(first posted 1/8/2013) The Triumph TR7 is an uncommon sight in the United States these days. Last produced in 1981, the TR7 was briefly popular following its introduction in 1975, but survival and restoration rates have been low, as British car enthusiasts have not embraced it as they have the earlier TR2 through TR6 models.
The TR7 was a new direction for Triumph, with an all-new chassis and styling that departed completely from the traditional line of Triumph TR sports cars produced from 1953 through 1976. The frame and suspension that had been used since 1953 (with the addition of independent rear suspension in 1965), disappeared in favor of a modern unit body. The body styling was the then-trendy wedge shape, declared in advertisements to be modern and aerodynamic. The initial lack of a convertible version was another major departure for Triumph; their previous sports car offerings had been almost exclusively roadsters without a closed car like the MGB GT or E-Type coupe, other than the Spitfire-based GT6.
The wedge is a simple machine meant for thrusting into things, and Triumph ads and publicity photos made a corresponding effort to sex up the TR7. However, the photography and advertising copy could not hide the fact that the TR7’s wedge shape was rather dull and homely, lacking the style and sportiness of the preceding TR2 through TR6 and Spitfire.
The TR7’s mechanicals did not much help the car’s cause either. It used a two-liter version of the Triumph “Slant-4”, an engine first used in the Saab 99. It was a modern, overhead-cam four that produced 108 horsepower in Europe, but only 92 horsepower in the U.S. due to emission regulations. Performance was not bad for the time, but not especially impressive either. Quality and reliability problems–common throughout the British auto industry during the 1970s as a result of constant labor disputes and strikes–further undermined the car’s reputation and popularity.
Triumph made significant efforts to broaden the car’s appeal during the late 1970s. The V8-powered TR8 appeared in 1978, with the aluminum 3.5-liter Rover V8 that began its life as a Buick engine in the early 1960s. Producing 133 horsepower and a 0-60 time of under 8 seconds, the TR8 took the tepid TR7 and made it into a hot performer by contemporary standards.
A convertible version finally appeared in 1979. The TR8 convertible, produced from 1979 to 1981 and highly regarded by reviewers when new, has an enthusiast following today. But the new variants were not enough to stop the demise of the TR7/TR8 range in 1981, and the end of this final original Triumph design was followed by the end of Triumph as a British Leyland nameplate in 1984.
Thirty years after TR7 production ended, the model is a rare sight–but the Curbside Classic effect occurred while the author drove through the small town of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, formerly the location of an Army base located just to the north of the Civil War battlefield of Chickamauga. After at least a decade of not seeing a TR7 running on a public street, this red convertible appeared at a stoplight on the town’s main drag, a surprising sight in itself. Then, only a few minutes later, another TR7 appeared on a field near the entrance to the National Military Park at Chickamauga.
This TR7 coupe is far rougher; it’s covered with surface rust and the doors are rusting out from inside, and is almost certainly a non-runner. However, it appears to be complete with all of its taillight and side market light lenses, mirrors, and other trim, and it may make a good parts car for a TR7 or TR8 restoration project.
The TR7 coupe is surrounded by vehicles that are more what one would expect to find in a field in a small rural town. They are more appropriately covered in a separate CC Outtake.
These TR7 sightings were only the start of an hour of car encounters that would culminate in running across this 1982 Jeep DJ-5 Dispatcher mail jeep, still in use as a U.S. Postal Service delivery vehicle.
“The Shape of Things to Come.”
Well, at least they got it right with regard to having a high trunklid and gunslit windows… 🙂
The concealed headlights often partially shut,usually on one side making it look as if it was winking at you.A guy I worked with had one which needed topping up with electricity,the curse of Lucas prince of darkness struck it mightily.It was the final nail in Triumph’s coffin and just one of the many cars which lead to the death of British Leyland..
Not even the sexy bikini clad girl could make me buy a TR7, then or now. That genre of auto just never appealed to me. When I was a boy, a childless couple my Dad knew had a coveted early 60’s model roadster. The couple were always taking road trips in their little car.
No offense to the “foreign” car enthusiest, but back then, I wondered why they would buy that, instead of a big American car.
Agreed- Can’t see any appeal in them- If you’re going to buy a sports car it must have enough performance, coupled with the poor build quality and dubious design it was never going to be the hit that Leyland needed so badly.
