Triumph TR3 Le Mans 1959
The three twin-cam TR3S cars Standard-Triumph built for the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours, the last of which so nearly finished; and their sequel, the TRS of 1960 and 1961, which carried the same engine on a new body.
About the pictureA Triumph TRS of the 1960–61 Le Mans type, No. 26 on the car: the TR3S's successor, not a TR3S.
In June 1959 Standard-Triumph went back to Le Mans with three cars that looked like TR3s and were not. Motor Sport called them "three works Triumph Specials with twin-cam engines"; the American factory club's newsletter called them the TR-3S, and Sports Cars Illustrated the TR 3-S. Two of them were out before the night was over, their radiators cut by their own fan blades. The third, its fan taken off, ran on into the 23rd hour at the head of its class, until its oil-pump drive failed.
The results below give each car's retirement; this page tells their story, from the pits to the cars that have carried their registrations since.source 1source 2source 3source 4
The cars
The TR3S looked like a TR3, and much of a TR3 lay under it, changed. Its frame was the TR3's, "substantially strengthened", Sports Cars Illustrated found, and lengthened to give a wheelbase 15 cm (6 in) longer; it had disc brakes on all four wheels, the rear ones cooled through scoops in the rear wings (fenders), a heavier live axle and a BRM clutch with several dry plates, though the gearbox (transmission) and steering were the TR3's. The body was slightly lower and longer, with an opening under the grille for an oil cooler. What it was made of is told two ways: Sports Cars Illustrated described "the TR 3 stock body" with a glass-fibre nose, while Motor Sport's online gallery of a tribute car and Wikipedia, citing Bill Piggott, give the cars glass-fibre body panels. Krause adds a Perspex windscreen (windshield).
The engine was new: Standard-Triumph's twin-overhead-camshaft four, with five main bearings, built as a sandwich of light-alloy castings on an iron crankcase and fed by two SU twin-choke carburettors. Krause gives its factory name as 20X. Sports Cars Illustrated heard it called "Whistling Sabrina", for the wind in its oil-cooler grille; the name Sabrina is usually said to come from a starlet of the day, by Krause's account because of its rounded cam covers. Sports Cars Illustrated gave its size and power after the race:
The 1985 cc engine, which is slightly heavier than the TR 3 unit, develops 158 bhp at 6800 rpm …
The factory had announced a lower figure before the race, and Krause gives two different figures in different places.
The race, 20–21 June 1959
Standard-Triumph entered three crews: Ninian Sanderson, who had won Le Mans in 1956, Peter Jopp, Dick Stoop, Claude Dubois, Peter Bolton and Mike Rothschild. In practice Sanderson lapped in 4 minutes 49.8 seconds, about 167 km/h (103.9 mph), and the drivers told the American newsletter that they had reached over 240 km/h (150 mph) on the straight; Sports Cars Illustrated put their speed there at well over 225 km/h (140 mph).
The fans undid two of the cars. Blades broke off and cut the radiators, one car going out after about four hours and the other after about 10, by the American newsletter's account. The third had its fan removed at a stop and ran on, and by noon on Sunday it was 7th overall and leading the 2,000 cc class. With less than two hours to go, Motor Sport reported, it stopped with oil-pump trouble; Sports Cars Illustrated found a sheared oil-pump drive, and gave the car's average to that point as 157.4 km/h (97.8 mph). Of 53 starters, 13 finished, and the only finisher in the Triumphs' class was an AC Ace-Bristol. Sports Cars Illustrated's reporters looked for comfort:
As a consolation prize, however, there was not an engine failure that could be attributed to the prototype power plants in the trio. Car #27 was brought to a halt by a sheared oil pump drive.
Kevin Warrington's TR history, as Motor Sport quotes it, gives the longest-running car's registration as XHP 940.source 3source 2source 10source 1source 4source 8
Was the last Triumph No. 25 or No. 27?
Fact check
No. 27
the American newsletter's report of July 1959 and Sports Cars Illustrated's race report, which both give the number to Jopp and Stoop's car
No. 25
racingsportscars.com, which gives No. 25 to Jopp and Stoop and No. 27 to Sanderson and Dubois
Our reading. Both stand. No source disputes that No. 26 was Bolton and Rothschild's car, or that the last car running was Jopp and Stoop's; the sources disagree only on that car's number, and the newsletter's photograph of that car shows no number that can be read. Sports Cars Illustrated is not consistent with itself: its line-up gives No. 27 to Jopp and Dubois, and its report calls Dubois Bolton's co-driver.source 10source 3source 4
Who drove which
The sources agree on the six drivers, and on little else. Each gives the crews and numbers this way:
| Source | No. 25 | No. 26 | No. 27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| racingsportscars.com | Jopp and Stoop: 245 laps, overheating | Bolton and Rothschild: 35 laps, holed radiator | Sanderson and Dubois: 114 laps, radiator |
| TSOA Newsletter, July 1959 | Sanderson and Claude Dubois: 115 laps, radiator cut by the fan | "Boulton" and Rothschild: 34 laps, the same | Jopp and R. Stoop: fan removed; into the 23rd hour, then the oil pump |
| Sports Cars Illustrated, October 1959, the line-up | Sanderson and Dick Stoop | Bolton and Rothschild | Jopp and Claude Dubois |
| Sports Cars Illustrated, the race report | – | Rothschild out after the evening driver change, a fan blade | Jopp and Stoop: 7th at noon, out with a sheared oil-pump drive |
Afterwards: the TRS and the reconstructions
At Le Mans, factory people told Sports Cars Illustrated that a production TR 3-S could start rolling out almost at once; the American newsletter said it would not be sold until its development was finished. No production car followed. In 1961 Harry Webster, Standard-Triumph's engineering chief, called the twin-cam "purely an engineering exercise in designing for easy production", as Dennis May quoted him in Car and Driver.
