During the London sale (6 November 2021), RM Sotheby's will offering up this beautiful Triumph TR3A Works Rally Car, a race car built especially for the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally with the Triumph Works team.

This car was auctioned not so long ago. It was sold for € 184,000 during the RM Sotheby's sale in Paris in 2018 (source : RM Sotheby's). When I see the sale prices of classic cars, I always think that it seems to be a very good investment. I'll be able to check it out soon. 😀

If you want to see some of the cars sold during RM Sotheby's London, here's a follow-up :

Model	Estimated Price	Post
1952 Jaguar C-Type	£ 4,000,000 – £ 4,500,000	More
1960 Porsche 356 Carrera Zagato Speedster Sanction Lost	Unknown	More
1968 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA 1300 Junior	Unknown	More

History of Triumph TR3

The Triumph TR3 is a sport car produced between 1955 and 1962 by the Standard Triumph. Founded in 1903, Standard Motor Company was intially a tractor manufacturer. In 1945, the company purchased Triumph and focused on cars. Back to the car... In 1957, the car is updated with a new design, especially the front grille. 58,236 examples were produced until 1962.

This car (VRW 221) was built with three other examples in order to race for Triumph Works team during the 1958 Monte Carlo Rally :

VRW 219 driven by Annie Soisbault and Tish Ozanne,
VRW 220 by Paddy Hopkirk and Jack Scott,
VRW 221 by John Waddington and Mike Wood,
VRW 223 by Maurice Gatsonides and Marcel Bequart.

During the race, the car VRW 221, was disqualified before arriving in Lyon due to bad weather conditions. But it was allowed to participate in the driving tests in Monte Carlo at the end of the rally where it finished 3rd. After the car participated to the 1958 Circuit of Ireland Rally (2nd place 🥈) and to the 1958 Tulip Rally (🥇 in its class). As you can see with the pics at the end of the post, the TR3A was 15th during the 1958 Tour de France before an abandon on the last day due to brake failure. Impressive race car !

And now the car compete in many historic rallies as the Three Castle Rally, the Rally of the Tests or the three-day Kitzbüheler Alpenrallye...

Specification

The Triumph TR3A is equipped with 2,138 cc straight-4 engine mated with 4 speed manual transmission. During a test done by the magazine Road & Track in 1977, the car can reach 100 kmh in 12 seconds and produce 100hp at 4,800 rpm.

This example was restored in 2018 by the Triumph specialist, Just Historic Cars (Hastings, England). It's finished in Apple Green over brown leather interior.Beautiful car but for me, I.ll remove the headlight on the roof although historically it was necessary during rallies at that time