Of course it was a bad time to produce a trad sportscar, perhaps Triumph would have been wiser to produce a new ‘Dolomite’ to compete with the popular sports saloons BMW were producing.
It wasn’t until the mid ’90s and the MX5 that the sportscar really returned such a shame that it wasn’t rivalled by a TR12.
The Dolomite was already a better faster car than the copies BMW was stamping out
Rover-Triumph (the two divisions merged in 1972) were indeed working on a replacement for the Dolomite at around the time the TR7 was in development. Known as SD2, the new sedan was supposed to be a companion to the then-forthcoming Rover SD1, sharing suspension hardware with the TR7. I’ve seen photos of the clay models of the SD2 and it did not look attractive. The project ended up being canceled due to British Leyland’s brush with bankruptcy. (If the TR7 hadn’t been nearly ready for production by then, I suspect it might have gone the same way.)
The other stillborn project included a 2+2 liftback version of the TR7 called Lynx, which looks to my eyes an awful lot like an ’80s Toyota AE86 hatchback. It died because J. Bruce McWilliams insisted — I think correctly — that it would be a dead duck in the American market.
I actually quite like the Lynx (pic courtesy wikipedia). Tidying up that side scallop took away much of the wedginess.
The plans for facelifting the TR7 would have ditched the side creases, as well. The Broadside clays actually looked pretty decent, more like an X1/9 or first-generation MR2.
The Lynx is inoffensive, but it’s also very bland. I think McWilliams was probably right about its prospects in the U.S. market; British Leyland’s reputation was such that Americans looking for bland but sensible hatchbacks were not shopping BL dealers…
The reason that the TR-7 was such a departure from the Triumph norm is that it wasn’t a Triumph design at all. Rather it was a British Leyland design, which was decided to produce as a Triumph rather than an Austin (which was briefly considered).
The lack of a convertible was due to an (in hindsight) extreme panic on the part of B-L to the supposedly upcoming rollover standards which were being predicted to make convertibles illegal any day now. Plus, the target automobile for this car was the Datsun 240/260Z, not MG or Alfa roadsters.
All in all, another wonderful example of how B-L could take lemons and make a completely nauseous, undrinkable, poisonous beverage out of them. I’ve looked at TR-7’s occasionally, but would much rather have a TR-6.
“Plus, the target automobile for this car was the Datsun 240/260Z, not MG or Alfa roadsters.”
Quite right. I was one of those “targets” the new wedge-shaped Triumph aimed at… and missed.
In 1980 I stopped into a BL dealership to have a look at the TR8 convertible. Just window-shopping, really, I wasn’t seriously in the market. I had liked the looks of the TR7 hardtop introduced a few years earlier — though not enough to keep me from buying, circa 1978, a used 1971 Datsun 240Z. It was a fine automobile which, by 1980 I had made even better with 2.5″ headers/exhaust, a terrific muffler made for a Turbo Corvair, a 3/4 race cam, Goodyear 60/225s all around, a couple of coats of Ferrari Red, and other upgrades. (I suppose I was ahead of my time with my Z: not too many round-eyed ricers back then. I recall that most of my suburban gearhead cronies at the time regarded my shifting of automotive allegiance from Detroit to Tokyo as extremely weird, and maybe even traitorous.)
So despite the fact that I was really just a tirekicker killing some time, the rather aggressive BL salesman apparently decided that he had “a live one” on his hands; and went into his spiel: “So, Al, what’s it gonna take to put you behind the wheel of one of these sweet little babies this very afternoon?”. With no prompting or encouragement from me, our little showroom shyster — who might not have closed a deal in months for all I know, considering the rubbish the poor b*stard was expected to peddle — worked out on his pocket calculator how much they could give me for my hopped-up Z-car (way too little), and how much my monthly payments would be on the factory-fresh TR8 (well beyond what I could afford as a low-wage blue-collar youth fresh out of hi-skool).
