![Another classic car our Martin Buckley hankers after, the Triumph 1300 Classic & Sports Car – Guilty pleasures: Triumph 1300](/sites/default/files/styles/article/public/2023-03/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Cr%20%E2%80%93%20Guilty%20pleasures%20%E2%80%93%20Triumph%201300%20%E2%80%93%20LEAD.png?itok=ASuSfXqc)
Apart from a brief acquaintance with a TR6 project car a few years ago, I don’t think I have ever owned a Triumph.
Stags and 2.5 Pis appeal, and I’m intrigued by the Vitesse as an early attempt at a compact sports saloon almost in the BMW idiom.
I’ve never even driven a Herald, but my gran had one during a fast turnover of ’70s bangers, and I wouldn’t ever want a TR, but they are wholesome fun and I can see why people love them.
![Behind the wheel of this Triumph 1300 classic car Classic & Sports Car – Guilty pleasures: Triumph 1300](/sites/default/files/2023-03/Classic%20%26%20Sports%20Cr%20%E2%80%93%20Guilty%20pleasures%20%E2%80%93%20Triumph%201300%20%E2%80%93%203.png)
This nicely appointed classic Triumph saloon rides and handles well
I genuinely hanker after a drive in a Dolomite Sprint, which I suspect was as good as anything in its class.
A friend in America is quite emphatic he prefers his Dolly Sprint to his 2002tii, and I have a clear memory of being given a ride in an early BMW 3 Series that its owner had fitted with a Sprint engine, which must say something for it.
Watching Gerry Marshall hoofing his Triplex-sponsored Group 1 Sprint around in ’70s racing footage is to witness car control as a true art.
That car – or rather the 16-valve engine that powered it – was probably, to my mind, ‘peak’ Triumph. I can’t think of anything else that appeared subsequently that I would cross the road to look at.