tr7triumph.com

When I started my resto about two years ago there were always several wedges for sale on ebay and in our local auto trader. Now my project is nearing completion I am thinking about a low cost car for doing hillclimbs and possibly some classic non competitive rallying. It is more for fun than anything and must be done on the cheap so I thought a rough sprint or V8 powered car would be perfect project car. Two years ago there was always a few cars on ebay that would of been perfect for this and I know there are still cars on ebay for sale but there are less of them than there used to be. Correct me if I'm wrong but do prices appear to be creeping up.

If it doesn't fit you obviously need a bigger hammer.

www.metronewquay.co.uk www.wheelintheheel.co.uk

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http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t299/samco_bucket/

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1980 Californian import converted to right hand drive V8. Under construction.

well here in holland i see the opposite. More and more cars appear on the local web advertisment and most of the cars are there for more then a year. Prices are dropping then to a very low point, for 1500 euro`s (800 US dollars or something) you have a nice standard tr7 with some work ofcourse [:p]

TR7, ACG 2700L

Here in OZ there are not too many about get them up for sale now and again,Would like to know how many came here in the first place. They have been a few brought in over the past few years.

Here in Calgary we've had 6 come up in the bargain adds for under $1000, $1500. I've also found two up on blocks in back yards. Not to mention the two the just arrived from BC[:D] No shortage here. Not to mention they are mostly convertibles.

Yoke

Can't save them all but I am trying!!!

Wedges in the US still don't demand big prices and are available freely. Even TR8s. But heck, they only made so many TRs so it stands to reason that eventually our cars will appreaciate. Good news for owners I suppose. If you want one get it now![;)]

72 MGB BRG
80 TR8 Persian Aqua
If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

They are getting scarer here in Texas.

I have been following this subject with great interest and have tried to study it a bit.

There are certainly less GOOD cars for sale, but probably even less "sheds" than ever before.

However, prices have taken a significant tumble in recent times,in the private sale market especially in the last 3 years. When I was looking to buy my first one 5 - 6 years ago good V8s were going for anything between £6 - 10k with the average decent MOT'd 2 litre at around £2,500. FHC's have remained more or less the same.

V8s have suffered the biggest drop in price, mainly due to fuel cost I would suspect but 2 litre convertibles have suffered a noticeable drop as well. You certainly would never have been able to buy a 4 litre Grinnall in the condition I did recently 5 years ago.

From what I have looked at, any classic car is a bad investment in terms of financial gain and appreciation, the time to buy cars as an investment passed with the 1980's. In the next 10 - 15 years there will be an inevitable drop in demand and surplus of classic cars hitting the market as current owners become older and even die. There is no younger population with the same level of interest to take these vehicles on and so demand will drop and the numbers of cars for sale will gradually rise.

Couple that with rising costs of motoring and legislation to limit our ability to drive in the fashion we do now and it looks a little bleak for the classic car market long term in my opinion.

There is always the argument that a car is worth as much as people want to pay for it of course.

Moral is I reckon - enjoy every momnent of our owning our brilliant cars while we can, but dont expect to get back even a fraction of the money you spend on running and buying them [:D]

Purple 2.0 Litre DHC Grinnal

If you can find a small ship, bring some of those wedges to Oz.

We did not get DHCs, so our only DHCs are after market imports. I
have never seen a reasonable one, [remember ours are mostly rust
free] for less than A$7500, & thats for an import, to be restored.

You will not get a good FHC, registered, roadworthy, [MOT], with
good paint for much under A$5500.

A really nice FHC 7V8 will bring A$15,000, & DHC up tp A$20,000.

I have seen fully restored & beautiful, TR8 DHCs at over A$30,000.

With the present exchange rate, A$20,000 is about US$18,500, so I
think we must appreciate our 7s more than you lot. It could show,
that the average Ozy has better taste than others, except you find
that the average Ozy has never heard of a TR7. So I guess it shows
some of us are mad.

Hasbeen

It is true that the sports can enthusiasts are getting older and fewer.

It not only affects TR7s but all Triumphs, MGs, A-Hs, Fiat, etc. and has been the discussion of several of our Triumph Register meetings. One thing we are trying to do is to get a chance to bring our cars to high school and technical college auto shop classes so the younger generation can become acquainted with these little sports cars.

About 10 years ago, the Hondas, Acuras, Eclipes and Mozdas started becoming the HOT RODs for the kids, because they were cheap and tuning parts were available. With movies like The Fast and the Furious, the oriental autos have become the current leaders in the youth movement.

So, what can we do to increase the interest in our wonderful TR7s? Well, we can show up at car nights at the local Whataburger, or car hangouts. Keep our cars as nice as possible. Be more visible to people who aren't British car nuts. We can talk to the kids and show them things on a regular car that they won't learn on their fuel injected, computerized go-fast machines.

Just a thought!

Have fun, drive fast & safe, be kewl,

jclay

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Hasbeen</i>
If you can find a small ship, bring some of those wedges to Oz.
Hasbeen <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Is it true that left hand drive cars are banned by the law in Australia?

It was Odd, but the law makers finally decided we could handle it.

Well they did, but only if the car is 25, or 30 years old, or
something like that.

Thats one of the problems of having no land border with anyone, you
become too fixed on yourself.

Hasbreen

You know, before Sweden changed over to driving on the right side of the road, on the 3rd of September
1967, we were driving on the left (wrong?) side. But we did (both of) it with the same LHD cars.

So if we could drive with LHD cars in wsr (wrong side of road) traffic so can probably most others as well
- so your authorities (as the British and Irish, all of them island people) did right in allowing them on the roads...
Cheers mate! [:D]

<font color="red"><b>My two 1980 Wedges...</b></font id="red">

Odd,

I must object to this wsr view.

Simply:
- being left handed, I never want a gear stick in my right hand, as steering takes precedence
- natural proclivity means my best skills are represented by driving on the left hand side of the road, which is the right side for me

YMMV
Owen

I remeber something about collecting high end cars from an article years ago (more geared towards cars like Ferarri and Porsche).

The cars that guys fell in love with when they were 21 will go up in value dramatically when those guy finally have money in their pockets (when the kids are through college - mid 40s to low 50s). By that logic, we still have a few more years. Maybe by that time all the crap cars will have rusted away and there will only better examples out there, which will also help prices. There are some many bad examples out there that it gives the good cars a bad wrap (kind of like when our cars were new).

Rob

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by omichaelshar</i>

Odd,

I must object to this wsr view.

Simply:
- being left handed, I never want a gear stick in my right hand, as steering takes precedence
- natural proclivity means my best skills are represented by driving on the left hand side of the road, which is the right side for me

YMMV
Owen
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I too am left handed but shifting with the right hand seems perfectly normal as that is the only way I've ever done it. Can't envision shifting with the left. All depends on what your used to.

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