Early Photos

[emsossner]

Looking for information, photos and/or liturature by what I would guess would be BL on the first few TR7's brought in to US for show. I believe 2 rally one hard top and one convert.

[TR Tony]

Hi & welcome to the forum.

Our friends in the States may well have some information that could help you, but I can tell you that the first few TR7s imported to the USA were a batch of 35 fixed head cars for the dealer press launch of the vehicle in January 1975.

According to David Knowles excellent book TR7 The Untold Story, the quality of this first batch was so poor that the whole lot were stripped down by the Group 44 team & then the good parts were put back together to end up with 17 cars that were good enough to present to the press & dealers!

There were no convertables as these were not in production until 1979.

I don't think there were any rally prepared cars in that first batch either, although of course the car did have some success in motorsport in the USA later on.

Tony

<font size="1">1981 2L FHC Cavalry Blue - very original & not rusty!
1980 3.5L V8 DHC Regency Red - on the road again.</font id="size1">

[john]

This is a brilliant American site which has a Triumph newsletter that was issued to new owners of it's Triumph cars and is an amazing insite to the times....

A must read for all Triumph enthusiasts


http://www.templeoftriumph.org/tsoa/tsoa.html

[8 whole cylinders worth of punch to ram the world through the windshield and out the rear view mirror. Car & Driver]
1981 Grinnall TR7 v8
1981 Black FHC
1979 & 1980 Black Premium FHC(laid to rest) Sorry


John

[emsossner]

I have a Yellow convertable with a vin of 4. I was told the car was brought in by BL with the lot of cars I described. I am trying to document the history a little better.

Any future assistance by anyone would be appreciated.

[Odd]

If you've got a convertible with a VIN ending in 0004 I'd suggest you contact Ted Schumacher in Ohio
- he's probably owned it at some time. He and his son have an impressive list of cars going through
their hands... http://www.tsimportedautomotive.com/

AND!
If you buy a 'Production Record Certificate' from British Motor Heritage you'll get certified info regarding
the actual production date - and the specification it had when leaving the factory.
http://www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/ ... index.html

[TR Tony]

There were approx 10 TR7 convertable pre production cars for N America market made in April - May 1978. The chassis numbers are prefixed with ACT. Built at the Speke factory.

The first actual production convertables for the N American market have chassis numbers prefxed TCT. Buit at the Canley factory.

Is your car one of these?

Good suggestion from Odd - get a Heritage certificate, these are researched from the actual factory production records.

Tony

<font size="1">1981 2L FHC Cavalry Blue - very original & not rusty!
1980 3.5L V8 DHC Regency Red - on the road again.</font id="size1">