The fastest 2-litre car in the world – in 1953 – will be among The Record Collection at the Scramble on Sunday 27 April, courtesy of British Motor Museum, its custodian.
It was at the high-speed highway of Jabbeke, Belgium, that Triumph TR2 prototype ‘MVC 575’ hit 125mph to show the potential of the new sports car.
Aerodynamics were improved, with wheelspats and a solid covering over the cockpit and on the underside, but it was largely as the new TR2 had been presented at Geneva's Motor Show three months earlier.
MVC 575 was based on the previous 20TS prototype revealed to an ambivalent press at Earls Court in late 1952, and a positively dismissive Ken Richardson, Triumph’s development driver.
He famously labelled the 20TS “awful”, but was in the cockpit of MVC 575 on that record-setting day in Belgium. It was a coup for Triumph, beating the likes of MG and Austin-Healey to their own headlines. Stirling Moss had hit a milestone for Sunbeam on the Brussels to Ostend strip, too.
The car that gave them all a bloody nose will be among the cars of The Record Collection near to Building 123 at the Scramble on Sunday 27 April, with thanks to British Motor Museum.