Triumph 3T
TRIUMPH CAME OUT of the Second World War battered, but with a brand-new factory at Meriden and a 10-year start over their competition. This was because before the war they had introduced a range of vertical twins that set the standard for all the other British manufacturers to meet.
They were first out of the traps releasing details of their peacetime range and their package contained five models, four twins and a single. Of these, one was a civilianised version of the sturdy war department 350cc 3HW single. There were plenty to go around, and although it was never an official model, buyers snapped them up, desperate to buy anything new with their postwar gratuities.
The big sellers were Triumph’s 500 twins, the Speed Twin and the Tiger 100, which were initially nearly identical to the models that had been rolled out in 1937-39. These were supposed to be joined by two new models, a pair of 350cc twins, the 3T De Luxe and the sporty Tiger 85, though the 3T was the only one to make it into