Doing an on-the-spot cost/benefit analysis on his offer wasn’t at all difficult: for two extra cylinders (though probably less horsepower and torque) and a full convertible (as opposed to the large sunroof I’d installed on the Z), I’d be trading a solidly-engineered, instant-classic two-seater for a newer but probably less-reliable non-classic two-seater from a manufacturer with one of the worst quality reputations in the world. The new Triumph was, I quickly reckoned, no more satisfying a vehicle than my decade-old Datsun — and quite possibly a whole lot worse. And making the trade “up” would have financially crippled me. I’m of British descent, and would have liked to help their ailing economy, but not if it meant my having to subsist on Kraft Dinner six days out of seven.
So I politely said “Thanks but no thanks”, climbed back into my Z, and exited the lot, never to return. To this informed Curbsider crowd, I’m sure I don’t need to add that within two or three years neither the TR8 nor that dealership were around any more.
but today, I’d take that TR8
Well, sort of. The TR7 emerged from a design competition between Harris Mann’s Austin-Morris studio and a design by the Triumph studio. The result was intended to be a replacement for both the TR6 and the MGB, which would be sold in slightly different trim as an MG and as a Triumph. However, after Mann’s design won the contest, Lord Stokes decided to offer it only as a Triumph. The Triumph entry was not a terribly attractive car, either, based on photos of it.
British Leyland was not simply panicking about American legislation: The feds did indeed pass roof crush standards that were going to effectively ban open cars. That rule was overturned by a federal judge, but not until late 1972 or early 1973, by which time the TR7’s design was basically locked. (Originally, the TR7 was supposed to launch for MY1973, but that didn’t happen for other reasons.) Once the rules were changed, Rover-Triumph immediately started thinking about creating a convertible version, but that project was delayed by British Leyland’s near-bankruptcy and the strike and eventual closure of the Speke No. 2 plant where the TR7 was originally built. Rock/hard place.
According to Harris Mann, his design was originally intended to have a lift-off roof, à la Porsche 911 Targa. (The final Triumph design did, as well, again due to the federal legislation.) The removable roof was canceled because it was too much of a structural headache — even cutting a big hole in the TR7’s roof hurt rigidity to a noticeable degree.
I have a cousin who bucked the trend and bought a slightly used TR8 convertible when i was a young teen. It was my first experience with a performance car, so I look back fondly. Great story – he stored it ever since and has now spent $20k+ fully restoring it. Hence, I love these cars. I watched a TR7 hard top on ebay with tremendous temptation. I would love love love to buy a straight TR7 hard top and ditch the rover motor in favor of a modern toyota 4cyl from a tacoma etc. I love the odd styling, especally with the large canvas sunroof.
When I was young it seemed that I had a different car every few months. This is one that I didn’t want. After MGs and a few other I just couldn’t make myself want this.
It would have helped if they had fitted the slant-4 with the very clever SOHC 16V head from the Dolomite Sprint as standard which would have helped both horsepower and image. Sadly the TR7 Sprint http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_TR7_Sprint was only built as a rally special, although conversions are easy and relatively cheap.
As an aside the Dolomite Sprint 16V head had the camshaft over the inlet valves which were worked by bucket tappets off the bottom of the cam while the exhaust valves were operated by rocker arms from the top of the cam.
The TR7 Sprint was intended to be a production model, but only a few dozen preproduction cars were finished before the strike and closure of Speke No. 2. The original plans were for the 8V slant four to be the base engine with the 16V Sprint and V8 as options. Either of the latter gave much brighter performance and would have put at least that aspect of the TR7 in perspective. As it was, it was like releasing the original Mustang with only the six.
I read somewhere part of the reason the Sprint engine wasn’t offered was that it didn’t fit! Too high for the bonnet to clear it. This actually sounds like a dodgy, made up excuse as a power bulge would have been all the go at the time. But… then again this is 1970s BL we are talking about, so who knows!
The factory produced a modest number (estimates vary, but probably several dozen) of preproduction TR7 Sprints and people have installed Sprint engines in production TR7s, which is apparently straightforward. The problem wasn’t that the 16V engine didn’t fit — it definitely did — but that the decision to close Speke and move production led BL to conclude the Sprint wasn’t really necessary, particularly since the V8 was nearly ready by that point. The rally cars had already switched to the Rover engine, so the Sprint wasn’t needed for homologation, either.
Around the time they were introduced, I ( as a teenager) thought they looked really cool – and loved the “shape of things to come” ads. I never considered owning one – but they sure caught my attention.
