Triumph does not build many cars like the Triumph TR7 Sprint: a 2-door coupé with 1998 cc 16-valve Slant-4, built from 1977 as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. Its designer of record is Harris Mann, Spen King.
How it came about
The Triumph TR7 Sprint version of the Triumph TR7 sports car was produced in 1977 by the Triumph Motor Company, then part of British Leyland. However, it was produced in only very limited numbers: Probably a maximum of 61 in total were manufactured. It used the 127 bhp, 16-valve, 2-litre version of the Triumph slant-four engine from the Triumph Dolomite Sprint, a highly tuned version of which, "rated at 225 bhp at 8000 rpm" by 1977, was used in the Group 4 TR7 cars of the BL works rally team, from 1976 until 1978. This was instead of the TR7 base model's 105 bhp, 8-valve, 2-litre version of the same basic slant-4 engine.
The 16-valve version was originally specified in the Dolomite Sprint at 135 bhp, and "Spencer King relates how he went away on holiday and came back to find an engine running on the bed giving 150 bhp at the first build." The reasons why so few TR7 Sprints were produced has been a matter of some debate, since it was never a catalogued model. It is widely assumed that the TR7 Sprints were built with the intention of it being produced for sale, but cancelled after only a few had been made. The suggestions are that it was either cancelled as a result of industrial action, and the consequent loss of BL's market share, or because the sales and marketing department did not want it, as it was not a sufficient improvement over the TR7 base model or because it could not meet the 1976 changes to emissions legislation requirements for the US market - at which the TR7 and later TR8 were primarily aimed. It has also been noted that none of the suggested reasons for canc
The hardware
Under the skin sits 1998 cc 16-valve Slant-4. Kerb weight is 1083 kg. The gearbox is a 5-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 85 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Triumph's history is not in doubt: it was built at Speke, Liverpool, United Kingdom. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the BMW 7 Series, the Toyota Supra, the Mazda RX-7. Its Triumph stablemates include the Triumph SD2 and the Triumph Renown.
The money
There is no federal ownership record for the Triumph TR7 Sprint — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.