The LOST AND FORGOTTEN TRIUMPH CARS! Prototypes, TR8s And INSANE TR cars!

the Triumph Motor Company made some incredible cars from the 1931 Triumph Super 9 a four-door Torah to the incredible TR cars including the TR6 and TR7 in this video we will explore cars like the tr8 a homologation special with only a handful made to mimic the monster tr8 driven by Tony Pond but what if I told you there were some Triumph cars that were forgotten to time cars like the TR7 Coupe that could have gone head-to-head with the Capri or even a 550 brake horsepower monster that almost shook itself to pieces in front of a live audience that's right in this video we're going to explore the world of lost Triumph cars and prototypes hello everybody and welcome to this video this has been incredibly interesting to research and is incredibly interesting to watch so stay tuned to the end of the video make sure to like the video drop a comment below of your Triumph memories anything I've missed any anything you'd like to add or any other car companies or anything you'd like me to cover let me know in the comments below make sure to subscribe to the channel because it supports me doing this and you get to see more of it as well and without further delay and further waffling let's get into the video the Triumph Fury the Triumph Fury is one of the most incredible Triumph cars ever made and has to be one of the most beautiful this two seater was apparently built to go head-to-head with the Jaguar e type but ended up sat quite comfortably between the Spitfire and the TR cars of the time in 1964 a brief was provided to Triumph's freelance designer melotti to create a two-seater sports car incorporating Triumph's 2 L straight six of standard Vanguard lineage but most importantly the car had to be of monoco construction instead of a separate chassis and body to compete with the MGB which had been introduced 2 years earlier in early 1965 David Eli of Triumph's engineering team turned the fury into a running prototype using as much off-the-shelf components as possible the Triumph Fury was built in 1965 and was the company's First monoco Construction as with most prototypes of the time all of the outer panels are handmade but there was also some component sharing the wind screen surround shared with the Triumph Spitfire and TR4 and a lot of 2000 components making up the bulk of the cars mechanic with a 2 L straight 6 engine getting a few parts from other cars as well such as the GT6 Inlet manifold and vitess oil sump the suspension was also derived from the Triumph 2000 the mcferson front strut suspension was taken directly from it with the rear suspension being the trailing arms from the TR4 sadly though the car was never produced but extensive testing took place at Triumph one of the most interesting features of this car is the pop-up headlights which are operated by a vacuum system with the upper panel rising and the lower Grill section dropping down to conceal the lights coming a decade before the production TR 7's popup headlights the only running prototype Fury was then sold off in 1968 and registered as tvt 990g the car was then purchased by Jane whitesman in 2009 from the Patrick collection based in Birmingham which had restored it some years earlier but they retained the original interior in unrestored condition the car is now part of the jhw Classics Collection Triumph broadside the Triumph broadside was a pair of cars in which Triumph's future hopes and dreams lay the two cars were designed to recapture the US market which bl's market share had slipped in years prior offering a convertible and the broadside GT 2+2 Coupe in early 1979 the project commenced to create a new Coupe and convertible with the broadside initially designed to replace the standard TR7 but also become the platform for the MGB and MG Replacements the pair would be based on the Triumph TR7 with a lengthened wheelbase with an updated interior and new rear end styling using the Rover SD 1's rear lights The Styling of the coupe looked awkward and differed quite a lot from melot's initial sketches the convertible however looked amazing with a rollover hoop added for the US market its regulations on convertibles the cars would use the 1.7 L O Series engine which was in development at the time and a larger 2 L version for the higher end models in the early 80s the use of the 1.70 series was dropped after months of development with the product plan indicating it would used a turbocharged version of the O Series 2 ler as well as a naturally aspirated version it was then found that the O Series would not pass the North American emission specifications and the project was cancelled another problem for the broadside was the interest rates at the time this made it unprofitable for BL to export cars to the United States with no engine the broadside was doomed and with the changing fortunes of British Leland at the time a series of cancellations were made including the princess estate Metro Saloon and of course the broadside there was simply no money or production capacity either with the Abington Canley and speak fact fact is closing as well British Leland would go bankrupt just a few years later both surviving broadsides the coupe and the convertible survive today at the British motor museum the Triumph links one and Triumph bullet the story of the lyx one and Triumph bullet is a story of mismanagement and internal politics two cars that were in their late design stages cast aside for another team's work in the late 1960s Triumph then passed part of Leland limited started development on two sports cars these models accompanying each other would replace the TR6 with the bullet and the links would replace the GT6 development on the bullet and links commenced in Canley with melotti heavily involved in The Styling and prototyping The Proposal was similar to the GT6 and spitfire platform a pair of front engine cars based on Saloon running gear however the company was then merged into the giant British L Corporation shortly after development commenced complicating matters with its stable mate the mg Ado 21 project competing for the same Market both cars came under scrutiny by bl's management team with BL examining the sales in their biggest export Market