I think some of the criticism is a little harsh. I agree the hardtop doesn’t help the styling, but the contemporary US market, big-bumpered Alfa and Fiat (Pinifarina) Spyders and X1/9 (Bertone) were no beauties either, and the 300ZX was equally ungainly, albeit reliable. The TR8 roadster was a “wow” car in my opinion, but too little, too late. As another person commented, BL should have offered the TR7 in the US with the DOHC motor, or at least the Saab Turbo version. These cars were mostly out of my budget when sold here, so I don’t recall the pricing details, but I suspect they were really killed by the Porsche 924 and Mazda RX7, as well as self-inflicted problems.
Interestingly, BL’s plans for an early-80s facelift of the TR7 made it look an awful lot like an X1/9. (And noticeably better, though still not a beauty.)
I think the TR7’s basic shape is really not bad; the problem is the detailing, which ranges from featureless to distasteful (e.g., the original taillights). The ’70s interiors left something to be desired, as well: coal-bin black or loud Tartan is not much of a choice. But then, few cars of the period were really noteworthy for their tasteful interiors.
I don’t guess we’ll ever know the backstory of the car in the field, but my guess is, someone went off to UGA for college, that was his/her car to take to school, it developed a lot of issues and finally wound up being left there after a weekend home to do laundry, and there it sits.
I thank you from the heart of my bottom for that last picture! yummy!
Beautiful… The Shape of Things to Cum To
Agreed, but the girl looks like she is hiding from something — probably the car, lest she have nightmares about it in which it rusts all around her, slowly melting away, in a strange British industrial parody of Salvador Dali.
Inspired idea! Someone with advanced Photoshop skills should take it and make it a reality. Top Gear UK, with its loathing of 70s British cars, may put such an image on TV and make it famous.
I’ve been sitting on that picture (not literally) for some time. I’m glad to be able to finally share it with such an appreciative audience. I don’t think it was an actual ad; maybe some kind of promotional shot, or?
Likewise, I have been waiting for an opportunity to use the “wedge” photo, since seeing it in a book about car design about 10 years ago. I think that the word “thrust” appeared in the book’s caption to the photo, and it stuck in my head for reasons that should be apparent.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the ad campaign for this car was so memorable. I remember it vividly, like it was yesterday. The print ads, the commercials where the car would end up parked in a wedge shaped garage – I can’t believe it was 38 years ago.
I loved the shape of the body, and the angle of the rear screen was certainly unique, but I always thought it could have been better resolved. I don’t think it was dull and homely, but perhaps the shape of the roofline was odd and a bit jarring. Of course, the convertible took care of that, and I even thought it looked good with the top up. I thought both cars, as flawed as they were (but what did I know as a 10 year old then?), were refreshingly modern compared to the MGs, Fiats and Alfas at the time.
I had a friend who had a TR8 for a short time, sometime in the early 80s. He was a lucky kid whose dad bought and sold cool used cars, usually just a few years old, at auctions frequently. There was always a revolving door of Jags, Triumphs, Porsches and such.
Yes! The wedge-shaped garage – I remember that too!
I remember when the TR7 came out. They could have been a huge success. You couldn’t go two blocks in my neighborhood without seeing one. Triumph sold as many as they could coerce the progressives at Speke to slovenly spackle together. Unfortunately, their craftsmanship was as sound as their ideas. Road & Track published an owners survey for the TR7. The results served as a benchmark for as long as anyone on the staff could remember the ’70s. These were the lowest quality cars that the Brits sold here in meaningful numbers, and their failures and issues lists dwarfed that of any other car in R&T’s history. By the time Triumph could get production out of the hands of the radicals, word had gotten round that the cars were junk. Had they been assembled well and supported by the manufacturer, there wasn’t much stopping the TR7 from being the best selling British sports car ever. They sold that well until strikes held up production while word spread of Soviet build quality.
Triumph during the 60s/ 70s had a stirling reputation here the 2000/2500 sedans were amongst the most popular cars in New Zealand, Dolomites were seen as a performance sedan with good roadholding capabilities remember we have virtually no freeways the whole country is twisty 2 lane blacktop, BMW? dont make me laugh, over priced, unreliable, expensive to repair junk. The TR7 dropped expensively into the market and didnt sell,Why? well for one thing it couldnt catch one of its brother sedans, and it came hot on the heels of the P76 debacle and the new Leyland Princess disaster and that was it for BL decades of goodwill gone and suddenly British Motors Holdings was busy as assembling and selling Hondas and the Japanese invasion started in earnest.
