Triumph TR8 Versions

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North American TR8s are known by model year:

Model year	The cars	Fuel system	Notes
1978	The Speke coupés, issued to BL's staff in the United States and Canada as company cars	Carburettors	No badges; most automatic, Mike Cook writes
1979	Canley coupés, and the first convertibles	Carburettors	The TR Drivers Club notes that Cook's accounts mention no sales of 1979 models
1980	The convertible, and the Canley coupés	Carburettors in 49 states, injection in California	In the showrooms from the spring of 1980; Cook is quoted as saying the coupés were sold as 1980 models; the larger bonnet bulge from late in the 1979 model year
1981	The convertible	Injection in every state and in Canada	Cloth seats in place of plaid; a 17-character VIN with a check digit from May 1981
1982	The convertible, in Canada only	Injection	Kilometre speedometers, according to tr8.com

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The TR8 was built for North America, and the differences between its markets were mostly in the fuel and the exhaust. In the 1980 model year the cars for 49 states had two Zenith-Stromberg carburettors with automatic chokes, air injection, exhaust-gas recirculation and oxidation catalysts. California's had Lucas/Bosch L-Jetronic injection and a three-way catalyst controlled by an oxygen sensor, and the California Air Resources Board certified that engine for the TR8 coupé, the TR8 convertible and the Rover 3500 on 18 March 1980. Road & Track gave the reason for two engines:

Triumph planners decided to use the different engines to keep the TR8's basic price down; injection is expensive.

Road & Track also said California would get no coupé. Michael Lamm recalled being told that Jaguar Rover Triumph expected to sell most of its early TR8s in California, and that the work of meeting the federal rules was done at Goodyear's test facility near Laredo, Texas. A year earlier, on 22 February 1979, the board had certified a carburettor TR8 for California for the 1979 model year, matching the 12E and 13E engine numbers, but no source read records one sold. For the 1981 model year every North American TR8 was injected, under a new certificate, and from May 1981 the chassis numbers grew to 17 characters, with a check digit. Every American TR8 had energy-absorbing bumpers front and rear and a front spoiler.

Canada had the TR8 from early in 1980, with the Rover 3500, and its cars carried their own letter, L, in the chassis number; no source read says whether its cars of the 1980 model year had carburettors or injection. The last cars sent there, built in the late summer of 1981, were sold as 1982 models with kilometre speedometers, tr8.com records.

Britain never had the TR8 on sale. The right-hand-drive cars built for a launch planned for 1981 had carburettors, higher compression and their chassis plate on the front suspension turret, and are on the right-hand-drive page. In Europe, American and Canadian service personnel and diplomats could buy a TR8 free of tax as a personal export, and triumphtr8.com describes these cars: built to the federal specification but without catalysts, the injected ones set to run on leaded fuel, with the larger leaded-fuel filler neck. The chassis-number system had letters for Australia and Japan too, but no source read documents a TR8 for either market.⁠source 16​source 17​source 3​source 14​source 1​source 4​source 6​source 10​source 11​source 18​source 19​source 20​source 21​source 12​source 22

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The 1977 coupé brochure for America listed nine colours, Astral Blue Metallic, Brooklands Green, Carmine, Vermilion, Inca Yellow, Russet Brown, Pageant Blue, Tara Green Metallic and Leyland White, with green or red tartan or beige trim. In 1980 Road & Track noted one difference from the TR7's paints:

Four metallic colors—Platinum, Persian Aqua, Green and Gold—are also standard on the TR8s, though they are options on the TR7.

triumphtr8.com, working from the cars and their paint codes, gives the colours by period, as a guide rather than a factory list:

