Triumph TR250

Two reasons are given, and both hold. The first is emissions. The TR Register writes that the TR5 could not be sold in North America because of the new American exhaust rules, the TR Drivers' Club points to the same tighter rules, and James Taylor writes that the Lucas system could not be made to meet them. The German TR Register's guide says that the sharp injected version could no longer be sold in the United States, "und blieb England und dem Rest der Welt vorbehalten" (in our translation, and was kept for England and the rest of the world).

The second is cost. In a market where the distributors had already balked at paying for independent rear suspension, Severson puts the cost of injection at $400 or more on the list price, and adds that the injected engine, rich at low speeds, could have passed the rules only with an air pump. The answer was to detune the six: its compression came down, two modified Zenith-Stromberg carburettors took the place of the injection and its inlet vacuum was limited, and it passed with no extra hardware, which also cut the cost of making it. Michael Richards records that the sales force rebelled at the thought of a TR dearer than the TR4A.

Chris Harvey writes that the Americans got a car "with the old carburettors that, ironically, passed the emission tests by careful tuning", and adds that "if the TR250's jets were much smaller they'd be blanks".

The car wore TR250 on the bonnet and on the boot lid, and a 2500 badge on each rear wing, as the TR5 did. Richards writes that Standard-Triumph chose not to give two such different cars one name. American magazines wrote it differently: Car and Driver headed its April 1968 story on the Sebring TR250K "TR-250K", and Motor Trend titled its April 1968 test "Triumph 250". The importer's newsletter once made them one car. Captioning a picture of the new TR5 the Coventry police had for patrolling the local expressways, its newsletter of July 1968 called it a "TR-5 (that's TR-250 to you)".

The VTR's account of the TR250 is the fullest, and most of what follows rests on it. The table sets the main differences against the TR5 PI; the specification below gives the figures.

Under the bonnet there was a vacuum control valve on the throttle linkage below the front carburettor, which the VTR describes as often lost or not working, and hoses striped yellow and black. Every TR250 had independent rear suspension, since the live axle some American TR4As had was no longer offered, and the front lower wishbones gained a second stud to the frame, which the VTR says cured a failure noted on the TR4A. Severson adds that the TR4's optional, still lower-geared axle could no longer be had except to special order. The tyres were wider than the TR5's, and their speed rating differs between the sources; the specification's note gives both.

Outside, beside the stripe and badges, there were amber front lamps whose sides no longer flashed, tail lamps with vertical fins and indicator lenses red or amber by the state the car was sold in, and a magnetic "Monza" fuel cap, larger than the TR5's. British Leyland later told dealers to turn the cap through 45° so that it would not open in a collision. Its wheel covers were the same Rostyle-style ones as the TR5's, and wire wheels could be had instead.

For safety the VTR lists a brake-failure warning lamp, a brace to keep the steering rack from collapsing into the cockpit and hazard flashers; Severson adds that both cars had switches revised for the federal rules that took effect on 1 January 1968. Inside, the seats had a diamond pattern in their centre panels; Ambla was standard, and leather an option on the seat facings. The dashboard kept its wood, though, the VTR says, the last 500 to 750 cars did without the book-matched veneer of the rest. Overdrive was an option, fitted at the factory or by a dealer; a glass-fibre hardtop was offered in America only, and the TR Drivers' Club says the TR250 could also have the Surrey top. Air conditioning was advertised, though, the VTR notes, no original example is known.

The importer's newsletter reported that by February 1968 the TR-250 was "in such short supply that few dealers have more than one in stock", and Leyland's stand at the New York Auto Show, which opened at the Coliseum on 30 March, was to feature the TR-250 and a light show. Severson writes that it sold well enough, though far behind the four-cylinder TR4.

Road & Track's owner survey of 1969, as reported by Severson, found that over 40% of TR250 owners would not buy another. Severson records an early complaint:

On the track, Kas Kastner's competition department and Group 44 ran TR250s in C Production in 1968, and Bob Tullius won often in the East; the season is on racing, and the Sebring one-off that Kastner built with Peter Brock on a TR4A chassis is the TR250K. The press reception is on road tests.⁠source 17​source 18​source 4​source 3​source 19​source 20​source 21​source 12

The TR250 was built for the United States and Canada; no source read gives a Canadian difference or a Canadian price. Elsewhere the car sold was the TR5 PI, though a few TR250s were delivered in Europe and the German TR Register gives a German price for the TR250:

The Belgian cars have numbers and plates of their own, and tr5passion.com advises that the British Motor Museum holds no record of them; identification explains both.

Some TR250s never crossed the Atlantic. An American could take delivery in Europe: the importer's newsletter of March 1968 set out the cost, from a factory price of $2,325 with estimates for registration, shipping, duty and federal tax, $2,803 in all. The VTR says that "A few 250's did stay in Europe via the European delivery program but it was not the norm."⁠source 14​source 1​source 15​source 7​source 18​source 3​source 4​source 22