Michelotti Triumph TR3
The one-off Giovanni Michelotti designed on a TR3 chassis in 1957, known as the TR Dream Car or the TR3 Speciale: the car that began the partnership that gave Triumph the Herald and the TR4.
About the pictureA Triumph Italia, Michelotti's later coupé on TR3 running gear; not the 1957 TR3 Speciale.
In 1957 Vignale, the coachbuilder of Turin, built a car on a TR3 chassis to the design of Giovanni Michelotti, with tail fins in the American fashion of the day. It was the first thing Michelotti designed for Standard-Triumph. G. William Krause, in his history of Triumph's sports and racing cars, calls it the TR Dream Car; TR3 Speciale is the name carrozzieri-italiani.com and Wikipedia give it. It was shown at Geneva in March 1957, according to later accounts.source 1source 2source 3
How it came about
Sources for TR Dream Car
G. William Krause, The Illustrated History of Triumph Sports and Racing Cars, CarTech, 2017source 1; carrozzieri-italiani.com, "Triumph TR3 Speciale" (listing)source 2
How Michelotti came to Triumph is one story told several ways. Graham Robson writes that Michelotti was found in 1957 through an entrepreneur, Raymond Flower, and taken on at the recommendation of Harry Webster, the engineering chief, with the approval of the managing director, Alick Dick; the German TR Register's guide to the TR4 and TR5 also names Flower as the man who recommended him.
Krause tells it differently: Michelotti met Dick by chance at a motor show, which Krause neither names nor dates, and was asked for a TR Dream Car on the TR3 frame, "an audition of sorts".
According to carrozzieri-italiani.com, a user-contributed database that does not vouch for its own accuracy, Flower was looking for parts for a small-car project of his own and promised Webster a sports-car prototype in three months; Webster agreed to pay for it if it was delivered, Flower came back 10 days later with Michelotti's sketches, and Webster and his colleague Martin Tustin chose one. A production TR3 chassis was taken off the line, the contract was for £3,000, and Michelotti's part was kept quiet at first; the same database says that Dick signed him to an exclusive design contract for the UK market at the Geneva show of 1957. If that is so, it was a later meeting than Krause's.source 4source 5source 6source 1source 2
Looks
Krause describes the car as a black and white two-tone with a "gaping chrome grille" across its full width and pronounced tail fins, which the paintwork made more of, and a lavish interior with wind-up windows. Wikipedia adds that the headlamps sat on top of the wings under lids. Underneath, by Krause's account, it was a standard TR3, its chassis unchanged.
Its grille had a future. Krause sees it in the TR3A that came out later in 1957:
One such element was the full-width grille that inspired the front-end revision on the TR3A.
That is his reading; no factory source read says why the TR3A got its grille.source 1source 3
What became of it
The Dream Car was not put into production; Wikipedia says Triumph judged it too expensive. Krause writes that the Triumph team studied it at Coventry, and carrozzieri-italiani.com that it went back to Turin afterwards. Michelotti stayed: he styled the Herald, the saloon (sedan) Triumph launched in 1959, then the Italia and the TR4.
Where it has been
- 1957
Shown at the Geneva show in March 1957, according to later accounts
March 1957. No 1957 show report has been read: the Geneva showing rests on carrozzieri-italiani.com, a user-contributed database, and on Wikipedia, and the car's return to Turin on carrozzieri-italiani.com alone. No source read says whether it survives
G. William Krause, The Illustrated History of Triumph Sports and Racing Cars, CarTech, 2017source 1; carrozzieri-italiani.com, "Triumph TR3 Speciale" (listing)source 2; Wikipedia (EN), "Triumph TR3", 2026source 3
Sources
Every source the site cites is on the sources page.
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
- G. William Krause, The Illustrated History of Triumph Sports and Racing Cars, CarTech, 2017, ch. 3, "The Italian Job", the TR Dream Car; ch. 3, pp. 42–63; ch. 3, the chance meeting and the "audition"; ch. 3, the TR Dream Car's styling; ch. 3, Coventry; the TR3A's grille; ch. 3, "The Italian Job", pp. 42–63. static.summitracing.com/global/images/technicalarticles/sad-ct596.pdf Reference
- carrozzieri-italiani.com, "Triumph TR3 Speciale" (listing), listing: the name, the builder and the show; overview: Flower, Webster, Tustin, the contract; overview; the events list; listing. carrozzieri-italiani.com/listing/triumph-tr3-speciale Unchecked
- Wikipedia (EN), "Triumph TR3", 2026, the TR3 Speciale; the TR3 Speciale: not produced; TR3 Speciale paragraph. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_TR3 Unchecked
- Graham Robson, "One Design, Many Derivatives", Moss Motoring, 26 Oct 2022, Michelotti and Raymond Flower; the Herald. mossmotoring.com Reference
- Graham Robson, "Alick Dick: Triumph's Managing Director 1954–1961", Moss Motoring, 18 Jan 2021, Michelotti's hiring. mossmotoring.com Reference
- Bruno Dwinger, "Geschichte, Typenkunde und Kaufberatung: Standard-Triumph TR4, TR5/TR250 – 'die Michelotti Autos'", TR-Register Deutschland, 2009, 13 pp. (PDF), Michelotti's first order, on Raymond Flower's recommendation. tr-register.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Kaufberatung-TR4-und-TR5-und-TR250.pdf Reference