I saw a small Triumph Car at a parking lot today- beautifully restored. It is quite small and seems like a convertible. The radiator is like a small gnarly mouth but I can’t find an image of a Triumph that tends to suit it.
I do have a picture but am not aware of any web sharing sites I can post it to- if anyone has clues I can easily send them the picture (I hope). I would guess no later than the 50’s.
There are Triumph clubs such as:
https://vintagetriumphregister.org/
A discussion on picture posting:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=836591
List of image sharing sites:
I had some of my driving lessons in one once.
Thanks PL but I looked at the Herald and I couldn’t get any to match. I said a small gnarly face but actually the grille takes up much of the front.
Thanks Past Tense- after going through those pictures I am confident it is a TR3 from 1961.
My dad owned (I think actually still owns it) a TR-80. A little white V-8 with tiny little wheels. He did a lot of work restoring it but it wasn’t just a show piece. He loved to drive it, tearing around little back roads in New Hampshire where they used to live. He put the fear of petrol into me a few times showing me how he could get rubber in three gears. Or he had this little game to see if he could get it up to 100 before the big curve up ahead. Fun.
That all said, I am not a gear head, so I can’t offer any thing along the line of specs or anything. I can say it was a fun car to drive, but it isn’t driving-lite. Tight, touchy clutch, no power steering that I recall, real low to the ground. And also as I recall “a lot of work restoring” also included a lot of money repairing.
I was going to guess TR3 from your description of the grille. Not many left now, though checking howmanyleft.co.uk, more than I would have guessed - nearly 1,000 still licensed in the UK. Never driven one - my mum had a Triumph Spitfire (late 60s/early 70s I would guess) which she loved. I think she still has the tonneau cover, for some reason.
My father had a TR-3 in the 60s. When I was a teenager, I had a Spitfire Mk II in racing green. My brother just finished restoring another TR-3, one of two he purchased ten years ago (one for parts).
They are a hell of a lot of fun to drive and I would still have one if I weren’t so old that getting in and out of them is now a problem. Parts are still available (especially if you upgrade the electrics and don’t INSIST on everything being original) and they really aren’t that hard to maintain. One cool thing about a Spitfire is that you can raise the hood and sit on the front tire while you work on the engine. A similarly cool thing about the TR-3 is that you can crank the engine manually to start it. (There’s an opening at the front below the grill.)
I know that I would love to have one. Or any two-seater convertible coupe, for that matter.
When I was about 18/19, my dad’s then-wife let me driver her 70’s MGB convertible around the lake for a couple of hours, and they were two of the best hours of my life. One of these days, when I have some money, I’m buying a convertible coupe. Don’t care how cheap or crappy or even if it’s a Miata, I just want one for recreational driving.
I had 3 Triumphs when I was a young’n. A 57 TR3, a 64 TR4a, and then a 56 TR2.
All great, fun little cars, especially the TR2 and TR3. They had dead-simple Smith Union carbs and were easy to tune. When they started to put Lancaster carbs in them they became more of a problem.
Every once in a while I’ll see one on the road and get all nostalgic, but I probably couldn’t get into one now anyway. 
I think I meant a TR-8? Idunno. It was a 1980 model, I think that’s what threw me.
As long as it wasn’t a TRS-80. Those things were slow as sin.
I have a 1957 TR3 but that early model has a small grill. Sounds like a TR3a as they are often described as a “toothy grin”. Triumph TR3A — Wikipédia
Dennis
My brother had a TR4.
Someone at the gym club I go has a beautifully restored TR3 in just pristine condition. I’ve seen it there twice on very sunny days. Beautiful
I used to have a '63 Triumph Herald 1200 Convertible. The only car I ever named. I called it Spiffy.
Looks like we have a match except the one I saw was cream. I doubt there would be very few remaining in Australia. Thanks everyone- look like they would have been fun to drive.
You doubt there would be very many in Australia? Or you think there are many? 
FWIW, I’m a member of a FB group for MGB roadsters. Australia is well-represented.
Oh they were/are. I owned my 57 when I was stationed in the Mojave desert and drove it all over California at unsafe speeds. It had an electric overdrive in the top 3 gears, so 7 forwards. It topped out at 105mph. 
And mine had the smaller grill, same as the TR2s. I had an argument with someone once that swore the TR3s all had the wide grill, until I showed him a picture of mine.
Sadly, I made the huge mistake of trading it in on a 64 MGB. 
There are lots of them in Australia! I have purchased several items from Australia for Triumphs in the past year.
Dennis
I have a friend who does some work on them in his home garage. He has a sign “The parts falling off this car of are the *Finest *British manufacture.”
