If you asked someone to name a traditional British sports car, there’s a strong chance that they’ll mention the Jaguar E-Type, MGB, or Triumph TR. All three are – perhaps together with the Austin Healey – seen as typical British two-seaters and are recognised beyond enthusiasts of our hobby.
Of course, the E-Type is known the world over, but the MGB and TR series are not far behind in terms of “brand awareness”, are much more affordable, and more numerous. The “B” and TR are mainstays of the classic car scene, with healthy and supportive owners’ clubs and there are examples present at just about every show I’ve ever been to, even smaller ones.
Despite their relative ubiquity – or perhaps because of – they’re not necessarily universally loved, with the MGB in particular often deemed to be “boring” or at best, unadventurous. The TR series, on the other hand, seems to have more respect among classic car aficianados, and they generally fetch a little more money, with the TR4 and TR5 leading the way, but the entire TR series is generally seen in a very positive light. Until, that is, we come to the TR7…
The TR4,5 and 6 were all penned by Michelotti, and their Italianate lines in combination with their rugged mechanicals are a large part of their appeal, something which is also true of the MGB, especially the Pininfarina-designed GT. For the TR7, however, British Leyland turned to Harris Mann, who came up with a dramatic wedge, with a distinctive swage line from the back of the front wheel arch to above the rear wheels, a heavy rear three-quarter pillar and hefty bumpers to meet US safety regulations. The TR7’s styling divided opinion right from the start, with one of the most infamous comments allegedly made by none other than Giugiaro at the Geneva Motor Show of 1975, after looking at one side of the TR7, he viewed the other and said “My God! They’ve done it to the other side as well!“. Allegedly.
Manufacturing began in September ’74 and the car went on sale in the US in January the next year – it wasn’t made available in the UK until almost eighteen months later. Advertising for the TR7 emphasised it’s modernity and the car was a sales success in the States, initially, at least, but unfortunately, things took a downward turn quite quickly.
The same safety regulations that required such visually intrusive bumpers also meant that the car – originally intended to be a roadster – was only available as a hard-top, and there is a view that the hard-top version was a compromised design. I think it’s fair to say that when the convertible was introduced early in 1979 – again well ahead of it being sold in the UK, where buyers had to wait until the following year to get their hands on one – that it looked more like the car it was always meant to be.
Power came from a 1998cc four-cylinder engine that pushed out 105bhp, enough to take the TR7 to a top speed of 110mph, not great but not bad, either. Gearboxes were a standard 4-speed manual, optional 5-speed manual or optional 3-speed automatic, with the 5-speed being made standard on 1978/9.
Contemporary two—seater sportscar alternatives to the TR7 weren’t so many – from within BL itself there was the MGB roadster and GT, perhaps the TVR 1600M, the Jensen Healey and from Italy, FIAT’s mid-engined and even more dramatically styled wedge, the X1/9 and of course the Alfa Romeo Spider. You could throw Opel’s mini-Corvette GT into the mix, but they had already stopped production in 1973.
The competition
Built at the Speke (Liverpool) factory for two years before being transferred to Canley, Coventry and finally to the Land Rover plant in Solihull, the TR7 suffered from the same quality control problems that beset pretty much the entire BL range, and undermined the car’s reputation for many years; again, in common with many BL products of that era. A major – but not the only – cause was the unstable and disruptive state of industrial relations, particularly at Speke, and the TR7’s reputation suffered badly as a result. The move to Canley was at least in part designed to tackle those problems, and it’s said that over 200 improvements were made to the car following the relocation. Canley-built vehicles can be distinguished externally by the large laurel wreath on the bonnet and boot, as well as a “double bump” in the bonnet itself.
One thing the TR7 was not, was an obvious successor to the TR6 – smaller engine, four instead of six cylinders, less powerful, slower, but more civilised and easier to drive – indeed, more like a GT than a sports car in the previous TR mould. The car’s press reception was mixed – Motor Sport wrote unenthusiastically about the car at it’s press launch, and when they got their hands on one for a longer test, their view wasn’t much changed. They still disliked the heavy rear styling, the body vibration over 70mph, and the lifelessness of the engine. Nor were they impressed by the handling, describing its cornering as “imprecise”, but they did like the interior, now with smart plaid seat and door card inserts. The magazine summed it up as a “strange motor car” – hardly a promising write-up.
CAR magazine was less judgemental, but still hardly effusive with praise, but that changed when they drove the convertible in May 1980, calling it “…a Triumph (sic)….it provides excellent open-air motoring with a style that’s eye-catching…”.
So now the TR7 was much closer to being the car it was always meant to be, with the removal of the ungainly hard-top transforming the car’s appearance, and it became even more so with the introduction of the TR8 – basically a TR7 with the 3.5-litre Rover V8 engine under the bonnet – but this was too little too late. Most TR8’s went to the USA, but those accursed quality issues impacted sales badly. Only c.400 TR8 coupés and c.2750 TR8 convertibles were built, although an unknown number of TR7’s have had the V8 powerplant installed, making it hard to know just how many genuine TR8’s remain.
TR7 production came to an end in October 1981 and so did the TR series of sports cars. Despite its poor reputation, 112, 368 TR7’s and 2,497 TR8’s were built in total, more than any other TR, with more than half finding homes in the US. While nowhere near as popular nowadays as earlier models in the series, the TR7 is starting to gain favour, not least since good ones can be bought for very reasonable money, thanks to that poor reputation. Indeed, some years after the TR7 stopped production, Time magazine listed the 1975 TR7 among the 50 worst cars of all time…However, this is starting to change, especially with regard to the drophead, and it’s one of these that is our Prime Find this weekend, a 1981 example in the very fetching – and very period – colour combination of Cashmere Gold with tan interior, including the plaid seat inserts.
Like last week’s Marcos, this Triumph comes up for auction as part of Historics May 15th sale at Ascot Racecourse, and one of the things that really makes it stand out is its astonishingly low mileage – just over 2,100 at the hands of only four owners, including the vendor. It has spent most of it’s forty years in storage and has recently been recommissioned for road use after years of standing still. I get irrationally frustrated by tales such as this – cars are meant for driving, especially cars with sporting pretensions, and I struggle to understand why a car as relatively undesirable (from a classic collector’s investment point of view) was used so little, and I suspect that because much of the value of this TR7 lies in it’s low mileage, it won’t get used much by the next owner – Historics themselves call it a car that will appeal to collectors of Triumphs in particular and British sports cars in general.
From the photos, borrowed from the auctioneer’s website, it looks in very good condition – as you might expect for what is a barely-used and properly stored car; it’s described as an “incredible time-warp example”. The estimate range is £13,000 to £17,000, which all things considered seems quite reasonable. There’s a restored example with 65k miles on the clock for sale in The Netherlands for £13,000 and another in Cheshire for £14,995, which strikes me as a tad optimistic, despite its condition. So it will be interesting to see what this one goes under the hammer for.
You can see the full lot entry here, and as usual, we strongly recommend arranging an inspection if you’re tempted by this very tidy example of Triumph’s last sports car.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk