Triumph TR8 Review
What the magazines made of the TR8: the first drives of 1979, *Autocar*'s unhappy coupé, the American launch and the road tests of 1980, when *Car and Driver*, *Road & Track*, *Motor Trend* and *Road Test* all fell for it. With the lines that are misquoted, answered.
About the pictureThe launch venue, standing in for the press launch and the magazines' test cars
In August 1980 Car and Driver published Don Sherman's road test of the TR8. Under its opening photograph it set a caption that has followed the car ever since:
Nothing less than the reinvention of the sports car.
It was the high point of a summer in which four American magazines all wrote well of the car. Road & Track called its test "Good news from the other side", Motor Trend "A mighty Triumph", and Road Test chose it as its best new sports car of 1980. A year earlier Autocar, by BL's press office's account the only British magazine to test one, had been much less impressed.source 1source 2source 3source 4source 5source 6
Two drives in Britain, 1979
Road & Track's first drive came early in 1979, when Thos L. Bryant took an American-specification coupé out near Donington. He found the power steering light, with "reasonably good road feel", and the car well behaved, with a warning: it handled "superbly right up to the limit of adhesion, but once past that point, it could be dodgy getting it back under control because of the short wheelbase".
Autocar's John Miles had a very different day. His car, YDU 617S, was a white left-hand-drive coupé built to American specification, which he collected from Jaguar's Browns Lane factory; it was, he wrote, "in fact half federal — the catalytic converter had been removed in order to run on leaded fuel". He found that "The normally superb Rover V8 wheezed and struggled under the burden of its emmission and conditioning equipment", that the "terribly soft suspension made the car feel constantly uneasy", and he did not hold back:
Sorry, but in my view the American spec TR8 neither handles nor holds the road — it certainly doesn't go.
He asked BL to "Please convert it back into a sports car", and expected that it would not be on sale in Britain "for at least eighteen months". It never was. triumphtr8.com, which dates the column to May 1979, quotes Martin Cox of BL's press department on what went wrong: the car had not been prepared by the press office at all; it was an engineering car, passed on through the public relations office then at Browns Lane, its catalyst taken off and probably never set up again. "To my knowledge, Autocar never tested a press-prepared TR8," he said.source 7source 8source 2source 1source 3source 4source 5source 6
The US launch, 1980
The American press met the TR8 at last in March 1980, at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego; the history tells how two earlier launches were called off. Michael Lamm, writing in British Car in 1999, remembered driving the cars there with Bob Tullius and the rally driver John Buffum, and the company's vice-president of sales and marketing, Michael Dale, polling the writers: they agreed, Lamm recalled, "that the TR8 had a bright future and that the Rover probably didn't". The Rover was the Rover 3500, launched in America beside the TR8.
What the testers liked
The tests ran from June to August 1980, all four on injected convertibles. What they liked first was the engine. Road & Track found that "the TR8 doubles as a pussycat around town and a tiger on the open road"; Car and Driver praised "eight whole cylinders' worth of punch to ram the world through the windshield and out the rear-view mirror"; Motor Trend called the little V8 "a torquey engine"; and for Road Test it turned the TR7 "From a merely good car with so-so performance to a redoubtable muscle car". Walt Woron summed it up: "Well, if any car deserved to succeed because of its engine, it's the Triumph TR8."
Its road manners pleased them too. Motor Trend found the handling "neutral and eminently responsive" and the suspension "about as nice a compromise between comfort and handling as you're able to find"; Car and Driver that there was "enough grip here to make your ears bleed", with steering "pleasantly heavy for a power-assisted rack-and-pinion". Road Test thought the fit and finish "Better than any TR7 we've seen", and Motor Trend went further, wondering whether the stories of "Britain's alienated workers" were "just gossip". With the hood (soft top) up, Road & Track could "hold a conversation in normal tones". Above all, the TR8 was an open car:
There's hope after all. Just when it seemed as though we would never again see another mass-produced, lusty-hearted convertible sports car, here comes the Triumph TR8.
What they criticised
Road & Track found the front end "rather soft, diving sharply under braking", with "some rear-axle tramp during cornering in bumpy surfaces". The brakes drew the sharpest criticism. Road & Track complained of long stops and fade, and Don Sherman put the remedy plainly:
The TR8 … really could use fourteen-inch wheels and some hellacious disc brakes all around.
Inside, the plaid of the seats did not please everyone: "some staff members found it a bit tacky," Road & Track reported. Car and Driver weighed the price against the thirst, calling the TR8 "a bargain at $12,000, plus one gallon of liquid gold for every sixteen miles", while Motor Trend thought it about the only car of its kind to be had "without having to mortgage the family farm". Road & Track's survey of TR7 owners had found far more problems than the average car's, and it expected "the overall reliability of the Triumph TR8 to be far below average".
