Sir John Black's interest in a sporting brand was sparked by the fact that SS Jaguar already used Standard engines and components. When the bombed out and bankrupt Triumph Motor business came up for sale after the war Black had to have it, and beat off St William Lyons. Black pulled out the 1776cc ohv engine off the shelf to power what would become the Renown and the Roadster models. A tubular steel chassis was constructed which could easily be adapted to the shorter Roadster or the longer Renown (and even longer Renown limousine). For the Roadster, Black got Frank Callaby to design the overall shape, and then had Arthur Ballard to design the rear of the car and to incorporate the last dickey seat put onto a production car. Launched in March 1946 the Roadster as the 18TR (chassis No: TRD) was upgraded in October 1948 to become the Triumph 2000 20TR Roadster (chassis No; TRA). The upgrade involved fitting the 2088cc Standard Vanguard engine and drivetrain to the tubular steel chassis ofthe Roadster. This recipe only lasted a year and after 2000 sales the Roadster was dropped. Walter Belgrove promoted an extraordinary streamlined TRX model to replace the Roadster, but it never went into production and the next sporting Triumph would be the TR2.