I can’t think of a more ironically named marque.
An iffy car, but they sure had some snazzy TV ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX0x_7oUovU
There’s the famous story about the styling: Giorgetto Giugiaro was viewing the new design at the Geneva Motor Show of 1975. He looked at it from one side, disapproved of the deep diagonal scallop carved into the flank then walked to the other side and exclaimed “My God! They’ve done it to the other side as well!”.
i’ve owned more than 7 british cars from 60s&70s and they all had me disappointed by their reliabillity with a exception of a 1975 hillman hunter(in usa:sunbeam arrow)from rootes with 1725cc engine wich was fairly dependable(in british standards not japanese).finally in 1979 i ended up buying a datsun blue bird810 wagon with manual&L24 motor&still driving it with almost zero issues(besides the usual wear&tear).stil i am wondering how come japanese never sold well here in western europe.
I am by far in the minority saying this, but the TR7 is my favorite English car. And I mean the coupe, not the convertible either. I’ve owned two, a 1975 and a 1979. To me, the represent the best low-dollar sportscar out there, though with values on the rise that may not be true much longer. They were very inexpensive to run, handled very well (at least compared to the american cars I was used to) and had the wonderful cozy cockpit as well.
Now that my daughter has left home, I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for another; unfortunately, most of them seem to be convertibles, and after the MGB and Spitfire I’ll never own another one. Attached is a photo of my last one; the tape was holding the sunshine roof closed, which I fixed in about ten minutes after I got her home. I’d still have it if it hadn’t been caught in a major hailstorm that absolutely destroyed it…
The shape of things to come was rather off-putting to me. I had always kind of liked the “classic” British sports car formula, and could see myself falling under the spell of a TR6 or a Spitfire. But when these came out, it seemed that the magic was gone. You could get lots of ugly little coupes from Japanese manufacturers at that time, and they were very well built. And for that classic British style, a guy could put up with some quality problems. But this car gave neither quality nor style, and I was not sad to see it go away. Even now, this one fails to stir anything inside.
Really, I find it hard to blame British Leyland too much for wanting to take the TR in a different direction after the TR6. The TR6 was really a facelifted TR5/TR250, which was really a re-engined TR4A, which was an updated chassis for the TR4, which was a rebodied TR3A, etc., etc. Certainly, there would have been some American enthusiasts who probably would have been happy to see Triumph continue selling the TR3A indefinitely, but that would have been a very small niche and federal regulations would have made it increasingly difficult. (Among other things, open cars very nearly were banned in the early ’70s and would have been had the regulation not lost a court challenge.)
Triumph was also sensitive to the cost issue. They had already wrestled with the impact of various improvements to the TR4 and TR5 on the list price, recognizing, I think correctly, that the same car that is amusing fun at $3,000-odd becomes less so at $4,000+. (That’s the main reason the 2.5PI engine was never officially imported; federalizing it might have been tricky, but based on Mike Cook’s account, the American sales organization never wanted the injected engine, so it didn’t really matter.)
Given all that and given the way the 240Z was eating everyone’s lunch, I can see why British Leyland went the direction they did, even if history has shown it to be a mistake.
My carpool driver and her husband had a 1980 TR7 convertible. It was a nice enough car when it was new, but it was only a year or so before they started having problems with it.
I stopped by her place one day to behold a most amazing sight. She would turn the headlights on, and the retractable lights would rotate up and down, left, right, left, right. I’ve never seen such a sight in my life. I tried tracing the wiring and it seemed as though the motors to move the lights into operating position were simply wired through the headlight switch without a relay. A Lucas thing, I guess.
They started to have financial problems – largely due to having also bought a new Bronco the same year as they bought the TR7 – and one night they heard the TR7 start up and tear off down their long gravel driveway through the woods. Her husband rushed out, jumped into the Bronco to give chase, and discovered that the repo guys, for that was who had taken the car, had thoughtfully pulled the headlight wires on the Bronco. I never saw the TR7 again.
now THAT is a cool story!
