I love the Top Gear Guys but did you know...

[Debpazvin]

Looking for Christmas presents and found the boxed set from Top Gear -something like Cars your Dad had...Used to have one of those...
Then looked at these books individually...Do you know that the TR7
is in "Crap Cars". Found it in a charity shop. My son will love this as a stocking filler and forever will take the "P" out of my 7.
Does anyone know who follows Top Gear...do they really think 7's were crap...or was it just a bit of fun????.Deb xxx

1980 Premium TR7-1 of 400 made
.

[gaz]

nope they really do think they were crap i think its been said that james may might have a slightly different view but all in all they think there crap take a look on youtube at the jousting video if you havent allready seen it, with a ford scorpio and the TR7 from the heaven a ind hell dvd i think it was........
as for the crap cars book my brother got it last year for a stocking filler[:D]

It rides again..... and again wehey!!!!!!!

[Debpazvin]

gosh Gaz, is this where the general whole world opinion came from? Is it really true??? Deb x

1980 Premium TR7-1 of 400 made
.

[Workshop Help]

Wellll, actually, it's embarrasing to admit, BUT. Our TR7's really did earn the scorn heaped apon them from new. It all started with the engineers deciding to save U.S.$0.25 by using a nylon filler plug in the top of the thermostat housing to hold the pressure from the 190 degree thermostat used on the U.S. emission regulated vehicles at the beginning of production in 1975, 1976, and a good portion of 1977.

This nylon plug which was identical to the brass plug from the TR6, other than the material, would warp and blow forth a great steam geyser instantly warping the cylinder head. Some insensitive souls cackled at the pitiful wailing coming from behind the closed doors of the Triumph warranty department. Next came the infamous winking headlight.

Great fun was always to be experienced when, at dusk, the headlight switch was flicked down to have only one headlight pop up. Oh, joy! Another visit to your friends at the Triumph dealer and more warranty tickets being sent to the factory for dealer reimbursement. Then there was the immensely entertaining steering wheel wobble at 55 to 60 mph.

Whole buckets full of time was spent on the front end alignment machine, the spin balance machine, the tie rod replacements, the ball joint examinations, the engine mounts, in fact, there were hardly any parts of the car that weren't looked over by the dealers searching for the cause of that wobbling steering wheel. Some folks finally gave up and accepted it as a quirk of the car.

These are examples of why the automotive press and the industry as a whole derided the TR7. This is why the TR7's value as a used car dropped like a rock in the years it was in production and still lags down there in value with other unloved cars from that era. But, we here know better.

We members of this gathering have winnowed thru the problems and solved them all.

The nylon filler plug was replaced by an aluminum one in the big recall campaign in late 1977-early 1978. This kept the pressure bottled up as it should be. On our car we beat them to the punch a year earlier by using the brass filler plug from a TR6. Once the pressure was contained, the head did not warp and the engine lasted from January 1977 till a piston ring in #4 cylinder broke in Sept 2004. Later versions of the cooling system did away with the filler plug altogether, but you can still see where it once was.

Also in the recall campaign, attention was devoted to sealing the headlight connectors with silicone sealant. This, in conjunction with cleaning the contacts, enabled the electricity to flow to both headlight motors so both lights rose and fell on command.

Then there was that wobble. The factory boys never did figure that one out, but I did. The factory steel wheels are not as tough as the ordinary American wheels. In fact, they are a little on the soft side particularly in the area of the lug nut hole dimples. When the wheels were originally installed, the line workers used air wrenches to torque the lug nuts. In doing so, the nuts were over torqued resulting in slightly bent wheel, which gives us that old familiar wobble at 55-60mph. The solution? New wheels AND they must always be hand torqued by you the owner. NEVER MUST AN AIR WRENCH TOUCH THOSE LUG NUTS to tighten them down.

Those Ms Deb are the initial reasons for the unpopularity and fixes of the TR7. The orfices of the automotive press and media sunk their teeth into them and took off with their vitriol.

Is the car just so much crap? Not in mine eyes or the eyes of any of us who know better. Even the early Speke built cars, of which ours is, can be be remedied and those surviving have benefitted from the diligence of their owners who have visited this forum. So, let the loud mouth morons have their bit of glory, we who know the truth merrily go our own way in a car that proves itself with every turn of the ignition key.

[FI Spyder]

In a diferent vein:
It all started when Triumph won the design competition over MG to make the lone BL sportscar which meant the end of the much loved MG (at least by MG crowd). The Classicists didn't like it as it was going from 6 cylinders of the TR6 down to four, and no wood in the dash...just plastic and a big departure in the steadily evolving styling from the TR2 to the TR6 and it wasn't even a convertible. The general public had a hard time with the roof line and while the car magazines testers praised the handling etc. they found the two liter a little anemic (at least in US). (Any body ever drive the anemic 350ci '75 Corvette? My '71 Javelin 304 had as much get up and go.)

Then the teething problems started showing up from a new factory in a town with no car manufacturing history, just a lot of unemployed longshoremen which is why they got the big tax breaks from the government to build the factories there. Once the word gets out that the car is unreliable it's hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube despite the ever increasing improvement in quality. Despite all that they sold lots until the ever increasing value of the British pound made them too expensive for a inexpensive sportscar (what they were supposed to be) and the sales figures trailed off.