The engines went on. For 1960 and 1961 the works built new cars around them, the TRS, which shared the coming TR4's shape behind the windscreen, Car and Driver noted. Three ran at Le Mans in 1960, and in 1961 the TRS cars won the team prize there, the American newsletter reported. Standard-Triumph summed up its racing in 1962:
Since 1960, the company has confined its sporting activities to racing a team of specially built Triumph TR-S cars at Le Mans …
Warrington's history, as Motor Sport quotes it, has the bodies taken apart at Coventry afterwards. Cars wearing XHP plates have since been offered as reconstructions and tributes; the notable cars page sets out the sellers' claims, which contradict one another, and why a works registration is no proof of a works car.source 3source 10source 5source 8source 11source 12source 13source 14source 15source 16
Results
- 1959
- 1959
- 1959
Sources
Every source the site cites is on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
- Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
- Motor Sport, "The 24 Hours of Le Mans in retrospect", Aug 1959, p. 54, p. 54, the 2-litre passage; p. 54. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/august-1959/54/the-24-hoursof-le-mans-in-retrospect Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, May 1959, May 1959 (vol. V no. 5), p. 1, "TR-3S"; p. 1, the cars and the wheelbase; p. 1, the crews; Sanderson; p. 1, the entry. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOAMay59.pdf Primary
- Richard Olguin and Harriet Olguin, "The TR 3-S At Le Mans", Sports Cars Illustrated, Oct 1959, p. 46ff, p. 46ff; p. 46ff, the engine, chassis and body; p. 46ff, practice and the race report; the line-up and the race report; production prospects; race report. Primary
- racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1959, results, results, Triumph rows; results. racingsportscars.com/results/Le_Mans-1959-06-21.html Database
- Dennis May, "Triumph's Twin-Cam!", Car and Driver, Jun 1961, pp. 60–64, pp. 60–64, the engine; Webster on the engine. Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, May 1961, May 1961, the TR-S engine. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOAMay61.pdf Primary
- G. William Krause, The Illustrated History of Triumph Sports and Racing Cars, CarTech, 2017, ch. 3, 20X and "Sabrina"; the frame and windscreen. static.summitracing.com/global/images/technicalarticles/sad-ct596.pdf Reference
- Motor Sport (motorsportmagazine.com), "Gallery: 1959 Triumph TR3S Le Mans Tribute", the gallery's text on the glass-fibre panels; Warrington on XHP 940; Warrington on the bodies; the tribute car. motorsportmagazine.com/articles/sports-cars/gallery-1959-triumph-tr3s-le-mans-tribute Reference
- Wikipedia (EN), "Triumph TR3", 2026, the TR3S bodies, citing Piggott (1995). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_TR3 Unchecked
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, July 1959, Jul 1959 (vol. V no. 7), pp. 1, 4, the race; pp. 1, 4; production prospects. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOAJuly59.pdf Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, May 1960, May 1960 (vol. VI no. 5), the TR-S at Le Mans. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOA0560.pdf Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, July 1961, Jul 1961, the 1961 team prize. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/TSOAJuly61.pdf Primary
- racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1960, results, results, Triumph rows. racingsportscars.com/results/Le_Mans-1960-06-26.html Database
- Dennis May, "Technical Report" on the TR-4 (cover story), Car and Driver, Oct 1961, pp. 19–23, pp. 19–23, the TR-4's body and the twin-cam car's. Primary
- Triumph Sports Owners Association, Triumph Sports Owners Association Newsletter, February 1962, Feb 1962, Standard-Triumph's statement. vintagetriumphregister.org/tsoa/aTSOA0262.pdf Primary
- RM Sotheby's; Iconic Auctioneers; Car & Classic (as reported by blog.doorindustryjournal.co.uk), Auction and sale listings of TR3 works cars and TR3S reconstructions, the sellers' claims (Iconic Auctioneers; the 2023 bodyshell sale). Unchecked