During the 1960s and 1970s, Triumph’s talented designers were involved in several exciting concepts which sadly remained just prototypes, never to see the light of showrooms. To discuss these exciting projects, we were extremely fortunate to talk with two designers who contributed to them both – John Ashford who had worked for the Rootes Group, Ford and then Lucas, and Harris Mann who joined a design studio in the States for a short while before returning to the UK to work initially at Ford.
On leaving Lucas, John joined the design centre at Triumph’s Canley plant in 1968. At the time Harry Webster was Engineering Director, while Spen King was Chief Engineer and his direct report. The head of Triumph’s Styling Studios was Les Moore, while the company’s Chief Body Engineer was Arthur Ballard. Indeed, while Webster had a penchant for using Italian designer Michelotti for creating many of Triumph’s most successful models, to discount Moore and his team (which included Norman Davies, Ray Innes, John Ashford, David Keepax, Richard Hunt, Brian Keane and others) would be to do them a grave injustice.
‘The genealogy of the TR range of sports cars can be traced back directly through the TR5, TR4A, TR4, TR3 and TR2, most of these models receiving face lifts from the Triumph styling studios
