The Last Big Triumph - Triumph 2500S Driving Review 

+orinbay Thanks a lot for watching! Glad you enjoyed it and good to hear you own. 2000 series 😎👍

Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it. The estates are very rare now. A very practical classic. And good looking as well.

Glad you enjoyed the trip down memory road John. The gearbox in this one was very nice. Not sure if it had a refurb but it was slick.

That’s cool! I didn’t get to have that kind of fun in this car but it would have been interesting to give it a spirited drive.

The 2.5 twitch! Brings back memories!

That’s cool Vincent! Thanks for sharing👍

That is great to hear you've had your 2500 TC for all those years! That's fantastic 😎 Long may it continue👍

And it wasn't built in Speke

That’s cool! Good to hear you experienced the 2500S awesomeness 😎👍

+Stephen Fox Thanks for watching Stephen! It's nice and understated isn't it. I don't think a high shine, polished veneer would suit it.

I never thought that I would say that a Rolls Royce looked cheap but they do now with their super high gloss wood trim.

+Stephen Fox Sometimes keeping it simple is better. It can be just as affective.

Nade by The Awson Motor Carriage Company in Coventry (yes, that was the name, horse and carriage sounds like)

That is good to hear! Imagine if British Leyland had of built them better. How’s things might have gone. True it’s getting harder to find clean 2500s. Prices have gone up a fair bit as well. I still want to own one someday. The one I drove at the auction will be the benchmark! Thanks for watching👍

The South African cars, like the Australian and New Zealand cars were CKD's or complete knock downs delivered in crates and pallets to be locally assembled.

promerops .

+davekingmusic1994 Thanks for watching! We haven't driven a PI yet but imagine they compare well with the 2500. We'll have to do a test sometime and compare them both.

You will not be disappointed with a well sorted PI.

+davekingmusic1994 Cool! Will have to find one to review so👌Thanks for watching👍

davekingmusic1994 yeah until you see the petrol in the boot with the unreliable fuel injection system!

Although STI did belong to Leyland Motors at that time

Thanks for watching James! They were very attractive cars indeed. Very nice styling which has aged so well. Wow didn't know that! Its always interesting how overseas markets still get a certain model long after they've been discontinued in the home market. Are there many left running around Australia these days?

Take to the Road certainly not. I did come across one parked in the street not too long ago and spoke to the owner, who was a young English lad about 30. He opened the bonnet for me and it was a 1977 build by Leyland Australia. The interior was abit tatty inside but the exterior was presentable but not without blemishes. It was a semi daily driver and he said it had been reliable and used on the motorway a lot without trouble, though it revved a fair bit with the three speed auto. You will find this excerpt I found in Wikipedia of interest. "In New Zealand, CKD production of the Triumph 2000 continued at New Zealand Motor Corporation's Nelson plant, with 2500S models until March 1979. Sir Rob Muldoon, New Zealand's then Prime Minister, privately owned a white 2500S and had been known to drive to work in it. This car is now owned by a member of the Auckland Triumph Car Club. The 2000 was assembled in Australia by Australian Motor Industries.[16] A special version was known as the 2000MD ("Managing Director"), which had special features such as knock-off wire wheels, triple Stromberg carburettors, and the battery moved to the boot.[16] Total production of the 2000MD was approximately 100".

I had a Daimler V8 250 with a 3 speed auto as well. It really needed an extra gear on the open road. So I imagine the Triumph would have been very similar. I would like one some time though.

I have always preferred the sound of an engine with an automatic with few exceptions.

For me it depends on the car. In an ideal world I'd have a manual and an auto version of the same car. Something I would have liked with my Daimler. Mine was an auto but would have loved to see what it was like with a manual.

That's a nice colour combo. Black wheels go well with a green Triumph.

The Stag wheels absolutely made the S. Lovely cars

@@timwingham8952 yes it was an S with overdrive ,it was absolutely mint garaged I bought it in about 1995 it ate fuel but was great to drive and bags if power unfortunately the prop shaft snapped ,I had it welded up but it was never the same ,I sold it for 3 times what I'd paid a year later even with the prop being Dodgy,👍

There were about 2,000 Stags imported into Australia. I think about 1500 are still on the Stag register here. There were about 20,000 Sedans assembled here and only a few hundred or so left. There were about 29,000 assembled in N.Z. What happened to them all?

We're they Mk.1 models . They had a 1" bore clutch slave cylinder . The Mk2 model slave cylinders were 7/8" bore .hence the clutch pedal was lighter , very noticeable.

Wow that was a stroke of luck for it to pass like that! Doubt there were many that would have managed it😉Shame you had to sell it. Maybe it’s still out there?

+Lewis72 Thanks for watching! We haven't tested a Stag yet. It will be interesting to compare against the 2500.

Thanks ! I had a '73 PI.

Lewis72 I

+Lewis72 Cool!

I agree. Way cooler! Stag is nice but don’t see them as a ‘cool’ car.

No this one was sold at auction Dan. I was lucky to get the chance to drive it for a few hours before it sold. Yup I would agree its a great cruiser.

Yes they both came out the same year. The Lucas fuel injection was a major headache which was why they swapped back to carbs. A pity really as if the Lucas system had worked it could have helped Triumph with more sales. Wheel trims I'm not sure really. I've seen a few different styles on different cars.

