Location of most Triumphs sold during their heyday?

[karls59tr]

I wonder what part of the States had the most Triumph sales back in the 60's? Would California have been the biggest market or were sales pretty well spread out thru the Midwest and up and down the East coast? Do "barn finds" tend to show up more consistently in certain areas? Curious minds want to know. Karl

 

[CJD]

Mine was Pensacola Fl in Oct of 1960.... I also doubt any at all wound up in Louisiana. I grew up there and never saw a single one!

John

 

[Lukens]

Don't know. .
Not to steal the thread, but I'd also like to know what area has the largest number now. Seems likle a lot are sold in the Northeast.

 

[Geo Hahn]

Certainly Cal Sales in LA sold a ton of TRs. Both of mine came through them though neither car was in California when I bought it.

Also always seemed like there were a lot in western Ohio or was that just T.R.Householder hoarding them?

 

[Trevor Triumph]

I bet most sales were around port cities- east coast, west coast and the Great Lakes area. maybe not a whole lot in the mid-west.

 

[glemon]

I have no idea of raw or comparative numbers but I think they were fairly widely distributed and purchased, my meaningful memories probably go back to the late 60s at the earliest, but there were plenty of TRs and MGs around my hometown of Lincoln, NE, in the heart of the Midwest (including earlier cars floating around used). On the other hand from what I have read in various books Triumph and MG and Austin Healey sold a disproportionately higher number of cars in California in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It was a pretty big part of their market.

 

[MDCanaday]

At one time there was a rental fleet of tr3's in Hawaii .Many of which are now an artificial reef....
I even saw a Hawaii 50 episode that had a junkyard sceen and there were tr3's in it...
From personal observation, I think that any airforce base was a hotspot for many cool cars
MD

 

[Crankshaft]

A related question also, my '60 TR3 has metric instruments, therefore does that indicate a Canadian origin?

Phil

 

[tr8todd]

I remember seeing an old evacuation video in advance of a tsunami. There was a cop directing traffic and a TR3 buzzed thru the intersection. It was in Alaska of all places after the big quake in 1964.

 

[Geo Hahn]

And a TR4 in this famous post-quake Life Magazine cover:

 

[Healey_Z]

It would make sense that the sales distribution would follow population and weather, which would mean the majority of sales on each coast, but a larger share in CA. It would be interesting data to see.

 

[Andrew Mace]

A related question also, my '60 TR3 has metric instruments, therefore does that indicate a Canadian origin?

More likely, the car was first delivered to Germany or somewhere else in Continental Europe, as the TR3 would precede Canada's love of the metric system!

 

[Member 10617]

Healey_Z

My thoughts exactly. Depended much on warm-weather locations... The TR3 was very popular in Tucson back in the late 50s - early 60s, but I think the Austin-Healey was even more popular, though more expensive. Both, however, existed in the shadow of the Ford Thunderbird and the Corvette. As inexpensive as the prices of these cars back then appear to us now... they were pretty expensive for the average person at that time. Perhaps the exception was the Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite, which was very popular and relatively affordable.

I started out with a new 1960 Sprite... but soon switched to a used 1958 TR3. In my 4 years at UofAZ, I never saw another of either one in the student parking lots, but I did see some Healeys and Lotus or two.... and a fair number of Corvettes and Thunderbirds.

 

[etmracing]

Pa, NJ, NY and ct were sports car meccas.

 

[glemon]

This picture is from an advertisement in Road and Track in the mid fifties, 54 I think. It does not answer the question, but does show that by the mid-fifties the sports car distribution network was pretty established in major and middle size Midwestern cities and presumably even more so on the coasts.

 

[pdplot]

I bought my 1956 TR3 new from Bill Vaughan in NYC. Traded in a Mark II MG TD. The car was destined for Pete Peterson in Worcester, MA( a dealer I believe) but Vaughan was always out for a quick buck. A friend had a TR2 at the time. The new TR3 price was $2599, $100 more than the TR2. I had one of the first ones in SW CT. SCCA headquarters was in Westport, CT, near my home town, Stamford. I raced this car at Lime Rock & Thompson, kept it for about 3 years, then traded it for a used '57 Porsche coupe - but that's a story for another day. I'm writing a book about the cars I've owned - if I ever finish it.