• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Post-War Other Vitesse Sport 6

Share this page

Ok, I must have been confused all this time . I thought the Sport 6 was the 6 cyl.?
 
The Sports 6 details are hooey, makes me wonder how many other things aren't quite as represented. A "Sports 6" was a North American-only model, 99.99% identical to the "European" Vitesse 6. It's true that there were less than 800 Sports 6s made, but they all came here and there are a lot more than 3 or 4 left. I've seen more than a dozen of them at the same show! (And sold one myself just a few years ago.)

"Parts available" is something of a joke as well. Some parts are available in the US, because they are common with other Triumphs. But relatively few are; for example that 1600cc 6-cylinder was unique to the Sports 6 and Vitesse 6, so parts for it are hard to find even in the UK. Many fundamentals (like the alloy bumpers and interior) are unobtanium. Even the wheel trims I had shipped from the UK turned out to be the wrong ones.

This is a photo of a friend's Sports 6, mine wasn't very photogenic.
 
DNK said:
Ok, I must have been confused all this time . I thought the Sport 6 was the 6 cyl.?
Click to expand...
I think it still is. He says so in the ad.
 
TR3driver said:
It's true that there were less than 800 Sports 6s made, but they all came here and there are a lot more than 3 or 4 left.
Click to expand...
Yeah...there are over 50 of them listed on my Database, and more seem to turn up all the time!

TR3driver said:
"Parts available" is something of a joke as well. Some parts are available in the US, because they are common with other Triumphs. But relatively few are; for example that 1600cc 6-cylinder was unique to the Sports 6 and Vitesse 6, so parts for it are hard to find even in the UK. Many fundamentals (like the alloy bumpers and interior) are unobtanium. Even the wheel trims I had shipped from the UK turned out to be the wrong ones.
Click to expand...
Pistons in particular are very scarce, but it is possible to bore out the block to take 1147cc Herald/Spitfire pistons. As for the wheel trims, the problem is that there are two different sizes, one each for the 3.5" wheels original to the Sports 6 (and early Spitfire) and for the later 4.5" wheels as found on later Vitesse 2L, GT6 and some of the Triumph 2000 sedans. It's just a matter of getting the correct ones.

TR3driver said:
This is a photo of a friend's Sports 6, mine wasn't very photogenic.
Click to expand...
Gee, Randall, yours didn't look that bad for a long sun-baked desert car...but the rest of you can judge for yourself: Sports 6 formerly owned by Randall
 
That 1600 is a 6 cyl? Man those are some tiny pistons,or, a very short stroke.
 
DNK said:
That 1600 is a 6 cyl? Man those are some tiny pistons,or, a very short stroke.
Click to expand...
Bit of both, actually. The 1600 version had 2.6" bore and not quite 3" stroke. For the 2000, they bored out to 3" (still with 3" stroke, a 'square' motor). Then the 2500 increased the stroke to 3.75".
 
You want <span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">tiny</span></span> pistons? This six was derived from the "small car" four-cylinder Standard engine, which was originally 803cc. Pistons were 58 mm or about 2.28 inches in diameter, but stroke was still 76 mm or about 2.99 inches!
 
I never got mine drivable. A friend let me drive his briefly in a parking lot; not really enough to get a good impression. But it's certainly no sports car, with only 70 bhp and rated weight (without passengers) over 2000 lb.

Most people seem to swap in a 2.0L from a GT6, so I'm guessing they find the 1.6L a bit lacking as well. Supposedly the 1.6L was stifled by an unfortunate choice of carbs (2 Solex semi-downdraft) and should run significantly better with a pair of SU carbs. I do regret not getting to try that combination (mine had been converted) but there it is. The new owner was planning to try to get the original 1.6 running; but was stalled out by other things (like moving to a new house) last time I talked to him. But his long-term plan was to drop in a 2.0 as well.
 
Actually, Triumph ditched the Solexes in favor of twin 150CD Strombergs in September 1965. With virtually no other changes, that added about 10 hp.

Aside from that, anyone who has driven a GT6 or a TR6 knows just how smooth the engine is, not to mention the available torque. Some folks have even claimed that the 1600 is the smoothest running of all the iterations of the Triumph six.

No, it's not a particularly quick car, and the stock final drive of 4.11:1 (same as Herald and pre-1971 Spitfire) may have been less than ideal, particularly for American highways. But it's still a very smooth ride...just not as nimble as a Herald (very similar to the comparison between Spitfire and GT6). And I would note that overdrive was available from the start, which is something I might do to my early Sports 6 if I ever get into restoring and actually driving it. Beyond that, though, it will remain stock, with 1600 and twin semi-downdraught Solexes. :wink:
 
Andrew Mace said:
Actually, Triumph ditched the Solexes in favor of twin 150CD Strombergs in September 1965. With virtually no other changes, that added about 10 hp.
Click to expand...
Perhaps I'm confused, Andy. Wasn't it you that told me they also quit building the Sports 6 before then, due to it's underwhelming success in the USA?

BTW, the link to your US Herald/Sports 6 register on the VTR site is out of date.
 
TR3driver said:
Perhaps I'm confused, Andy. Wasn't it you that told me they also quit building the Sports 6 before then, due to it's underwhelming success in the USA?
Click to expand...
Yes and no. Triumph actually appears to have stopped building Sports 6s for the US sometime in 1963. Slow seller that the car was, it continued to be price listed in 1964, which is why so many ended up being titled as 1964 or even 1965 models. No "true" Sports 6 I've ever seen got the "upgrades" such as speedo/tach dashboard that came in the latter part of 1963. Meanwhile, the Vitesse 6 continued to be built...and occasionally still badged as Sports 6 in Canada only.

TR3driver said:
BTW, the link to your US Herald/Sports 6 register on the VTR site is out of date.
Click to expand...
Hopefully not much longer, as I noticed that earlier this week and reported it.
 
Back
Top