“The Shape of Things to Come”
The downward sloping nose was pointed towards the same direction the British auto industry was going. Straight to the ground.
I have to see an ad to see what one of these looked like new, I thought they were all delivered from the factory with slightly flat tires, rust and a windshield wiper area full of leaves.
Its almost as if the car was created to be a yard ornament from day one.
I looks like the girl in the last ad is hiding so she wont have to ride in the Triumph.
“The shape of things that break” is what we said back then. We saw a few of them in the service bay of our Shell station, usually with major problems after the warranty expired. Fortunately, I was mostly the VW and Fiat mechanic.
When I was a kid our neighbors to the back had two TR-7’s – one that was supposed to be a daily driver, but only moved every few months, and one that lived in the garage and donated parts to the cause. I was really blown away by the Triumphs, which were the most interesting and remarkable cars – by far – within the boundaries of our neighborhood at that time. I was friends with their two sons and we were allowed to play around in the parts TR-7. What can I say? Best toy ever. Spent hours and hours sitting behind the wheel pretending to be driving it 8,000MPH running the 5-speed through it’s gears on all sorts of imaginary car chases, dog fights or interstellar voyages.
I remember their dad coming home at dusk one night in the ostensibly operable TR-7, one headlight unpopped as it always was, contorting himself out of it’s cabin, furiously slamming the door shut and unleashing the most awesome profanity filled tirade I had ever heard in my life. He was covered with grease and dirt and looked like he was about to rip someone’s skull off. Then he went in the garage, threw some things against the wall to clear a spot, climbed back in the TR, smashed it’s wedge shaped nose against some shelves in the back and left it sitting in there for the next 20 years. I guess the Prince of Darkness or some other gremlin caused an aggravating commute home one too many times and he had just had it… I probably felt somewhat bad for the poor Triumph, but I thought it was hilarious watching a filthy grown man throw his own lawn chairs and BBQ’s around while cursing the ever loving piss out an automobile at the time – and plus, after that we got to play in the “real” TR-7 which was even cooler.
Shortly afterwards, he got an E21 BMW – which I remember causing quite a stir amongst the local old timer washwomen for a short while: “look at mister such and such thinks who he is with that fancy sports car” pshhh… it was an eight year old (probably) 320i. It did have the world’s most sensitive and obnoxious car alarm, which went off like clockwork at 5AM every single morning, so that was probably the source of such wildly scornful derision. I thought that car was awesome too, but not nearly as cool as the TR-7. They had some other neat cars too, including a late 60’s Beetle with the semiautomatic that my mom ended up driving for a few months between cars at one point.
So for all those reasons, I really can’t be objective about this car at all. I’ve always had a major soft spot for it due to my very fond memories, although the only one I’ve ever had any real interest in owning is the TR-8. B-L was doomed no matter what thanks to their atrocious build quality, but I think people would’ve been more into these in the US had they only been available with the V8 or something like the twin-cam/Saab turbo as others suggested. They were never going to be as refined, reliable or modern as the Japanese competition, but they might’ve found a niche as a unique little hot rod. The TR-8 was legitimately quick for the time and the British roadster “fad” was well on it’s way out, especially in non-convertible hardtop form. The looks are like-it or be-confused-by-it and the Slant-4’s 90HP wasn’t very endearing in a 20-year old chassis that fell apart if you breathed on it the wrong way.
I haven’t seen one on the road in many, many years. Probably not since the 1990’s. To see two in one day is a small miracle, even non-running. The two that belonged to my neighbor matched the colors of these – the one that ran was red and the one that sat on jack stands was white and rusty. Maybe these are the same two…
I remember seeing a whole lot full of TR-7s mouldering in New Orleans in 1975. I felt sorry for the poor bastards that might eventually buy these pieces of crap. I was driving a Fiat at the time. My sentiment has not changed.
“The Shape of Things to Come” – check out the vehicles surrounding the TR-7 in that closeup shot for proof of how off the mark that statement was.
The last ad, I know it’s really near impossible to even notice a car in it, but I think that shows off the TR-7’s best angle. Giugiaro was right and that wedgelike line running down each side really screws up what would have been a perfectly good looking car otherwise. Fastback/hatchback may have worked better too, but un-creased sides are really all it needs. In that respect I find it somewhat similar to the 916-series Alfa Spider which had similarly busy lines marring a fairly crisp and stylish profile.
