I’ve always had a thing for Triumphs, although I’ve never been lucky enough (yet) to own one. But I have a story with one, literally. Toward the end of my undergraduate experience, I was taking a creative writing class, and the professor assigned a short story. Having a grand total of two SCCA Solo II experiences under my belt, I decided to write about something I thought I understood: autocrossing. The protagonist daily drove a ’67 Mercury Cougar while racing on weekends in his Triumph GT6 that was set up for the parking lots of the Midwest. It was a terrible story, but I still love the car that zig-zagged through my fictitious cones. It looked a bit like this one that Barn Finds reader T.J. found on craigslist in the Los Angeles area. It’s rust-free and priced to match at $25,600.
What made the GT6 the “poor man’s E-Type,” as it was sometimes called, was its 2-liter inline six that it shared with the Triumph Vitesse. It wasn’t powerful by today’s standards, with 95 horsepower at the ready, but with only about 2000 pounds to propel, the GT6 was pretty exciting for 1968. With a LeMans-inspired roof on the already attractive Spitfire body, it was almost too good to be true, but according to some, there was a fly in the ointment.
The GT6 with its extra power continued to use the Spitfire’s swing axle rear suspension, which became a little unsettling when given the 105+ mile per hour top speed capability of the swoopy new coupe, so the suspension was redesigned for the 1969 model year when the GT6 was rebranded the GT6+. Our featured Triumph has had some suspension and brake maintenance and upgrades, including boxed control arms, a one-inch sway bar, new flexible brake hoses, a new master cylinder, among other things. You’ll still want to be aware of how a swing axle car responds to steering inputs.
Another common complaint about the GT6 was its lack of room for anyone over six feet tall. Unfortunately, I cannot speak to this from experience, but I’m six feet tall and that would be a shame. Aside from being cramped, it’s beautiful in here, with new door panels, leather seats, and a new wooden dashboard (which looks pretty good, in my opinion).
I feel that the GT6 is finally getting its due in the marketplace, and it’s no wonder. It might not be quite as pretty as an E-Type, but it’s a fraction of the cost, and if my mediocre short story is correct, and I have no reason to believe that it is, it’s a heck of a good fictional autocross car.
Beautiful car, weird color. The GT6 is on my best design list. Find a race car driver who owns an early swing axle model and he/she will tell you how simple it is to get the car to handle like it’s on rails. The ’59 Porsche Convertible D we rescued from the crusher and made into a race car won a lot of races with it’s swing axles slightly modified and never once went off the track and was very fast.