Lot details
Registration No: YKV542X
Chassis No: SATTPAD57AA407503
Mot Expiry: June 2009

Code-named Bullet by Triumph, the TR7 was launched Stateside during September 1974. The work of in-house stylist Harris Mann, its distinctive wedge-shaped profile was conceived at a time when proposed US legislation not only threatened to outlaw convertibles but also insisted that all cars should be able to survive a 5mph impact unscathed. Last of the noble TR line, the TR7 was the first to employ a monocoque chassis and featured all-round coil-sprung suspension, rack and pinion steering and disc / drum brakes, offering a level of comfort and roadholding not yet seen in a Triumph sports car, and performance from its 2-litre engine was more than a match for the contemporary MGB, contemporary road tests claiming 0-60mph in 9.1 seconds and 110mph.
Introduced in 1979, the TR7 Convertible was almost universally hailed as better looking than its coupe sibling. Surprisingly refined, it arrived too late to resuscitate the model's fortunes and was discontinued two years later - though typical British Leyland stockpiling meant that sales continued into 1982.

But the TR7's engine bay had been designed to take the lightweight Rover V8 engine and, though the TR8 was produced in small numbers near the end of the `wedge's' production, owners and specialists soon took the matter into their own hands and built the car that should have been. Grinnall was one of the leading companies in offering properly engineered V8 conversions, converting a believed 337 in the '80s and '90s and this car is reportedly one of them, based on one of the last TR7 convertibles made, using the Rover V8 coupled to its five-speed gearbox. With the V8, top speed rises by 10mph and a couple of seconds are shaved off the 0-60mph time - but best of all, the car becomes a marvellously flexible tourer. This example has slightly flared rear wheelarches and sits well on its cross-spoke alloys. The vendor describes it as being in "good overall" condition, with six old MOT certificates to support the odometer reading of 13,782. Though, the instrument was presumably zeroed when the car was converted.