Triumph Roadster
Competition drives innovation,
and Triumph’s challenger to the XK120’s crown is proof that a bit of healthy
sparring between car manufacturers can yield some spectacular shapes. The
roadster has the Cruella Deville proportions that would make it a terrifying
sight to anyone out for a quiet Sunday stroll with their Dalmatian along a back
road in late-40s England.
Designed just at the War was
ending in 1944, the Roadster was offered at launch with a 1.8-litre
four-cylinder engine based on a pre-War 1.5-litre (which, cheekily, had been
designed initially to go in Triumph’s competing Jags) but converted to run with
overhead valves as opposed to side-fitted valves.
The Roadster was not well
received by critics at the time, and with a 0-60 time of 34.4 seconds and a top
speed of 75mph, it’s easy to see how their criticisms could be justified. While
the motoring press panned not only the performance but the looks; the swooping
wings, googly headlamps and indented radiator grille, Triumph’s answer
to Jag’s utter dominance of the British sportscar scene at the time has aged
rather well, in a cartoonish, caricature sort of fashion.
