Triumph TR7 - The Face of Failure

set to satisfy british leyland's obsession with winning over the american market the triumph tr-7 was the company's desperate attempt to get their model onto the four courts of dealers across the united states only for what was destined to be the firm's crowning achievement ending up being the face of its failure and is now lambasted as among the worst cars ever built the tr7 story goes back to the merger of britain's largest car firms to create british layland in 1968 in which the company inherited a variety of pre-existing sports car models from three of the marks which had formed the basis of the leyland conglomerate including austin healey's sprite and 3000 mg's and mgb and triumph spitfire and tr6 each of these models having been built to compete directly with one another on both the small roadster and sports car markets with so many sports cars sharing the same customer brackets british leyland quickly began to consider replacing each of these models with both mg's and triumph's design teams at the time of the merger proposing modernized replacements for their flagship mgb and tr6 mg with the ado-21 two-seater sports car which was to incorporate many innovative technical aspects from other leyland products such as hydroelastic suspension from the austin 1100 range while triumph were working on project bullet which was a much more conventional affair as it proposed a front engine sports car with saloon car running gear of the two bullets simple mechanics meant it was able to take a major advantage over mg's ado-21 the main goal of british layland's prospective america-centric machine being to blend a perfect mixture of mechanical reliability to combat the infallible reputation of datsun's 240z and technical intrigue which would give the model an edge over other comparatively humdrum sports cars taking a leaf from the book of the controversial porsche 914 although budgetary problems were a major constraint from the start as british leyland were in the process of developing a wide range of family models including the austin allegro the morris marina the leyland p-76 and the princess to help inform the upcoming model as to what americans wanted in european sports cars mike carver then a manager in central product planning traveled with triumph chief engineer spen king to the usa in late 1970 essentially confirming that the triumph design was the preferred choice despite the fact that mg cars outsold triumphs by a significant margin in the states the results of this fact-finding mission being that americans desired a sports car that was front-engined and rear-wheel drive so as to provide reliability but easy maintenance should a breakdown occur following the supply of this new information british leyland chairman lord stokes who had formerly been the head of triumph demanded that this new car be ready to enter sales by 1975. a tight deadline that would be met by way of widespread component sharing with other british leyland products and although market research showed that the general trend for popular sports cars was heading towards mid-engine configurations mainly due to improved high-speed handling of the 50 50 weight distribution leyland engineers preferred giving customers more of the same expecting that the tastes which made the mgb and tr6 massive successes in the 1960s would remain unchanged throughout the decade in 1971 project bullet was given the approval of the british layland company board and the initial outlook of the car's design was that it would be essentially a cheaper front engine version of the vw porsche 914 issuing the option of a full drop top due to the threat of convertibles being banned in the usa during the early 1970s in favor of a target top derived from the likes of the fiat x19 meaning the only popular full convertible in british leyland's arsenal was the 11 year old mgb which would be kept in production alongside the bullet so long as american legislation still allowed for the sale of drop tops with so much of the company's ambition riding on bullet the proposed pricing started to creep upward leaving the market segment occupied by the mgb and instead putting it on par with the likes of more exclusive sports cars like the porsche 911 and decisions as to the cars forward progress were being influenced far too greatly by the product planning committees rather than seasoned car engineers and developers the primary outcome of the new car being to allow for a higher selling price appealing to a more upmarket clientele while sourcing nearly every one of its parts from other british leyland models so as to slash development and assembly costs for instance the car employed a slant ford dolomite engine and a four-speed gearbox and live rear axle from the morris marina while proposals were also made to create a v8 version of the car which would incorporate the rover v8 power plant from the rover p6 and the range rover spen king leading the development charge as he had built a sound reputation for creating cars with exotic appeal but with parts sourced from a vast array of comparatively mundane machines another question as to the new car was the mark under which it would be sold as while the bullet project was a triumph scheme early concept saw the car being christened the mg magna the eventual decision once it was determined that the car would be sold alongside the mgb rather than replacing it being to have the model continue the famous triumph tr range by becoming the tr-7 despite the fact that with all of its technical innovation and high market aspirations the triumph mark was not one associated with the same marketplace as other exotic sports cars like the