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Triumph TR7
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The Triumph TR7 was a sports car manufactured from September 1974 to October 1981 by the Triumph Motor Company, part of British Leyland, in the United Kingdom. It was initially made at the Speke, Liverpool factory, moving to Canley, Coventry in 1978 and finally to the Rover plant in Solihull in 1980. The car was launched in the United States in January 1975, with the UK home market debut in May 1976. The UK launch was delayed at least twice because of high demand for the vehicle in the US.
car was characterized by its "wedge" shape which was advertised as: "The Shape of Things to Come." The design was penned by Harris Mann who also designed the wedge-shaped Leyland Princess; and by a curved line in the bodywork going from the door to the rear.
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The Triumph TR7 was a sports car manufactured from September 1974 to October 1981 by the Triumph Motor Company, part of British Leyland, in the United Kingdom. It was initially made at the Speke, Liverpool factory, moving to Canley, Coventry in 1978 and finally to the Rover plant in Solihull in 1980. The car was launched in the United States in January 1975, with the UK home market debut in May 1976. The UK launch was delayed at least twice because of high demand for the vehicle in the US.
The shape of things to come
The car was characterized by its "wedge" shape which was advertised as: "The Shape of Things to Come." The design was penned by Harris Mann who also designed the wedge-shaped Leyland Princess; and by a curved line in the bodywork going from the door to the rear. The car had an overall length of 160 inches (406 cm), width of 66 inches (168 cm), wheelbase of 85 inches (216 cm) and height of 49.5 inches (126 cm). The coupé had a kerbside weight of 2205 pounds (1000 kg). During development, the TR7 had the code name "Bullet".
Power was provided by a ( in the North American version) 1998 cc 8-valve four-cylinder engine which shared the same basic design as the Triumph Dolomite Sprint engine mounted in-line at the front of the car. There were plans to directly use the Sprint engine in the TR7 and at least 25 pre-production cars were made in 1977 using the 1978 model year bodyshell. No production cars were built or sold. Drive was to the rear wheels via a four-speed gearbox initially with optional five-speed gearbox or three-speed automatic from 1976. The front independent suspension used coil spring and damper struts and lower single link at the front, and at the rear was a four link system again with coil springs. There were front and rear anti roll bars, with disc brakes at the front and drums at the rear.
Various British Leyland vehicles were driven by the lead characters in the British secret agent television series The New Avengers produced between 1976 and 1977. Amongst these was a yellow TR7 hardtop driven by the character Purdey. The car was immortalised as a children's Dinky Toy and Revell construction kit.
For export, Triumph created a TR8 in 1978: a TR7 with the Rover 3·5 L V8 engine. While some genuine TR8s stayed in Britain, these are exceedingly rare. Most went to the US, where they did not fare well due to both Triumph's poor build quality at the time and the unusually strong pound which peaked at around $2.40 by 1980.
In early 1979, Triumph belatedly introduced a convertible version, called the TR7 Drophead, which first went on sale in the US. The British market received it in early 1980. In the UK in 1980 the TR7 Drophead sold for £5,050, and the Coupé for £5,230.
British Leyland ran a team of TR7s in rally competition from 1976 to 1980. These cars used the 16 valve Dolomite Sprint or Rover V8 engine and had disc brakes on all four wheels. They were reasonably successful on tarmac events but did not do well on off road sections.
As part of a rationalisation introduced by BL boss Sir Michael Edwardes, the Triumph TR7 was cancelled in 1981. In total, 112,368 TR7s were built, and approximately 2,750 TR8s.
MG Boxer project
During the latter part of 1979, as an exercise in badge engineering, an MG version of the TR7 was developed under the Boxer code name as a potential replacement for the MGB. Various concepts were presented and ultimately a design from BL's American headquarters at Leonia was accepted. Major changes to the standard TR7 Hardtop were the addition of a MG type grille to the nose panel, headlights similar to those of a Porsche 928 and a new tail panel with light units from a Rover SD1. The proposal was ultimately rejected on the grounds that the car was insufficiently different from the TR7.
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