The Triumph 2500PI Was The Lotus Carlton Of Its Day! But Had A Serious Flaw..

Hello everyone. Welcome to number 27. I'm Jack and this is a Triumph 2.5 Pi, a car that's probably more significant than you think. To begin with, this represents the beginnings of the British land, as you all know it. Secondly, very appropriately. a major

flaw

that meant that, although as a base car it is very, very good, it was quite unreliable and that affected its chances. Finally, this is one of the most unlikely hot rods you'll ever see. Let's get it out and I'll go. To tell you a little more, as I come in here there are a lot of things I want to tell you about the car itself, the interior and everything else, but before that, let me tell you a little CU History.

It is important that they know the context of what is happening. What makes this so interesting in the early 50's Triumph were doing quite well but just a few years later in the late 50's they were struggling to get enough money to build a new saloon to replace the Aging Vanguard and they realized that they had to make alliances to survive. Britain's Leland, which at the time was simply a truck and bus manufacturer, had been looking to expand into the car market, they had been talking to Jaguar and Rover, but that came to nothing. Talks about Triumph, however, progressed very, very quickly and it ended up being the first. company that they bought and that dedicated themselves to making the Behemoth the tragic Behemoth that we know today as British Leand, so I think that in 19 the conversations began in 59 in 60 it was bought and the Vanguard was the replacement for the Vanguard, which is this car that It was known as the 2000 which was developed in just 2 years, so in 1962 the 2000 was released and was very, very well received.

It had a straight-six engine developed by adding two cylinders to an original 8800 cc 4-cylinder engine. The 2000 cc inline six made only 90 horsepower, which was one of the only things that I think hindered the success of the 2000, although it really was a success in terms of sales anyway, but it was one of the only points Bad things would I say about that car, it was a unitary construction, so the chassis was quite rigid and very refined, the inline 6 is a good Tor engine. I'm not going to bash this old lady too much because she is absolutely gorgeous Simon the owner, thanks Simon for putting it down for me, he's obviously gone. out of their way to preserve one of the old icons of British motoring, but it is absolutely immaculate anyway, this is not a 90 horsepower version and I could feel that there and I will tell you more about that later, but the engine feels absolutely lovely, it was a hit at one point, i think they sold 20,000 a year, the closest competitor at the time was the rover p5 and the only thing i had over it apparently it handled a little better but was also faster , it had four However, this cylinder was more refined now there was a 2.5L 2500 CCC injected engine in the TR models that made 150 horsepower and it was natural to transplant it into this, by converting it to the 2.5 Pi, injection meant it was more fuel efficient.

It was really a bit of an unexpected hidden hot rod because slightly detuned from the TR version, it still made 130 horsepower, 40 horsepower more than the previous car, which meant a n to 60 in less than 10 seconds, a top speed of 111mph and a 100mph cruising capability, so it was pretty quick for the time and even today it feels like a nimble car, which, considering it's a 1969 model, is really quite an achievement. You are perched quite high in these lovely leather chairs. I don't even call them seats and the interior has the kind of charm that modern cars can only dream of.

These wooden covers are actually pieces of wood. It's not even walnut veneer because of the way it's shaped. Some of the details like the clock that controls the instruments. everything is absolutely lovely, all the controls are very light, you know there are these touches like the ashtray which has a lovely movement, there was a big problem, I said before, there was a problem which had to do with reliability and it's strange because that was set the tone for British lean, but these cars were actually great cars, they are very well built. The interiors are nice and they had plenty of power, but the fuel pump for the injection system was basically supposedly made from a modified windshield wiper motor. was not really up to the task, as a result there were a lot of problems, especially with hot star things which today have been solved with a Bosch with a modern Bosch fuel pump and that is a shame because this car which obviously has the pump modern fuel I find driving absolutely brilliant.

I can understand why this has been dubbed the unlikely hot rod. It really is surprisingly fast. The engine is still very good. It's refined. It has a lovely deep kind of warble at low revs. It gets a little rougher. when you're going faster, but it's a lovely thing, it's also quite surprising when it comes to handling because you've got this huge steering wheel with a thin leather rim, very pleasant to the touch, and although the steering is very, very slow, as I suppose. It would have been and should have been for a car of this type.

It's quite sharp and the Triumph actually feels quite light. The foot walking is also really good. I am really very impressed with this car, unfortunately it was only made for one year. Triumph had a habit of installing their new engines and transmissions in old cars, uh, and this was only done for 1969, so it's a very rare car, not the kind of car you're going to pull too hard in a corner. I imagine if you did, it would probably start. to wallow and pitch, but drives very fast for a 1969 car, equipped perfectly well, no tach so can't tell what reps it's doing right now, but at an indicated speed of 60 MPH it's extreme ex L refined, very little wind. noise, now you feel as comfortable as a four-speed box, which is one of the things that perhaps ages the car the most.

You've got a delicate little shift knob there and you have to know where to guide it as you move it. The gearbox is not instinctive and also responds well to some type of smooth movement. It's not the kind of gearbox you want to rev through the gears and it has overdrive which works very, very well, so essentially it's a five speed car overdrive. a little lever next to the steering wheel, all the controls are so thin, so delicate, they all work in harmony, it's really sad because the fuel injection system itself, I think it's a Lucas, but I think it's pretty problem free , so any problems it had were mainly with that fuel pump, but it seems that Triumph fought so hard with the British Leland at the time to get the whole system working that when the Mark I came out they finally went back to carbs and that's a shame because after having driven it today having I drove a properly running example, I feel like it was a real step forward, a car that surprised me and I really like that it was designed by Melotti, so it has that kind of Triumph family heritage that I quite like it, and considering it was the beginning of British Leland, you can imagine that if it wasn't for that problem, they could have been making great cars.

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