The first right-hand-drive production Triumph TR, owned by the TR Register Car Club, has successfully completed Club Triumph’s gruelling 2026 Ten Countries Run, proving that one of the most historically significant surviving Triumph sports cars still possesses the rugged ability that made the marque famous.

The TR Register Car Club’s famous Triumph TR2, known simply by its chassis number ‘TS2’, has completed the 2026 Club Triumph Ten Countries Run in the hands of TR Register Car Club members Andy and Evie Allsopp. Their six-day adventure took the 73-year-old sports car through ten European countries and across some of the Continent’s most spectacular and demanding roads, before finishing in Kerkrade, the Netherlands.

The route

Brake trouble near Amiens meant the crew had to exercise the spanners early, but the fault was quickly diagnosed. Andy and Evie eventually reached the start at Sedan at around 11 pm. Help from fellow Triumph crews transformed their fortunes the following morning. A further adjustment to the master-cylinder brake limit screw restored a functioning pedal and, at 08:58, TS2 finally set off on the Ten Countries Run.

What followed became an extraordinary demonstration of both the durability of Triumph’s original TR and the camaraderie surrounding the event.

By the end of that first long day, TS2 had already travelled through five of the ten countries. From there, Andy and Evie headed into the mountains, taking the car across roads including Austria’s Grossglockner and some of the great Alpine passes of Switzerland and Italy. Approaching via Switzerland’s Umbrail Pass, TS2 appeared completely at home on the twisting mountain roads. Andy described the car as being “never happier or more capable”, as the little TR attacked hairpin after hairpin.

Soon after Bormio, a local motorist reversed a Fiat Panda into the TR’s rear wing. Luckily, the damage was relatively limited. A loose rear light was subsequently secured with that most traditional of long-distance classic-car repair materials – gaffer tape – and TS2 continued.

The route then carried the crew across the Bernina and Flüela passes, through Davos and Klosters and into Liechtenstein, before the Oberalp Pass presented them with freezing fog. TS2 even tackled the Furka Pass twice before breakfast the following morning as Andy and Evie sought a photograph outside the famous Hotel Belvédère. From there the journey continued through France, eventually taking them through Verdun and onwards towards the Netherlands.

Finally, after six days on the road, TS2 rolled into Kerkrade and completed all ten countries. For Andy, however, one of the proudest moments came afterwards, as the crews gathered for the finishers’ meal. He said: “We mixed with so many entrants of all ages, bonded through the enjoyment and achievement of the week now behind us.”

The achievement also demonstrated the close relationship between the TR Register and Club Triumph. TS2 previously completed Club Triumph’s 2,000-mile Round Britain Reliability Run in 2010, while the Ten Countries Run gave the two clubs another chance to celebrate their shared Triumph heritage.

Andy added: “Our journey started at Malvern, under the banner ‘Stronger Together’. So fitting that Club Triumph sought to laud TS2, a Register car. There was no us and them. Just drivers, co-drivers, navigators and their machines, celebrating a job well done.”

The TR with an extraordinary history

Completed on 22 July 1953, chassis TS2 is the first right-hand-drive production Triumph TR2. It was hand-built at Standard-Triumph’s Banner Lane Experimental Department in Coventry before regular TR production began at Canley. Its sister car, the left-hand-drive TS1, was completed on the same day. Soon after being built, it travelled via Sweden to Ireland, appeared at the 1953 Dublin Motor Show and subsequently toured Standard-Triumph dealerships as a demonstrator.

Its first private owner, Dr Brendan O’Hara, had little interest in treating the new sports car gently. He raced, rallied and hill-climbed TS2 and, in 1954, the car completed the four-day Circuit of Ireland Rally.

By the mid-1960s, however, TS2 had become semi-derelict. Eventually rescued and returned to England, it was donated for the benefit of the TR Register Car Club community and underwent a major club restoration, completed in time for the 2001 NEC Classic Motor Show. Since then, the philosophy has been simple: TS2 should be seen, enjoyed and driven.

The car undertook a group-to-group relay around Britain in 2007, completed the 2,000-mile Round Britain Reliability Run in 2010 and, in 2022, tackled the TR Register’s extraordinary Round Britain Relay, created to visit all 53 of the club’s local groups. Now, at 73 years old, TS2 has crossed ten European countries, conquered some of the Alps’ most celebrated passes through torrential rain, freezing fog and traffic jams to reach the finish.

Asked afterwards whether they would undertake another adventure with TS2, Andy and Evie’s answer was emphatic: “We would follow this amazing little car anywhere.”

The experience went straight to the heart of why the TR Register Car Club continues to use TS2 rather than preserve it solely as a static exhibit. TS2 is owned by the TR Register Car Club and is made available for members to use where its appearance helps promote the Triumph marque and the club. The philosophy behind its custodianship is deliberately to keep the historically important car active rather than permanently displayed behind ropes.