WHILST WE WERE in the process of shooting the Racetorations TR3A, Darryl Uprichard mentioned that he had something rather interesting stored on the premises.

    Ears picked up and with journalist’s nose twitching, it turns out that ‘something rather interesting’ equated to a unique droop-snoot TR3A racer. Understandably, it wasn’t long before Darryl arranged for its body to be disinterred.

    What’s so special about this car? Well, this 1958 TR3A has got the Triumph fraternity rather excited because its racing history qualifies it for future inclusion in the Goodwood Revival.

    Campaigned by its first owner RW De Selincourt, the TR3A – registered 33 DNK –soon became such a competitive machine in 1959 that only the Works cars boasted a more successful track record.

    Obviously, the car is still a long way off becoming a Goodwood entrant once again, however, even in its current state, its most obvious feature is very apparent – its droop-snoot nose.

    The low-drag nose currently fitted to 33 DNK is fabricated from steel, but the car also comes with a battered alloy nosecone which is thought to be the original. Admittedly, both are formed in a rather crude and naive manner, but you can still see where the alloy nose was riveted to the car. Anyway, it is thought that the alloy nose was fitted in the Winter of 1958 when the car was tuned and prepped for racing.

    A regular at Goodwood and competitor at other BARC meetings (such as Oulton Park, Crystal Palace, Silverstone and Mallory Park), De Selincourt’s successes led to an impressive points tally which would earn him column inches in ‘Autosport’ and ‘Motor Sport’. Here he was featured scrapping with the no lesser combination than Chris Lawrence and his Morgan Plus Four TOK 258, as well as being awarded Motor Sport’s Brooklands Memorial Trophy.

    Naturally spurned on by these successes, he moved into sports-racing in 1960 and sold 33 DNK to TS Petersen – part of the Aegean Stable TR team – at the start of the 1960 racing season. Raced at club level, 33 DNK’s glory days though were behind it, because the car was no longer competitive.

    The car’s history then gets rather patchy until it turned up in a French scrapyard in the Nineties, from where it was rescued by Uprichard. Work has tentatively started on 33 DNK, but knowing the painstaking work which goes on at Racetorations, it might be a while before it’s drifting around Goodwood once more.

    However, given its provenance it’s surely only has to be a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’...