Triumph TR5 Surrey Top
The Surrey top was not the TR5's hardtop but a folding canopy for the hole in its roof, sold as an extra for the hardtop car. What the factory offered, how the name came to mean the whole roof, and the TR5's other options.
A TR5 could be ordered two ways: as an open car with a folding hood (soft top), or as a hardtop, with a fixed rear section and its glass window and a rigid panel over the seats that lifted out. The Surrey top belonged to the second. It was a folding canopy of PVC that clipped into the hole the rigid panel left, so that an open hardtop car could be covered again when it rained, and the factory sold it as an extra for the hardtop car only.source 1source 2source 3
The factory's description
Standard-Triumph's Italian brochure of October 1967 gave the hardtop a page of its own, headed "Tetto rigido unico", a unique hardtop, and described the canopy among its three drawings:
Il 'Surrey Top' (baldacchino ribaltabile di polivinile) si attacca rapidamente nella sua posizione per proteggere da improvvisi cambiamenti atmosferici.
In our translation: the Surrey top, a folding PVC canopy, clips quickly into place to protect against sudden changes in the weather. The page's text calls the hardtop car the last word in versatility, open by removing the roof panel and covered again, if the rain came suddenly, by the Surrey canopy, "come accessorio facoltativo extra", an optional extra. Its other two drawings show the hardtop with the panel in place, comfortable and weatherproof, and with the panel off and the windscreen (windshield) and rear window left in place for open motoring without draughts. The brochure's list of extras ends with the canopy, "modello a tetto rigido soltanto": for the hardtop model only.source 1
One name, two meanings
Strictly, then, the Surrey top is the canopy and its folding frame, and tr5passion.com says so: the name was given to that canvas top alone. In everyday use it has come to mean the whole two-piece roof, and tr5passion.com records that too:
While the name Surrey was given exclusively to this canvas top, today the name has been extended to all the hard tops.
The wider use is common. The TR Drivers' Club's page on the TR5 and TR250 calls the whole assembly the "Surrey Top" hard top, with a rigid rear section and a removable fabric section, and James Taylor wrote that Triumph called the new hardtop a "Surrey" top. The TR Register's list of the TR5's options keeps the strict sense: a "surrey soft top (for hard top model)".
The hardtop on the cars
tr5passion.com gives the hardtop's colours as black, white or that of the body, and the canopy's as black or white, and adds that the hardtop was fitted at the factory and delivered on new cars, though it could be added later, and that the rigid centre panel was also sold on its own. A hardtop car cost more than an open one, and the two prices are in the specifications.
The TR250 had the same roof. "The TR250 was also available with the Surrey Top system," the TR Drivers' Club says, and the Vintage Triumph Register adds another roof for America alone: "A fiberglass hardtop was available to the USA only, having a single rear window and being very angular in design." Both can be true, but no source read says which was offered when.
The TR5 and TR250 were the last TRs offered with the Surrey top. The TR6 had a one-piece hardtop, designed by Les Mann's team at Triumph, and none of the TR6's sources offers a Surrey canopy for it. Aaron Severson explains why the old roof went:
The TR4's two-piece hardtop was expensive to manufacture and despite its novelty Triumph had never figured out how to merchandize it effectively, to the later regret of some company executives.
No source read says when the factory last listed it.source 3source 4source 6source 7source 8source 1source 2source 9
The other options
The Italian brochure lists four extras: overdrive, 60-spoke wire wheels, a tonneau cover for the open car and the Surrey top for the hardtop. tr5passion.com and the Vintage Triumph Register add the rest:
| Option | What it was |
|---|---|
| Overdrive | Laycock de Normanville, working on second, third and top; O in the commission number |
| Wire wheels | 60 spokes; chrome or silver painted on the TR250 |
| Tonneau cover | For the open car only |
| Leather | On the seat facings; the rest stayed in Ambla |
| Radio | A Radiomobile in Motor Sport's British test car; Bendix sets in America |
| Heated rear window | A panel for the hardtop's rear window |
| Oil cooler, sump guard | Both listed for the TR5 and the TR250 |
| Electric screen defroster | Listed for both cars |
| Door mirror | For the passenger's side |
| Seat belts | Two- or three-point, by tr5passion.com; Britax or fitted by the dealer in America |
| Spares kit | A "Continental breakdown kit" in Europe; a "TS" touring and safety kit in America |
| Air conditioning | Advertised in America, though the VTR knows of no original example |
Sources
Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Standard-Triumph, Nuova Triumph TR5 PI (fold-out sales brochure), Italy, Oct 1967, ref. 387/1067/IT, the hardtop page and the accessories; page image, "Tetto rigido unico" and its three drawings; the accessories; page image, "Tetto rigido unico"; the accessories. Primary
- TR Register, "Triumph TR5 / TR250" (facts sheet, under "Buyers Guide"), options. Reference
- Frédéric Reydellet (racing history), tr5passion.com (group): "En bref / Summary", "Identification", "Lucas injection", "Options", "Technical spec", "Colours", "TR5 Ginevra", "Racing history", TR5 Passion, Options page (_r64); Options page (_r64), the hardtop and colours. Reference
- TR Drivers Club, "The TR5/250", the Surrey top; the Surrey top on the TR250. Reference
- James Taylor, Triumph TR, Windrow & Greene, Classics in Colour 9, 1994, full-text passage on the hardtop. Reference
- Drew Holliday, "Triumph TR250 Production Information" (8 pp. PDF), Vintage Triumph Register, p. 4, the American hardtop; pp. 4–5, options and accessories. Reference
- Doug Nye ("D. C. N."), "Road Test Report on a Sports Car: The Fuel-Injection Triumph TR5 PI", Motor Sport, Aug 1968, p. 26, the specification panel, prices; the test car's radio. Primary
- Aaron Severson, "Grandfather's Ax: The Many Evolutions of the Triumph TR4, Part 2: TR5, TR250, and TR6", Ate Up With Motor, 7 Nov 2012, "A new bottle: the Triumph TR6", the hardtop; photo caption, wire wheels. Reference
- TR Register, "Triumph TR6 Buyers Guide" (facts sheet), the TR6's options. Reference