porsche 911 and the ferrari berlinetta boxer styling for the car was handed to british leyland designer harris mann who had experimented with the newly emerging wedge shape profile on many of his upcoming saloon car projects such as the austin allegro and the leyland princess although the final products barely resembled man's superb original concepts his experience putting him in good stead to develop a sports car with aesthetic appeal in line with the lamborghini countach while at the same time incorporating a plethora of safety requirements in order to meet us crash safety legislation including five mile an hour impact absorbing bumpers the result was a superb low slung sports car which possessed its own unique appeal carrying over many of the proposals dropped in man's earlier concepts for the allegro and the princess such as a pointed nose and pop-up headlights although the original idea of including a target top model was abandoned as rumors continued to circulate as to the banning of convertibles in america meaning the new tr-7 would be launched solely as a hardtop moving into 1972 the enthusiasm of the tr-7 project was reaching its peak and it was expected that the car would be the launching point for up to five additional models based on its underpinnings including an uprated variant with a 16-valve slant 4 engine from the dolomite sprint dubbed the tr-7 sprint and a 2x2 fastback derivative fitted with the rover v8 engine called the triumph lynx both of which would be launched shortly after the release of the basic tr-7 the lynx was perhaps the most radical departure from the tr-7 formula as it proposed the creation of essentially an executive sports car which would rival the highly popular ford capri and the use of the rover v8 would give it the performance necessary to be competitive while forsaking the need to use triumph's own v8 which had led to the ruin of the stylish but mechanically flawed stag of 1970 the mass payment of warranty claims by customers for broken stags being one of the many cash outflows for british leyland during the early 1970s among the more innovative parts of the tr-7 despite its widespread use of shared parts was its impressive safety structure which incorporated an incredibly strong rear three-quarter pillar an x-shaped front subframe and the protruding five mile an hour bumpers which were made from box section steel and covered by self-skinning methane foam although the inclusion of these was not integrated seamlessly into the car thus adding to a rising controversy regarding its styling for production rather than seeing the car built at triumph's home factory in canley near coventry production would instead be outsourced to the spake factory in liverpool which had been constructed in 1959 under a british government initiative to see investment made in the uk's most deprived areas through the relocation of heavy industries to these regions the facilities at spake having been expanded and upgraded in 1970 at a cost of 10 million pounds or 158 million pounds in 2021 to create spake plant number two which was capable of producing up to one hundred thousand cars per annum and would thus play host to tr7 assembly in 1973 british leyland stated in a press conference that the tr-7 would be launched as an exclusive on the american market upon its release in 1975 while european and british models would enter sales at a later than unspecified date but with this increasingly tight deadline looming british layland's technical division opted to cut corners wherever possible to save time specifically in the usual practice of undertaking final testing of the model which the technical staff chose to forego in order to keep the tr-7 on schedule launched at the 1975 chicago motor show in january of that year the general consensus of the tr-7 by the motoring press at the time was promising the car having been launched a year before its closest prospective rivals as well as presenting impressive handling and ride although the styling of the machine was a stumbling point many journalists struggled to overcome while quality issues with the assembly of the press cars were rapidly noticed during test drives however further problems were quickly revealed chief among which was the controversial styling which failed to woo potential american buyers as it gave the outward appearance of a car attempting to mimic the fiat x19 but was reviled for its somewhat incompetent incorporation of the five mile an hour bumpers side scallops and rear styling while those who did buy a tr7 were treated to a slew of build quality problems and reliability concerns which saw a smothering of warranty claims being made by disgruntled american drivers to try and reignite enthusiasm for the machine triumph abruptly launched the car on the uk and european market on may 19 1976 in the hope that it would sell better domestically european models differing from the american examples through the use of smaller rear bumpers and an engine that wasn't strangled by the emissions legislation of the us government sporting a higher compression twin su version of the power plant which produced 105 horsepower giving the car a naught to 60 time of 9.4 seconds and a top speed of 110 miles an hour tr7s entering sales at a base price of 2 999 pounds or 22 000 pounds in 2021 triumph's efforts to redress the balance though collapsed in the face of a strike in october 1976 at the spake plant crippling tr7 production for 17 weeks and leaving sales quotas for both domestic and international examples unfulfilled while in spite of the 10 million pound investment in speak plant number two only six years earlier the plant illustrated the highest worker