TR7 4-door sedan anyone? Stumbled across this solitary pic on the net, no reference to its source.
Never have seen that picture before….that design actually looks pretty nice.
When Wheels tested the TR7 in Australian tune, they described it as a two-seater sedan, so…..
Looks more like a TR7 front mated to to a GM A-body to me.
I think I’ve posted this before somewhere here on CC, but an enterprising retired engineer decided to rebuild a TR7 as he thought it should be. So it scored the taillights and bumpers from a mid-80s Mazda 323, and the running gear and interior from a late ’80s Nissan Cima V8. I actually like the result:
Those bumpers ( the car not models) just kill the looks
If you think the TR7 was an ugly mutt take a look at the Reliant SS1…
The X1/9 was a thing of beauty, an obect of art, compared to the TR7…
I graduated from High School in 1981 and the mom of one of my friends had a TR7. I only saw it a couple times. It spent a lot of time in the repair shop. That was the car main problem. The build quality was non-existant.
I currently own a 69 TR6 and I wouldn’t mind having a TR7 coupe. But I would make it into a replica TR8 rally car and go vintage rallying with it.
I just saw a TR7 convertible on the road today. Last time I saw one running must have been back in the 80s.
I have a 1980 TR7 drop head and a 82 X1/9. The 7 has a bit more power and is wider, you notice more room inside. Low and wide makes for nice handling. The 9 has the mid-mount engine, sits a centimeter or so lower than the 7, making for great performance . I’ve had the 7 for a few years and had to change the fuel and water pumps, also rebuilt the twin carbs. Not too surprising, the car is 34 years old. Other than that nothing much, just oil and such. The X1/9, in the same period, I changed the clutch master and slave cylinders, they were 31 years old. Both cars run well, are very easy and cheap to work on( no computers or such) and are a lot of fun to drive. One last note on the 7, it may have been a bit slower than the TR6 but it was a lot more rigid and handled better. But I must say I don’t beleave the TR7 to be a true TR (it has none of the lineage ) but it is a Triumph.
I love the quirky styling, I think it’s improving with age. As soon as I’ve got my four kids through school and uni I’ll restore a TR8. I’m in the UK so there will be available cars. Love the idea of a slightly naff 70s Leyland wedge with a powerful 150bhp lump up front. I have a 2008 Mazda MX5 and it’s great.
To important matters now.
Does anyone know anything about that EXTRAORDINARY image of the girl with her back to be wall and the red TR7 in the background ?
I want it!!
I don’t understand all the complaints about this car’s unreliability: it’s “utterly dependable!” The completely trustworthy ads say so!
Still, I’d love to take one down a twisty back road someday.
I watched one TR8 driven sideways at every opportunity on the Tassie targa rally they certainly handle ok tail out trailing tyre smoke, lots of fun on a twisty road I reckon.
Personally, I prefer my mechanic’s TR-7. It’s a little faster than stock…
A very yellow TR-7 driven by one of the main characters is the featured vehicle in the British television show “Dectorists.”
Oops, that should have been “Detectorists.”
Thanks for posting this again, I missed it the first time around.
I owned a 1980 TR7 convertible, and mine was a good car. I think by 1980 they had many of the problems sorted out, but by then it was too late to save the car. Mine was a lot of fun to drive and a great autocrosser. It’s a car I wish I had back.
I worked with a huge guy who somehow crammed himself into a bright blue V8 TR-7 every day. He was built like Barney Rubble and weighed over 300 pounds, so I don’t know how he did it. I’m not as big as he was and I couldn’t stand being in it for more than a few seconds. About 2 years after he bought it, it got vandalized in a parking lot next door to work. He complained that security, meaning me, hadn’t been checking the lot. You should have seen the look on his face when my boss and I explained that the lot he parked in did not belong to us and so we security guards never checked it. A few weeks later, it disappeared from his other job and was never seen again. He bought a stripper ’82 Firebird to replace it.
I despise this car. Horrible design. I would would have a Dolomite Sprint any over this.
A neighbour a few doors down has one parked on the side of his house. . It has not moved in 25 years….
I can see how people were disappointed in the looks when the car was new. However I think that in that top picture, it looks downright sleek and rakish compared to the modern cars around it.