were clocked at doing 0 to 60 mph in 10.6 seconds and 0 to 100 took 39 seconds (using all four gears). Not that anyone cared much about gas mileage in those days, but the TR250 would get 23-28 mpg depending on how hard you pushed it.
Boy, I would hope it would move around on dollies… Is there a Mark Worman out there for Triumphs?
I wonder how many years this little car sat in the junkyard before the seller dragged it out ? i
Seeing that it has the original radiator hoses I would say that car has been sitting since the mid 70’s. The TR-250 was my first car in 1977 and glad to say I still have it and drive it after a full redo in 2004.
Looks like it already was a “parts car” and I doubt it will ever be any more than that. The frame doesn’t look terrible from the photos. The body appears relatively straight but too much rust in the sides IMHO. Engine & drivetrain looks re-useable. Will he get close to what he is asking? I doubt it.
That condition maybe $250.00
The TR250 was sold here only because the Lucas FI system would not pass the new US emissions standards. Only the Brits could design an FI system that failed emissions but could pass with carburetors.
Reply for James Nichol: there was plenty more other than the mechanical Lucas PI (petrol injection) that differentiated the TR-5 from the TR-250. The TR-250 also featured lower compression and a milder cam, hence the big horsepower difference (150 versus 111). Therefore it was mainly the cam and the higher compression that caused the TR-5 to not make it to American…and Canadian shores. Still, at 111 ponies the TR-250 is still more powerful than a North American TR-6 with the same engine, because the TR-6 had to be given even lower compression as emission numbers had to keep going down every year.
A question for the Triumph experts: Converting an Alpine to a Tiger – or, more accurately “attempting to convert”, since the job is much harder than most people realize – is far too common in the Sunbeam world. These cars are generally known as Algers. I am just curious: is the same thing common with TR4’s/250’s? What is the likelihood that someone with a TR4 will buy this and swap everything needed, VIN included, into a better TR4 body and try to pass it off as a genuine 250?
I bought the car and had let it shipped to the Netherlands (Europe).
The car will be fully restored in my workshop (british-cars.nl) and painted in the original color valencia bleu.
It is an original accident free car and it looks like it hasn’t driven many miles
The chassis is rusted but not that parts need to be renewed, the floor plates and sills of the body need to be renewed and the bottom of the left door but no further welding on the body.
The only parts that are gone is the dashboard with gauges, but these are easy to get.
I owned a TR250, from1970,until 73. I loved that car,and never understood the bad press, it got from car magazines, back then !
They must have been pretty rare. To this very day, mine ,has been the only one,I have ever seen, in person ! Unless one has driven by me,without the “Racing stripe” across the bonnet from tire to tire ! Mine, was Jasmine yellow ,with a silver stripe.