absenteeism highest over manning and lowest productivity in the entire british leyland firm cars built between stoppages presenting basic trim and fitting problems which would see boots and roofs leak key locks fall out seats collapse and body panels detach as well as the usual potpourri of mechanical and technical concerns which left drivers stranded amid continued stoppages at speak and with no way of breaking the deadlock british leyland elected to close the factory in 1977 and transfer all production of the tr-7 to triumph's home factory of canley where it would be built on the former assembly lines of the recently discontinued triumph 2000 range of family cars the effects of which not only saw thousands of line workers made redundant in an area already suffering from mass unemployment but meant that assembly for the tr-7 was severely disrupted for nearly a year as tooling and parts were transferred south to canley meaning customers who had laid down deposits on 1977 and 1978 examples never received the car they were planning to buy essentially all hopes have been placed in the productivity of the spake plant in supplying the demand for the tr-7 but with the factory closed an assembly transferred to a facility which itself was heavily overworked building triumph's other models any attempts to expand the tr-7 range were promptly axed the tr-7 sprint coming to an end after 61 units have been sold while the promising tr-7 link scheme expected for launch in 1978 was scrapped after one prototype despite the turbulence of the transfer to canley though the tr-7s produced in this factory were output with a greater degree of integrity with higher quality finish and a multitude of improvements to the car's endemic design floors including the fitment of a 77 millimeter five-speed gearbox from the rover st1 and cosmetic improvements such as the widening of the range of colors a smartening of the interior trim and the addition of a bonnet power bulge into which the car would accommodate the rover v8 engine the time for the tr-7 to shine came in 1979 where after pervasive rumors of banning convertibles in america dropped away triumfree released the car with the option of a full convertible although again this was initially launched as an exclusive in the usa while britain and europe would have to wait until march 1980 for the drop top variant to be made available this being followed by a development of a spiritual replacement for the triumph lynx project in the form of the tr8 basically identical to the tr-7 but was fitted with the rover v8 engine to give the machine the performance it deserved with the release of the new model in 1980 which again was launched as an american exclusive the tr-8 was the pinnacle of the design philosophy behind the entire tr-7 project adopting a perfect mixture of driving prowess and drop top enjoyment for the discerning customer and with it sales in the usa picked up but were unfortunately subdued against forecasts due to the influence of the 1979 oil crisis meaning the purchase of cars with v8 engines was seen as very unpopular during this period nevertheless the tr-7 and tr8 were now for the first time finding a near universal appeal but despite sales and popularity rising british leyland in a bid to close the former triumph factory at canley chose to move production onto the assembly lines at rover's solihull plant to the south of birmingham at the end of 1980. followed in may 1981 by the announcement the british layland would be axing the tr-7 and tr8 models in their entirety as demand for v8 models continued to struggle during the first half of the decade despite considerations being given as to potentially reviving tr7 and tr8 production in the event sales picked up again this prospective second win for the range never materialized and in october 1981 the last of triumph's tr sports cars rolled off the production line this model being the final dedicated sports car to be sold under british leyland as it opted to exit this market focusing instead on a slew of sports saloons and hot hatchbacks such as the mg maestro montego and metro today the tr-7 is a car divided on nearly every level of its construction ranging from its use of poor performing engines its turbulent and ultimately ruinous production and the fact that based on its styling the model was generally seen as an unattractive imitation italian sports car however despite the car's many flaws if the example set by the tr-8 had been followed through to a more logical conclusion marrying the power and smoothness of the rover v8 with a comprehensive styling overhaul that integrated the five mile an hour bumpers into the body and reworked the profile the model could have potentially seen a revival during the mid to late 1980s when high performance sports cars began to see a major resurgence but instead this machine would succumb once again to the short-sighted tight-budgeted whim of british leyland and in so doing end its days as a road-going joke rather than a machine that one would aspire to drive you

Channel: Ruairidh MacVeigh

Views: 229,190

Keywords: car, cars, automobile, auto, bus, truck, motor, motor vehicle, saloon, estate, compact, sports, roadster, transport, road, heritage, historic, Daimler, UK, England, Britain, British, Great Britain, United Kingdom, British Leyland, Leyland, BL, British Motor Corporation, BMC, Coventry, West Midlands, 1970s, 1980s, Triumph, Triumph TR7, Triumph TR8, TR8, TR7, Speke, Speke Factory, Liverpool, Triumph Bullet, MG, MGB, MG MGB, Triumph TR6, MG Magna, Triumph Lynx, Triumph TR7 Sprint, Canley, Solihull, Strike, Dolomite

Id: ncIxYzq1d2Q

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 18 2021