Index of the period tests
| Magazine | Date | Writer | The car |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road & Track, "New from Britain: Triumph TR7 Convertible & TR8" | Early 1979 | Thos L. Bryant | An American-specification coupé, near Donington |
| Autocar, "Miles Behind the Wheel: America's TR8" | 1979; May, according to triumphtr8.com | John Miles | YDU 617S, a left-hand-drive engineering coupé without its catalyst |
| Motor Trend, "TR8 V-8: A mighty Triumph" | June 1980 | Fred M. H. Gregory | A convertible, with the figures for both engines |
| Road & Track, "Triumph TR8: Good news from the other side" | June 1980 | The magazine's staff | An injected California convertible |
| Road Test, "1980 Triumph TR8 Convertible" | July 1980 | Walt Woron | A green injected convertible, its Best New Sports Car of 1980 |
| Car and Driver, "Triumph TR8" | August 1980 | Don Sherman | A green injected California convertible |
| "Triumph TR8: a 20,000-mile durability run" | 1980 or 1981 | Don Green | A convertible with air conditioning, probably for Motor Trend |
Wikipedia records that Road & Track's test was reprinted in its Road Test Annual & Buyer's Guide for 1981. Two who were there wrote about the TR8 later: Mike Cook in Special Interest Autos in 1996, and Michael Lamm in British Car in 1999. In 2020 AROnline set a modified TR8 of 1981 against a Ford Capri 2.8 Injection. The specifications give the testers' figures, and the history the cars they compared it with.source 7source 13source 8source 11source 10source 12source 1source 14source 5source 9source 15
Sources
Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
- Don Sherman, "Triumph TR8" (road test), Car and Driver, Aug 1980, pp. 36–40, p. 36, the caption and the text; pp. 36–39: the engine; the grip; the steering; p. 39: the brakes; the price and the fuel; pp. 36–40. Primary
- triumphtr8.com, Pages (group): "TR8 Press Cars UK", "TR8 Press Articles and Cuttings" (21 Mar 2026), "Classic and Sports Car TR8 Article" (9 Apr 2026), 2026, TR8 Press Articles and Cuttings: the scans; the caption crediting Road & Track; TR8 Press Cars UK: Martin Cox, as quoted; the May 1979 date. Reference
- Chris Cowin, "History: Exporting British cars to the USA – Part Two", AROnline, 31 May 2025, updated 21 Oct 2025, the line credited to Car and Driver; launch in March 1980. Reference
- Keith Adams, "The Cars: Triumph TR7/TR8 development story", AROnline, updated 8 Feb 2024, the line credited to Car and Driver. Reference
- Michael L. Cook, "1981 Triumph TR8: Fast and Last", Special Interest Autos, no. 156, Nov–Dec 1996, pp. 10–17, p. 15, "re-creation"; p. 15, San Diego, March 1980; pp. 10–17. Reference
- Lancaster Insurance, "The Triumph TR8 remembered", 12 May 2022, the month of the Car and Driver line; the line credited to Motor Trend. Unchecked
- Thos L. Bryant, "New from Britain: Triumph TR7 Convertible & TR8", Road & Track (reprinted by the TR Drivers Club), 1979, TR8 section: Donington; the handling; the steering; the reprint. Primary
- John Miles, "Miles Behind the Wheel: America's TR8", Autocar, 1979 (May, according to triumphtr8.com), pp. 1–2: the car, the verdicts, "eighteen months"; "Miles Behind the Wheel: America's TR8". Primary
- Michael Lamm, "1st Drive in the Triumph TR8", British Car, Feb–Mar 1999, pp. 46–48, pp. 47–48: the drive, the poll, the 1980 rally opener, 1979 sales; pp. 46–48. Reference
- Road & Track, "Triumph TR8: Good news from the other side" (road test), Jun 1980, pp. 76–79, pp. 76–78: "There's hope after all"; town and open road; the hood up; p. 78: the brakes; the front end; the trim; the owner survey; "Triumph TR8: Good news from the other side", pp. 76–79. Primary
- Fred M. H. Gregory, "TR8 V-8: A mighty Triumph" (road test), with the sidebar "A String of Triumphs", Motor Trend, Jun 1980, the engine; the handling; the ride; fit and finish; p. 4, "mortgage the family farm"; the steering wheel; "TR8 V-8: A mighty Triumph". Primary
- Walt Woron, "1980 Triumph TR8 Convertible: RT's Selection for 'Best New Sports Car of 1980'", Road Test (US), Jul 1980, pp. 16, 83–86, p. 16, the award; pp. 83, 86: the engine; fit and finish; economy; p. 16, pp. 83–86. Primary
- Wikipedia (EN), "Triumph TR8", 2026, the 1981 Road Test Annual, as cited. Unchecked
- Don Green, "Triumph TR8: a 20,000-mile durability run", Motor Trend (probably: not printed on the scans), 1980 or 1981, pp. 1, 2, 5. Primary
- Richard Truett, "Tested: Ford Capri 2.8 Injection vs Triumph TR8", AROnline, 29 Dec 2020, the comparison. Reference