In 1952, the Standard Triumph company of Coventry under the then director Sir John Black, showed their first sports car, the prototype 2OTS, at the Earls Court Motor Show in London. Series production of a modified design with improved technology began in 1953. The car, from then on known as the TR2, sold successfully. The sportiness and reliability of the new product was underpinned by numerous successes in races and rallies. This was followed in 1956 by the almost identical TR3, in 1958 after a face-lift, by the TR3A and then from 1961 onwards by the technically improved TR3B. The Triumph TR4 was exhibited in September 1961 as the successor to the cramped but sporty TR3A. It represented an attempt to leave the competition trailing behind by means of a readiness to innovate that was out of the ordinary. The external appearance of the TR4 alone indicated that it was not simply a further development of its predecessors. The Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti styled a new metal body shell to fit over the widened chassis of the previous model.