1944 Triumph 343cc 3HW
Frame no. TL55347
Engine no. 3HW 68163
Edward Turner’s arrival at Triumph in 1936 resulted in extensive improvements to the range. A brilliant stylist, Turner transformed the Val Page-designed overhead-valve singles by adopting sports-specification engines, high level exhausts, chromed fuel tanks, silver sheen paint and a new name: ‘Tiger’. Frames, forks, engines and gearboxes were all improved for 1937, and a trio of randomly selected Tigers successfully completed a series of arduous speed trails to secure the Maudes Trophy for Triumph later in the year. Shorn of Turner’s styling fripperies, Triumph’s ‘militarised’ overhead-valve 350, the 3HW, emerged mid-way through the war in ‘khaki green’. It had been Triumph’s intention to offer a new 350cc twin for service use but, following the destruction of its Coventry factory in an air raid, was forced to rely on the pre-war single, modified to incorporate rocker boxes cast integrally with the cast-iron cylinder head, aluminium alloy being in short supply. Finished in wartime livery, this unregistered 3HW is offered with Roy Bacon dating certificate.