the USA and finding that their main clientele were turning to the Porsche 914 and datson 240Z the bullet would be pitched as a lowcost Porsche 914 competitor and the links against the 240Z going head-to-head with their main rivals in the space at the time they knew they needed to pitch the two cars against these to acquire more customers from the premium end of the segment in August of 1970 internal discussions within bl's management and board resulted in the links and bullets biggest internal competitor being cancelled the mg AO 21 meaning the company's full resources could be allocated to Triumph to build the bullet and links with a deadline set of 1975 by Donald Stokes head of British Leland for production Spen King was then placed in charge of development of the cars with the engine being a newer version of the slant 4 Dolomite engine with a four-speed manual gearbox and at the high end of the new range of cars these would come equipped with the Rover V8 with no straight 6 engine in the range dropping Triumph's iconic engine as The Styling progressed past its initial stages Donald Stokes and bl's management were becoming dissatis satisfied with the style of the car the design was just considered too conservative for the time with this being the flagship of the range there was a lot riding on the team getting this right in an extraordinary blow to Triumph Harris man's Longbridge team was brought in to restyle the car completely Triumph tried to regain control of the design by coming up with a sharper version shown here but thanks to the backing of Stokes long Bridge's design was here to stay and became the Triumph TR7 sadly the bullet and links are lost to time with no known cars surviving the Triumph Bobcat the Triumph Bobcat is one of the most mysterious Triumph prototypes ever conceived with not a lot being known about it the Bob Cat was a proposal created by Giovani melotti this concept was created in the late 1960s to replace the Toledo 13500 of the time as well as to succeed the upand cominging Dolomite 1850 HL and Sprint this car was unfortunately another casualty of the merger between Rover and Triumph with aspects of this prototype being adopted in the sd2 Prototype there are no known surviving prototypes and there is no information on whether a car was built the only surviving information we have is this Photograph the Triumph sd2 in late 1969 the next step in the Rover Triumph specialist divisions plan was kicked off a logically named little brother to the Rover sd1 the Triumph sd2 the sd2 was a replacement for the Triumph Dolomite 1850 and Sprint as well as the Toledo and the 1500 TC all of these cars had technology that dated back to the mid 60s and in the new world of the 70s these products according to the management of BL were showing their age the sd2 would be pitched as a premium small car offering as bmc's premium small small Saloon with the concept being approved in May of 1972 as a complement to the sd1 the engine range would include the 1.5 L overhead valve in line 4 from the 1500 TC to serve as an entry level model for the fleet market with the p 166 inline 6 engine from the Rover 2600 and 2300 also being considered for the high end in 1972 to 1973 The Styling of the car was finalized with pin and fre also submitting a proposal which was ultimately rejected for the in-house proposal the in-house design from David B's sule team won the day and The Styling was approved by bl's Management in 1973 by December of that year the development plan launched timeline and production plan was also approved with the following time scales December of 1974 end of finished the engineering of the car October of 1976 start pre-production June of 1977 St volume production October 1977 the launch of the two liter models January of 1978 the UK launch of the O Series models and March of 1978 the European launch of the O Series models sadly though this was all a waste the sd2 would not reach the road by 1975 it was cancelled the accountants had struck again and the BL Behemoth missed another opport opportunity this car would have moved the Rover Triumph range away from competing directly with some of its sister Brands namely Austin Morris stopping the cannibalization BL wanted to avoid in the first place the last minutes to revive the project failed with yet another missed opportunity attributed to the corporation's Short History only one sd2 was made which survives today registered as L 79p this was fitted with a fuel inject ejected version of the Sprints slant 4 engine the Triumph TR7 Sprint one of the rarest Triumph t7s ever made with it not even appearing in a model catalog at the time a homologation special for the 16 valve version of the TR7 built for the BL Works rally team the Sprint was an improvement on the TR7 incorporating the slant 4 16 valve engine from the Dolomite Sprint improving the speed of the car with a 0 to 60 time of 8.5 seconds a 1.1 second improvement over the standard TR7 and a 120 mph estimated top speed 9 mph faster than the standard TR 7s 111 M hour the rally version was even more powerful with the four cars made for the works team achieving 225 brake horsepower at 8,000 RPM sadly the Sprint was only Built until summer of 1977 in limited numbers when it was canceled for several reasons one being bl's decision to focus on the development of the tr8 the other being the major strike at BL speak plant which caused a 17we stoppage and following this the plant was closed in 1978 moving the Triumph TR7 production to canl all TR7 Sprints can be identified as genuine Sprints from their chassis numbers that are prefixed with the letters a the British Motor Heritage Trust has a store of documents relating to the Sprint which indicates that only 59 were built two of the xorks rally cars have come up for sale in the past few years as well as several road-going examples of the TR7 Sprint being sold in that time also the Triumph tr8 the Triumph tr8 is the rarest TR car ever produced with only 2,750 ever being made the Harris man design sports car was initially planned in 1972 with a prototype being produced housing the Rover V8 engine but Financial issues at the time with BL and well documented labor problems with an engine shortage being the result of that meant