Triumph TR6: What Would Van Gogh Drive?


Did you know that the Triumph TR6’s panel gaps are large enough to fit another TR6?

It's true, you know.

Triumph TR6s go for crazy money these days (well, relatively). Why? You don’t see, for example, the Fiat 124 Spider selling for almost up to $30k, and that’s got Pininfarina styling! behind it. It’s the difference between Jensen-Healey and Austin-Healey, come to think of it.

It must be the inherent Britishness. As I espoused in great detail on the recent podcast, England built some of the coolest cars today, and it still does, thanks to the Indians. Naturally, I was the only one to hold this ridiculous enlightened view. But hey, Van Gogh wasn’t recognized as a genius until after his death. He also did a lot of absinthe. What was I saying again? Oh, right.

I bet Van Gogh, if he were alive today, would drive a TR6. They’re both stylistically unkempt yet oddly charismatic, and they’re hugely popular only after their demise. Now that the crazed Dutchman would be swimming in cash, he could scrape together enough dough to afford two TR6s…and the requisite boatload of spare Lucas parts.
 

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  1. tonyola Avatar
    tonyola

    If Van Gogh drove this, he would end up cutting off one of the twin side mirrors.
    <img src="http://www.scituate.k12.ma.us/docent/Vincent%20Van%20Gogh,%20self-portrait.jpg"&gt;

    1. muthalovin Avatar

      And give it to a prostitute. Ah, love.

  2. $kaycog Avatar
    1. OA5599 Avatar
      OA5599

      Vincent would want a Vanagoghn instead of a T2.
      <img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3587/3630816530_1ccb98a501.jpg"&gt;

      1. Smells_Homeless Avatar
        Smells_Homeless

        Awful. Just awful. Thumbs up.

    2. chrystlubitshi Avatar
      chrystlubitshi

      you continue to tempt me in ways i cannot describe.

  3. Peter Tanshanomi Avatar
    Peter Tanshanomi

    I dunno, but I bet it would have some of BMW's swirly camouflage on it.
    <img src="http://www.carblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/bmw_camouflage_system.jpg"&gt;

  4. alcology Avatar
    alcology

    What's the story with that safety lock? It looks like it could be kicked off.

    1. Tomsk Avatar

      I've never seen anything like it. It's like The Club, except it appears to clamp onto the handbrake handle on one end while the other loops around the shifter. Clever bit of kit, that.
      Also, going by the LHD, front side marker lights and rubber bumperettes, can we assume this is an early '70s U.S. model that came home?

    2. smokyburnout Avatar
      smokyburnout

      A bit of Googling reveals it to be an AutoLok, "the easy to fit, original car theft deterrent."
      What a curious device. http://autolok.co.uk/Pages/Aoriginal.htm
      <img src="http://autolok.co.uk/Images/product%20images/Original_yellow.jpg&quot; />

  5. James Avatar
    James

    Not really on the topic of Van Gogh, but my "fondest" memory of a TR6…
    When I was in high school, late one night, a friend and I stole his father's nicely restored TR6 out of the garage.
    After hooning around town, trying to impress our schoolmates at the usual hangouts, we took it out on the highway to stretch it's legs.
    At about 100mph, the hood (hinged at the front) popped open and somehow stuck open just enough to completely obscure the windshield. Would not open further, would not close.
    We pulled off on to the shoulder and pushed and pushed trying to get it to close, eventually creasing it in the middle. OOPS!
    "Let's get this thing home!"
    Just then it started to rain, so we stopped again and tried to put the roof up. It too hung up at half mast, would not go all the way up, would not go back down. Applying more force merely broken the header off of the rest of the frame.
    We drove it 20 miles back to his house, in the rain, sticking our heads around the windshield to see the road ahead of the mangled hood, with the cloth part of the top billowing and buffeting like the grad chute on a B47, tearing itself to shreds.
    I didn't see much of my friend for months after that.

    1. facelvega Avatar
      facelvega

      Sounds like you got the real glorious British sporting experience.

  6. scroggzilla Avatar
    scroggzilla

    Van Gogh would support the home team.
    <img src="http://www.rallydaf.nl/afbeeldingenOld/Image23.jpg"&gt;
    DAF!!! FTW!!!

      1. bzr Avatar

        If you had to get a tattoo of a car company logo, you could do worse than DAF:
        <img src="http://www.dagjedaf.nl/images/daf_logo.jpg"&gt;

  7. OA5599 Avatar
    OA5599

    Given Van Gogh's fondness for still life paintings, I do believe a British car is an appropriate choice.

  8. facelvega Avatar
    facelvega

    I don't know about Van Gogh, but personally if I had $30k for a vintage roadster, I would skip past the TR6 ad and get the mint 124 Spider that Blake mentions. I'd have the better-designed, more reliable, better-looking, better-handling car, and still have $22k left in the hobby car bank.
    If I desperately wanted English, then I'd take a Sunbeam Alpine, less sporty but way cheaper and without the TR's connotation that the owner may be a jackass. If it had to be a Triumph, then a Spitfire for the Michelotti styling and because they're cheap to buy with plentiful cheap go-faster parts easily available. Finally, if I had to spend the whole $30k on a vintage roadster, a TR6 would come in at about 100th place among my choices.

  9. Rust-MyEnemy Avatar

    AMC Gremlin.
    <img src="http://www.decodesystems.com/gremlin-premier.jpg&quot; width=400>
    Because it looks just like you're driving an AMC Hornet except that you've CUT OFF YOUR REAR!!!