A time passed, reputation of bad quality grew and people fed off it and as they were told it was an ugly car they didn't have the bravery to say the Emperor had no clothes and no it wasn't. Jump thirty years forward and as the little kids (who haven't been exposed to the bias) fawn over it their parents whose eyes are reopened by their little ones say yah it's kind of not bad.

So we, who are in the know, have an inexpensive hobby that gets second looks unlike all the Miata and Z3 and Z4 owners that just get yawns.



TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[Raider]

Back to the original question.

It's not so much Top Gear as Jeremy Clarkson and it's not just TR7s as all Triumphs because to him they are lumped in with all British cars.

Yes the TR7 gets special attention and the best I heard him say of it was in relation to how good Tony Pond was as a driver "even in the TR7 V8"[:(!]

Recently they had a "celebration" of BL - they had a great time pointing out bits falling off a Rover SD1 (including a door) and loved it when a Dolomite Sprint rolled back off a hill when it's hand brake wouldn't hold.

And did they really have to keep driving into the Dolly?

They then compared it to a wonderful Datsun Cherry showing how great it was, reliable blah blah blah.

YES, BECAUSE THE ONE THEY HAD WAS PROBABLY THE ONLY ONE THAT HASN'T ROTTED AWAY[:(!]

Strangely, they didn't use pristine BL cars - I wonder if that would be because it would disprove their bias?

Anyway, back to Triumphs - Clarkson on the original MX5 "designed to replicate the exhaust note of a TRiumph Spitfire - of all things!"

The closest I have ever heard him say something good about a Triumph was in relation to a Stag, along the lines of "good looking car, could have done well if it hadn't had that awful Triumph engine" [:(!]

OK - rant over


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Project Manx 2010 - I wish I could drive a TR7 like Tony Pond
North Yorks/Lancs border
http://raidertr7.blogspot.com/
TR7 Sprint FHC tarmac rally car - Speke built ... Barnoldswick modified - there's a big difference!

[nofinchance]

All been said realy.I just wanted to add that a bad reputation like a bad smell just wont go away.The Tr7's only faults were the penny pinching and workshy idiots who made it.The big 'problem' cars when I was young that everyone whisperd with a secretive wink and nod about was anything made by vauxhall.They had one poorly rust proofed car in the 1950's that rusted a bit quickly and even into the early 80's I was being told not to touch vauxhalls because they rust badley.On the other side of the coin the carefully built up VW reputation of never going wrong is also not that true either.I have had two VW cars and both played up with electrical faults to make even the Lucas people look on in scorn!

[img][IMG]http://i560.photobucket.com/albums/ss45/nofinchance/DSCF0617.jpg[/img][/img]

[John Clancy]

James May is a big fan of the TR7. But then, he's the intelligent one of the three!

<center><b>[url="http://www.triumphtr7.com/documents/sales/codenamebullet.asp"]Buy the story of the Triumph TR7/8 on DVD here[/url]</b></center>

[gslittle]

I'm sure that the TR8 featured in an early book by Mr Clarkson, entitled something like his "Top 100" cars of all time...

I suppose it's difficult always to be consistent and "entertaining" at the same time over many years.


1979 TR7 TCT DHC 16V
Formerly...
1980 TR7 FHC
1980 Factory TR8 DHC
1980 Factory TR8 DHC Automatic
1977 TR7 FHC Parts Car
1980 TR7 FHC Parts Car

[Maxwell]

GSL: It wasn't ALL good.....

In the first paragraph he reiterates the oft-told story about the derisive comment aledgedly made at the Geneva Motor Show.

In the second paragraph he likens the TR7 in FHC guise to a '12th Century gargoyle', built with 'the precision and care that goes into the public lavatories at a point-to-point'

Do you really want the cloing paragraph?

<i>And some were sold with the 3.5l Rover V8 and that, really
was what the TR7 should have been in the first place.
We have swooned over V8 TVRs for years now but the TR7 was
actually the first sports car to benefit from this wonderful
brute of a motor: it was so good it made us forget about the
woeful build and suspect handling. In fact, drivers could
still have a smile on their face as the car slewed into a
telegraph pole because the chassis had rusted away and the
hopeless rear suspension had caused the tyres to lose grip.
In a TR7V8 you died happy...</i>


Maxwell [8D]

[Urchin]

Richard Porter's "Crap Cars" books are hilarious! I've seen both the US and UK versions and love his humor .

Mildred has - again - done a superb job of highlighting the problems with the first US TR-7's. The one thing that every critic must remember is that no Triumph model sold in the US exceeded the TR-7 in sales, somewhere around 112,000. While the TR-2 through TR-6' enjoy huge fan base and vendor support now, the TR-7 enjoyed the strongest sales numbers.

And while people smile with pleasure when they see a TR3,4 or TR-6, they gasp in amazement when they see a TR-7 or TR-8, and wonder "what brand of Italian car is it?"

Jeff

Jeffrey Aronson
P.O. Box 90
Vinalhaven, ME 04863
USA
'80 TR-7 Spider
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'66 Corvair Monza
www.landroverwriter.com

[wedggie perrin]

What!
Some people out there don't like the TR7?[:0]
Well that is news to me.[:I]