Triumph entered the 1970’s with the TR6, like the M.G. a traditional sports car with a 2498-cc single overhead camshaft engine which gave 150 bhp in fuel injected form at the beginning of the decade, dropping to 124 later, and never giving more than 105 bhp in US specification carburetted form. It had all independent but firm suspension, and in European form a top speed of around 120-mph.
It gave way to the new and controversial TR7 in 1975/76, though there was some overlap in production as the TR6 was made at Coventry and the TR7 at Speke, near Liverpool. The TR7 had a smaller engine, a slant-four single overhead camshaft 198-cc unit which was also used in the Dolomite Sprint. It was a very different car from its predecessor, a softer machine planned as a hard-top coupe, though some open versions were made later.
Styling, which was credited to the Austin-Morris studio at Longbridge, has been described as wedge-shaped, squat or dumpy. Few admirers were found, either when new or later. The TR7’s history was fraught with labor troubles, resulting in two moves of factory, from Speke to Coventry to Solihull . Though the Americans were lukewarm about it, feeling that a 109-MPH top speed was not very exciting for a 2-liter sports car inn the mid 1970’s, the TR7 sold better than any previous Triumph sports car, with 112,368 deliveries between 1975-1981.
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