TR4/4A A Typo or a TR4 I have not heard of?

[fpstude]

The February 12th issue of Old Cars Weekly News And Marketplace lists the results of the Michael Leith's Raleigh Classics auction in December. It lists as sold a 1968 Triumph TR4A/I.R.S.2d Conv. 1996-cc 4 cyl car. To my knowledge, in 1968 Triumph had a TR250 or TR5 depending on what side of the pond you were on. I'm not aware of a 1996 cc TR engine. Is this a car I am not aware of or just a typo by someone that has a lot cars to cover and can't possibly have detailed knowledge of all of them. By the way, it sold for $20,750 in condition 2.

 

[Rut]

The 1996 cc engine was sold where under 2 liter cars had tax breaks and for race classifications. A friend had a 1967 TR4a with this engine when I owned my 1967 2138 cc engined car...he called it a race engine!
Rut

 

[charleyf]

I will go with the misquote for the engine at least. The engine options were 1991cc ( 83 mm pistons) for the TR2-3 and 2138cc ( 86 mm pistons) for the TR3B -4-4A. Now days there is a piston out that will increase that size. As to the year, because many of these cars were not sold in the year they were built they are often listed on the registration by the year they were sold not the year they were built. So one often sees cars quoted as a particular year different from the year of manufacture. In 1968 the TR5-250 was being built. According to Moss Catalog the last TR4A was built in July 1967.
Charley

 

[Rut]

The 1991 cc option (83mm) was available on special order thru the end of TR4a production and it's my understanding that these engines could be retrofit by the dealer for under 2 liter competition. These options are listed in the Triumph workshop manual.
Rut

 

[Andrew Mace]

The 1991 cc option (83mm) was available on special order thru the end of TR4a production and it's my understanding that these engines could be retrofit by the dealer for under 2 liter competition. These options are listed in the Triumph workshop manual.
Rut

That is correct, although those engines were pretty rare (if I understand correctly), except in the Japanese market. If such an engine had been fitted at the factory, I believe the engine would have had a "CTA" prefix code. As for the 1968 date, the TR4A was still being "Price-listed" by Standard-Triumph USA in 1968, so some number of late TR4A models would have been first sold and, therefore, titled as 1968 models (still perfectly legitimate back then).