the idea was scrapped as mg and Range Rover had first priority on all newly built Rover V8s in 1977 the project was given the go-ahead to resume with Triumph opting for the Rover V8 as initially intended instead of the Stag V8 by 1978 45 prototype cars were produced with these cars having no badging or decals to indicate what they truly were these cars were evaluated by British leand dealers in the US and then sold off to unsuspecting customers the car's engine bay accommodated the Rover V8 nicely mating it to a 5-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission the car produced 148 to break horsepower in its fuel injected form April 1st of 197 8 saw the FIA papers for the group 4 tr8 homologation being issued and production beginning for the car the T8 was intended for the US market and went on sale in mid 1979 with the bulk of tr8s being sent to the US and Canada this meant only 22 made it to the UK which were auctioned off the tr8 Saw success in racing with Bob tulus dominating the Seca racing in 1979 in a tr8 and success in rallying as well as many other championships the story though wasn't over for the Triumph tr8 in 1980 the car appeared in racing again but this time the stakes were even higher Jan speed and Ian harrower created a true monster the Triumph tr8 lamon a Triumph like no other the car was constructed to group five Rules by Ada engineering with a double skinned Steel Center section and glass Mass fiber body panels the performance of the car was incredible too with yansi developing a Rover V8 twin turbo capable of challeng in the might of Porsches of the time developing 550 brake horsepower on Boost British Leland though didn't approve of this Venture and dubb them internally as the British racing Green Team pressurizing suppliers not to supply parts and consumables in order to sabotage The Venture with a specifically designed 5-speed gearbox being withheld by supplier due to threats from BL therefore the tr8 had to use a four-speed gearbox sadly though time money and support was in short supply for the car it attempted to qualify in 1980 but the two drivers John Sheldon and John Brindley couldn't keep it in a straight line due to the extreme vibrations nearly shaking the car to Pieces some work then commenced at their stop in The Paddock with the car going on to hit 2011 mph on the Mulan straight but failing to qualify as the issues meant the car didn't complete enough laps the car then lay dormant until its purchase by a Belgian collector of t7s where it resides today Triumph links 2 project lyx was a Triumph Coupe that never was in 1972 the second links project was born to extend the Triumph TR 7's range with a stylish Coupe to go head-to-head with the incredibly popular Ford Capri from the front to the Scuttle line the car was unmodified retaining the same styling as the TR7 the back though was a different story the car was entirely new with the hatchback style design to increase the practicality of the 2+2 coupe the platform had its wheelbase extended by 12 in with the doors lengthened to remain in proportion the car would use the lt77 5-speed gearbox from the Rover sd1 and be powered by the O Series engine at the low end and the Rover V8 at the high end to replace the Stag the front suspension would remain the same with the rear suspension being shared with the Rover sd1 in 1978 tooling was created and ready to be installed at the speak Factory the links had been given approval for production but a seismic event would take place killing the project the speak Factory strike had made national news and with BL in a painful period of financial issues there was only one option close the factory and with the closure of the factory capacity was in a short supply meaning the links would never be produced there is only one Triumph links in existence which is currently on display at the British motor museum Triumph was an incredible British Mark with a history to match sadly through industrial action sabotage and internal Politics the Mark was destined to fail with the right support and placement within the product line Triumph cars could have been still rolling off the production line today the last Triumph car rolled off the production line in 1984 but with a sad irony it wasn't a Triumph but a Honda and that is it for this one everybody thank you for all the support over the past couple of weeks it has been absolutely incredible um these videos of course are doing quite well and it's spreading the awareness of this incredible brand um an incredible car company an incredible piece of British motoring history now I haven't included everything in this mainly there's some special t4s the Triumph pummer and a few other cards that I didn't include I'll be including them in the next um sort of the next part of this video because there's just so much to cover but in the meantime we um will move on to the sd1 next week where we'll be doing a lot of work on it and finally getting it on the road so it'll be having its clutch replaced and all of that stuff so that's going to be brilliant um I'm just fresh off um putting all of the door cards back on and redoing some of the sounding on those and making sure all of the mechanisms work that is great um other than that though if there's any other um cars or anything you'd like me to cover let me know in the comments below let me know your thoughts on this what have I of course missed anything is there anything um that you would like to add is there any other Mysteries that you'd like us to take a look at let me know in the comments below and let me know your Triumph memories as well and if you've ever come into contact with some of these mysterious cars but that for me is it everybody so thank you for watching keep watching and remember to subscribe for more of this and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Tom // Drives

Views: 19,904

Keywords: MG Rover Collapse, Saved MG Rover, MG Rover longbridge, MG Rover prototype, Rover Story, RDX60, Super rare cars scrapped, Longbridge, RARE CAR FOUND, WE FOUND AMAZING, WE FOUND, Rover turbo, British leyland, insane car project, triumph stag, triumph 2500, triumph lost cars, triumph cars

Id: X9qiphEQa5U

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2024