Roland Richter TR3

Roland Richter (Netherlands)
TR3 - an interesting historical car.
Check the bottom of the page for additional photos & suggestions.

Roland is from the Netherlands and has a TR3 with a very interesting hardtop. He has written to us to see if we can help identify the manufacturer. He says:
"Hi, I’m from the Netherlands and I have a TR3 with a special fiberglass hardtop. I’m looking for the person or factory who build it and I was told that it might be from Australia. Did anyone in your club ever see such a hardtop?

It was an English car in very poor condition, rotten and damaged at the front. The hardtop was able to be opened originally but now it has been screwed on the car."

Australian Historian, Graeme White, has been unable to find any reference to such a top being manufactured in Australia but he has located a similar one in New Zealand, and the photos are shown at the bottom of the page.

If you have any clues about where and who made this hardtop could you please contact Roland via the webmanager - Rick Fletcher

This is the New Zealand TR2 coupe (rather unkindly called a "Breadvan" by some Kiwis).
It is clearly not made by the same factory but is an interesting comparison. The photo below shows it undergoing restoration in NZ.
It was always a permanent modification to the TR2 body and never removable.

Buchanan Hardtop (coupe)	Buchanan Hardtop body (coupe)
Buchanan bodies for various sports cars.	US advert. Terry Hicks has sent these 4 photos in and says: "if it is Australian I doubt that J & S would have done it. Possibly Milano though I am attaching a few images of Buchanans which came as a complete coupe body or as a roadster and detachable hardtop. They do bear a similarity to the vehicle in question. I doubt that it would have been a production item but perhaps one was made as a one off. I am also attaching an ad which appears to be very close to the NZ car."
April 2014 Graeme White, our prolific contributor of historic articles spotted this advert in a 1967 magazine: "Please look at the attachment below and the GT hardtop design. Maybe this company at one stage had a hardtop design for a sidescreen TR, and this could be a possible lead to solve our overseas hardtop query. A tall shot I know but........ a one piece design covering the boot area, with a side window? As they say “for the connoisseur “ and whilst only promoting in this advert, the Sprite/ MG Midget which were the same at that point in time, maybe earlier they had a mould for the TR and it proved a bit of a flop." At least Graeme proves that similar style hardtops were made in the UK.