![]() The 'Thunderbird' name and retro styling recalls the original Triumph company's golden years of the 1960s. Coded T309RT, the new Thunderbird was instrumental in Triumph's successful re-entry into the US market. The new Triumph company based at Hinckley introduced the Triumph Thunderbird 900 in late 1994. Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT): T180 Thunderbird III From the Meriden Triumph factory production records held by the Vintage Motor Cycle Club, that TR65, made on 1 June 1983, was the last 650 cc motorcycle and the second last motorcycle made at Meriden before the factory's closure that August. The prototype Thunderbird 600 was converted by the factory into a conventional TR65 to fulfil a Ministry Of Defence order. ![]() The scheduled price for this model was £2,181. Planned for 1984, a custom-styled and further sleeved-down TR60 600 cc Thunderbird was exhibited but not produced, the co-operative closing down towards the end of 1983. By then, polished alloy or chromed parts replaced the budget satin black engine finish on the initial 1981 model specification.Ī trail version of the TR65, the TR65T, was also introduced in 1981 but, likely as it was priced the same as the 750 cc version, suffered poor sales and was dropped from the range in late 1982. Triumph Meriden co-operative: TR65 Thunderbird ġ983 Triumph Thunderbird with merged exhaust system. A 1966 Thunderbird was prominently used by the leads in the popular 2006 romance film, Once. Throughout this time, however, the Thunderbird retained its distinctive nacelle. Before then, in 1963, the Thunderbird, along with Triumph's other 650 cc models, was given the Turner-designed unit engine. ![]() This unpopular feature, dropped quickly in the USA market, remained in ever-abbreviated forms for the home market until disappearing altogether for the final year of production, 1966. įrom 1960, the Thunderbird acquired Turner's rear fairing nicknamed the 'bathtub' on account of its shape. In the book Triumph Motorcycles In America, there is reproduced a letter from Triumph's importers objecting to the producers as to the use of their machine in this film about rowdy motorcycle gangs. Triumph obtained further lasting publicity with Marlon Brando's 1953 motion picture The Wild One, in which he rode a 1950 6T Thunderbird. All three machines were ridden to the circuit and back to the Meriden factory. The 6T Thunderbird was launched publicly at Montlhéry near Paris, where three standard-production bikes were ridden around a circuit by a team of riders who between them averaged a speed of 92 mph (148 km/h) over a distance of 500 miles (800 km). Note the nacelle, the merged exhaust system and the full version of the unpopular bathtub rear fairing. 1962 Triumph Thunderbird, the last with the 'pre-unit' engine.
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