Club Triumph

“The 4.6 car”     Triumph TR7 V8

2005 – Found on eBay

The car was found on eBay and purchased by my son at the start of 2005, he fancied a British V8 sports car to do track days and hopefully some competition events with, plus the car is a long time rally favourite of ours. We went into this with a fair bit of mechanical knowledge between us (but little on the TR7) and a small budget. Most of the works were undertaken in a single garage at home and the space was shared with many family and domestic items, space was a premium.

It was Colin Chapman who said "Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere". We decided to concentrate on handling and driveability and add power as our funds allowed. However with every power upgrade other items would surface.

The car had been converted to a TR7V8 using all the right parts (Rover 3.5) plus a few parts possibly not to everyone’s taste!  On our first outing it was soon apparent that the handling was unpredictable. On entering a corner with a little too much input to the steering it would spin, if you made it through the corner and touched the throttle on the way out it would spin. The original tyre compounds were similar to granite, the springs were too soft, the dampers didn’t damp, the engine both consumed and leaked oil from various places at quite a rate and a mixture of fumes filtered into the cabin, it was also short on power, however even at these modest speeds the brakes struggled to stop the car.  Probably not the best of starts, but what a laugh we had as everything passed us and left us for dead.

At this point it was a 3.5 V8 standard engine (probably SD1) complete with a 4 barrel Holly 390 with vacuum secondary’s and a twin point Malory distributor, this was coupled to a LT77 box, up front were a pair of Princess callipers with material similar to slate as pads, the axle surprisingly had a disc brake conversion and was running a 3.08 diff. The car still had its original interior, carpets, head lining, dash etc, it also had a part cage installed to the rear of the car, we recon it was heavier than a standard road car what with all the bits that it had been fitted with, (Wikipedia has the TR8 curb weight as 1203.9kg), at this stage it had an MOT and was still road legal.

Steve

Im interested to see some of the build photos of the car, i love how it turned out, mine will be something very similar.

The 4.6 the car has in it now, what kind of HP/Torque came from that engine? i assume you and it on the rollers at some stage of the engine setup?

Looks very nice in yellow, can't wait for the next write up on her.

Clearly some room for improvement on the car's "as-bought-looks"  

Steve,

Good story - I enjoyed reading it!   What's your intention?    Aiming at a race series, and which one?
CSCC's Future Classics?

JOhn

Quoted from Benzo

Im interested to see some of the build photos of the car, i love how it turned out, mine will be something very similar.

The 4.6 the car has in it now, what kind of HP/Torque came from that engine? i assume you and it on the rollers at some stage of the engine setup?

Quoted from JohnD

Steve,

Good story - I enjoyed reading it!   What's your intention?    Aiming at a race series, and which one?
CSCC's Future Classics?

JOhn

2006 – The first changes

Having enjoyed 2005 we no longer wanted to be the slowest car, however not having an unlimited budget our first idea was to lighten the car and tidy it up a bit. Unwanted bits were removed, a glass-fibre boot and bonnet were fitted, and we made some alterations so as to get better clearance between the bonnet and the air filter sitting on top of the carburettor which included fitting a new K&N Filter, we also tried some better (but second hand) rubber.

Still a 3.5 V8, LT77 and 3.08 diff

You ended up with a 3.45 Ratio in the back end steve? what kind of top end did that give on the 13" wheels?

Quoted from Benzo

You ended up with a 3.45 Ratio in the back end steve? what kind of top end did that give on the 13" wheels?

2006 – Fresh Air at Rockingham

A roof vent was fitted to get some fresh air in to the cabin as the fumes tended to take hold after about 5 laps. A small mod to the oil breathers helped with the fumes but the problem was still with the condition of the engine. Still enjoying it, learning new things, and now no longer the slowest car we wanted to improve things even more. We were having fun, but we were getting serious. A target is set to make the first of many big changes over the coming winter and next few years.

Still a 3.5 V8, LT77 and 3.08 diff

Steve, what software or website is that for Calculating the Ratios?

Quoted from Benzo

Steve, what software or website is that for Calculating the Ratios?

Brilliant thanks, there are a few websites but that looks good telling rev drop etc

2007 – The (Rally) Rebuild

Over the winter at the end of 2006 the car was stripped down completely, the layers of paint were removed; the bodywork was tidied up and then re-sprayed in works rally colours.

It was reassembled with a mind to it being as light as possible, (I even caught him starting to drill the pedals but stopped him!) nothing went back on that wasn’t necessary. The old wheels were sold and some Compomotive alloys were bought and a set of used slicks fitted.

A set of rally arches were fitted, new Poly bushes fitted all round, new Spax shockers all round with 200lb springs front and rears (rears were still in original position half way along the axle) a light weight Varley battery was fitted in place of the old standard battery, Ferrodo pads to aid stopping and the side and rear glass was replaced with Perspex.

Did you use fibreglass front wings steve?

Quoted from Benzo

Did you use fibreglass front wings steve?

Its great to see the build of the car.

2007 – More of the rebuild

The biggest difference and most noticeable change to the overall handling of the car was made by fitting a Quaife ATB limited slip diff, we never knew just how much one piece of kit could transform the handling. It is very hard to explain exactly what it does in mechanical terms, put simply it cancelled out most of the understeer (obviously depending on speed, circuit conditions, and the state of the tyres you will always experience some understeer) now you could dive deep into a corner and still turn in and then on the exit of the corner you get controllable power oversteer.

The original petrol tank went and a smaller alloy tank was fitted in the boot spare wheel-well alongside a Holly fuel pump and filters which are rated to the carb.

It handled really well now however we still wanted more power, and with that power better brakes to stop the machine. Probably more brakes than power at this point!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b_ybhc9sYJQ#t=7

Still a 3.5 V8, LT77 and 3.08 diff but now with Quaife LSD

Quoted from stevieb

No, shell was original steel, only fitted fibreglass boot and bonnet

Quoted from stevieb

... The biggest difference ... was made by fitting a Quaife ATB limited slip diff ... It is very hard to explain exactly what it does in mechanical terms, put simply it cancelled out most of the understeer ...