Triumph Sports Cars

Hello all,

I can take a walk over the hill near my house and see a red TR7 sitting outside, tired flat and horseweeds growing around it. I have talked to the woman who owns it (along with her ex-husband) and there isn't a chance I could get my hands on it.

Probably a good thing, too. I have a new wife and no money to take on a project car. I don't have the skills, either. I wish I had the mechanical smarts of my nephews but I don't. Besides, I wouldn't want to build a pavement ripper. I would probably drop in some reasonable 4 banger and avoid the whole mess of steering geometry and what-not.

Instead, I will be happy to stop in and look at what other people are doing. Call it my personal porn - seeing people do things I could NEVER do.

Tom,

Don't let that stop you. There are plenty of affordable TR7s around, and they tell me the V8 swap or a V6 swap either is pretty easy. I am still running the stock engine in the one I got a year ago. Those cars got a bad rap.

Dan

Actually they are a lot better than you'd think given their reputation. You can pick up a Discovery motor for almost nothing, the cradle mods aren't hard, and D&D will sell you a bellhousing to put a T5 on the back. The back end will need changing - but you can put that off until you break the stock one.

The 8 is a really nice GT. It's not as visceral as something older, but it's comfier and because you sit so low in it, the beating you take at 75 on the highway top down is reduced considerably.

The only problem is that people think it's modern. I took mine to a local show, all cars 25 years old and over. They weren't going to let me in until I showed them the historic plates on it...