Gallery John McCormack

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Vehicle Model: Tr2         Year:     1954         Commission Number: TS5038O

State: NSW                            Owned since: 1976

I bought TS5038O in February 1976 from John Thompson Sports Cars on Parramatta Rd, Burwood. Apart from the years 1980-83 when I pulled the body off for a home done restoration it has been my everyday car. Still is (2025).
I won the TSOA Concours in 1976. I have attached a photo of me in the car in 1976, probably about the time of the Concours.
I’ve covered 200-250,000 miles over 49 years. It has needed towing maybe 3-4 times so pretty good overall reliability. Quite a few failures to proceed fixed beside the road with a handy bag of tools and spares kept onboard.
After the early 80s work the car won Best TR2 in the TR Register 1987 and 88 Concours. It then deteriorated and by 2009 the paint wasn’t waterproof. A cheap repaint in a blokes garage in 2009 made it presentable and it has been on the road since.
Original steering, brakes etc it does now have a hi torque starter and Lumenition ignition. I have kept the maintenance up to it and it drives very well indeed. On the long Concours trips it has stopped only once, in Tassie with a loose distributor base plate.

The photos are: with our 2500S and Morrie Minor Traveller family cars in Canberra in the late 80s, me in the car in 1976/77, the TR2 at John Pike’s place in about 2020, me with Mr John Sendall in Goulburn in 2023,John was the original owner of this car which he bought new in April 1955, with aero screens as it was used for many years when I couldn’t get a new windscreen.

Vehicle Model: Tr2         Year:     1954         Commission Number: TS3732O

State: NSW                            Owned since: 2017
I bought this early long door TR2 (TS3732O) from Bob Cousins, a long term Register member, in February 2017 in two trailer loads of parts. Bob had bought the car in 1966 from the original owner, a Newcastle schoolteacher, who he knew. The car had been raced for its first ten years.
Bob started restoring the body and other work, but things got in the way and when he got back to it illness prevented him completing it. He had done a great deal of the body, had a fully rebuilt engine retaining the race cam (fast road by the feel of it) and had many great parts, including a Stanpart TR2 wiring loom bought in 1966 and still in its packaging.
I built the car back to its original factory specifications of signal red, tan leather and bone weather equipment.
It was reregistered in June 2019 for the first time since 1965. Covid then got in the way and the car was finished in 2022. In my ownership the car won the TSOA 2022 and 2023 Concours D’Elegance and the 2022 TR Register Merimbula Concours.
I then acquired a very special TR3 so with four TRs, my BRG TR2, the Concours TR2, the TR3, and my TR6, one had to go. 
I sold the TR2 to John McCormack in Victoria, no relation, who then won the 2024 TR Register Concours. 
The car has been driven now over 10,000 kms, I drove it regularly including to Merimbula for the 2022 Concours, John drove it up to Canberra for the 2024 event. It drives brilliantly and still wins prestigious Concours events.
I built the car back to its original factory specifications of signal red, tan leather and bone weather equipment. It is incredibly original still having, for example, its original engine, generator and starter motor. 
The photos are; the complete car in my garage, the complete interior, body shell before the colour goes on, the chassis and running gear complete just before the first engine start in over 60 years and the car as it was when it arrived in my garage (the body was held on the chassis by 6 bolts, the suspension had no bushes).

Vehicle Model: Tr3         Year:     1956        Commission Number: TS

State: NSW                            Owned since: 2022

In mid 2022 I was at David Clarks workshop in Sydney looking at a Triumph Italia when I received a phone call from Alan Wright that he needed to move his TR3 on.
Alan had owned the car since 1958 when it was just two years old. He raced it until the mid 60s, supercharged it and dragged it at Castlereagh dragstrip until the later 60s. After its racing time he removed the racing roundels which took the original paint with them. He had the car repainted in the mid 60s with a simple coat over the original finish. The car then won a few TSOA Concour d’Elegance. Unfortunately that paint didn’t last and as it deteriorated he stopped using the car. It sat in his garage for some decades only being driven for registration renewals and servicing.
Alan and I came to a deal and I acquired this priceless TR3. I had it repainted but only those surfaces that needed it. I left areas like the engine bay and boot original. Apart from some changes Alan made in its racing time like electric fuel pumps and fuel piping in the engine bay, the car is almost factory original. The interior was first removed when I had the car repainted and is now almost 100% factory fitted original, including the carpets. It still has its original generator, starter regulator, wiper motor etc. As he was racing the car in 1961 Standard Triumph gave Alan a set of Alfin alloy brake drums which are still fitted.
Apart from the new paint I fitted a new wiring loom, 6 bladed Triumph 2000 fan and new tyres. After the gearbox reverse gear failed I rebuilt the original gearbox.
Alan tells me the engine has not been modified but it does have 87mm pistons and a very much lightened flywheel. I’m doubtful on this, it is a very quick TR3 that drives superbly
The photos; the paint as I got the car, as repainted in my garage, the original interior, being given a new bare metal paint job, again the original interior.