@@TaketotheRoad The Lucas injection unit tempted drivers to use the performance, but it wasn't really designed for high revs. If the engine was never taken to the beginning of the red line on the rev counter the injection unit was reliable enough.

Interesting info there James. Hadn’t heard that before. I have read of course that Triumph had problems with the reliability and had to drop the spec and go back to carbs. I guess the early Lucas injection couldn’t match twin carbs for performance.

@@TaketotheRoad I bought my PI from a garage mechanic, and it was he who told me to avoid the red line and why. In fact he had replaced the standard rotor arm with a rev limiting one and when I drove it hard the engine wouldn't go more than 4000 rpm. I changed it back to the standard rotor arm and watch the rev counter instead because I don't like cars that decide for me what I should do. For performance the Lucas Injection was better than the twin carbs. It just didn't cope with the engine being thrashed, hence the reliability issue. A friend of mine has a MK1 PI Estate automatic many years ago (mid 1970s) and for an estate it really shifted, and he thrashed it because it was fun. He realised that all was not well when it started with frost on the windscreen with no choke and it gave him 7MPG. In those days there was a local to him Lucas repair centre, so he unbolted the injection unit, took it along and asked them to fix it. 3 days later he got it back and fitted it on the car, and the performance was better than it had been since he had owned the car, and it gave him a bit more than 30MPG. He later sold it on to a friend of his, who had heard that the injection system was unreliable, and he converted it to the twin carb spec. It still went well, but was noticeably more docile than it had been with the injection unit refurbished.

Power steering :)

@@annbrown2978 + wheels

+LAZAROS ANTONIADIS Thanks! Yeah it's a pity they disappeared when the Rover brand took over. A lot of motoring heritage was lost when Triumph was no longer used.

I think it was because they were intense rivals. Triumph choose to develop their own V8 for the Stag by grafting two Dolomite fours together, than make use of the proven V8 from the Rover division. We all know how that went. Brilliant sound tough. Many owners fitted Rover V8s later on.

Yup it went very well indeed!😕I've seen a few Stags with the original Triumph V8, pretty rare these days. Actually prefer them with the Triumph lump.

Something about the water jacket not allowing proper flow of coolant into all the galleries. It can be corrected. Best V8 note ever. It would be fun to see one put into a 2000 sedan.

Triumph had already pumped millions of pounds into developing their V8 before the merger with Rover and British Leyland. That's why they used there own engine as apposed to chucking millions away.

It sold well at the auction alright and demand for the big Triumph saloons here in the UK is strong. Prices have been climbing gradually for a few years now.

well ive not seen any rises much here,maybe thats because few have survived in their home country

+Allan Ritchie Obviously the climate here took its toll on many but the marque has a loyal following here.

Ha ha 506BHP? BL would have been doing well to get that back then. They were rated around 130BHP which actually wasn't too bad for a family saloon of that era.

106bhp is the figure.

@@paulhackett1313 My Vitesse: 2L with 150 carbs: 104bhp Saloon: 2.5L with 175 carbs: 106bhp Early TR6: 2.5L with injection: 150bhp Always thought saloons were detuned and should've had more.

You know I would agree with you there. Except for the refinement or lack of it in the cabin (everything is going to shake above 60mph). But that's old cars for you. Apart from that it is great. Really want to own one now!

Yes this one was lovely. Light clutch and great gearbox. It was a sorted car. Someone got a good Triumph that day.

Mines a 78 NZ built one, just starting to get that rattle in exhaust! Rubber diaphragm might help ,right?

I was driving on a private road with a speed limit. And with the car going to auction hours after my filming it wasn’t really a good idea to go blasting around.

Do I look like a communist? i eat bananas, not children! It's beautiful to see how much your videos improved in such a short timeframe anyway, keep up the good work!

+2000mk1 Yup it was a lot of classic car for the money! If we'd had the cash and the room we would have bought it👍

I was referring to the interior… I never once said the whole car was original.

@@TaketotheRoad God the rusty tin mob are sensitive. I was pointing out to the gullible buyers of old cars that buying them resprayed is the best way of buying rust. A mini with underseal is an example of when to look for tech screws and pop rivets. Take a fridge magnet with you and find how much bog is in it.

+Aftastos K Triumph weren't known for refinement. But it still drove really nice. Didn't expect to like it but we did.

"He goes with 40 mph in a straight line in a smooth road and the car shakes like he's doing 200 mph. Awful car." - You don' know your arse from your elbow. Have you ever driven one ?

You are an idiot. They are amazing cars and very smooth to drive. Yes I have one. I also have a few Mercedes and I still enjoy the Triumph. Go and drive one.

Joe Louis would have knocked fuck out the 2500

@@georgegreig8054 Afostos..have you ever driven one??

Not everyone loves Triumphs and plenty remember the bad old days. Obviously my review was based on driving it for a couple of hours, which is very different to living with one everyday. But the first impressions were good. The thing is the expertise is there now to solve most of the problems that plagued a lot of British Leyland cars. Not all of course but enough to make a 2500S like that one feel like a nice car.

I had three in the 90s when they were old cars. I'd have another, I loved them and used them as daily drivers.