Period	Colours triumphtr8.com lists
ACN coupés, 1977–78	Carmine Red, Brooklands Green, New White, Inca Yellow, Tahiti Blue, Astral Blue, Russet Brown, Flamenco Red, Java Green
Added in 1979 (TCN and TCV)	Vermilion, Leyland White, Pageant Blue, Platinum Silver, Poseidon Green, Pendelican White
Added in 1980 (TP)	Midas Gold, Porcelain White, Triton Green, Persian Aqua, Carnelian Red
Added in 1980–81	Black, Aran Beige, Pharaoh Gold, Argent Silver, Cavalry Blue, Bordeaux Red
July to October 1981	Champagne Beige, Monza Red, Oporto Red, Cashmere Gold, Silver Leaf, Ermine White

The trim changed with the model year, from tartan plaid in 1980 to cloth in 1981, and the convertible's page describes both. Road Test noted that the grey dashboard was "introduced on '80½ TR7s and all TR8s; it was black". The convertible's one interior difference from the TR7, Road & Track found in 1980, was its small leather-rimmed steering wheel, which triumphtr8.com says was "made by Moto Lita France" and which Motor Trend thought "feels like a ring of kielbasa". The coupés kept the TR7's wheel.⁠source 3​source 23​source 24​source 9​source 12​source 21​source 20

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1. 

   Coupe

   1977–1980 · 3528 cc

   about 150 built or about 400 or 410 or 160

2. 

   Convertible

   1979–1981

3. 

   UK RHD

   1980–1981 · 3528 cc

   22 built

Pictures, top to bottom: Vauxford, CC BY-SA 4.0; kitmasterbloke, CC BY 4.0; kitmasterbloke, CC BY 2.0.

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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

1. Paul Towle and Rex Holford (update) and Mark Elbers (update), "TR7 & TR8 Identification & Production Data Explained", TR Drivers Club, 1987, updated (© 2016), Speke, Canley and Solihull sections; prefixes; ACN, TCN, TCV, TP and SAT sections; Canley's series from October 1979; the UK prefixes; coupé note: no 1979 model-year sales mentioned; the SAT VIN from May 1981; BL production table (b) and its note; "should almost certainly be Convertibles"; specification letters; the SAT VIN from May 1981; K and J; Speke section "ACN". Reference
2. Aaron Severson, "Way of the Wedge: The Triumph TR7 and TR8", Ate Up With Motor, 5 Feb 2012, pp. 1–5, p. 4, "all or nearly all were convertibles"; the three plants. Reference
3. Road & Track, "Triumph TR8: Good news from the other side" (road test), Jun 1980, pp. 76–79, p. 77, the two engines of 1980; p. 76, the bonnet bulge added late in the 1979 model year; p. 77, "injection is expensive"; the coupé not offered in California; data panel, the speedometer; p. 76, the metallic colours; the plaid inserts; the wheel; June 1980, data panel. Primary
4. James TenCate, "Production Numbers – A Detective Story", TR Driver (TR Drivers Club), 2012 no. 2, para. 3, the 1981 cars injected; the UK cars' carburettors; para. 3, the 1981 cars injected; 15E engines, "the handful supplied with automatic transmission"; para. 3; conclusion, the injected cars from the engine numbers and the Lucas order; para. 3, every 1981 car outside the UK injected; para 3. Reference
5. triumphtr8.com, "Right hand drive TR8 Home Market UK" and "TR8 RHD Production Story", modified 23 May 2026, carburettors on the UK cars; the UK cars, April 1980 to March 1981; "22 - the Correct Figure". Reference
6. Chris Cowin, "History: Exporting British cars to Canada – Part Two: The British Leyland Years", AROnline, 19 Aug 2025, 1982 models advertised; the TR8 and Rover 3500 in Canada, early 1980. Reference
7. Rex Holford, "A Brief History of the TR8", TR Drivers Club, X840, X843, X858, X859; batch table. Reference
8. triumphtr8.com, Variant pages (group): "FHC TR8 (ACN) 1977", "FHC TR8 (TCN) 1978–1979", "TR8 (TCV) 1979 DHC", "TR8 (TP) 1980", "DHC TR8 (SAT) 1981/82", the ACN, TCN, TCV, TP and SAT pages; TCN page, the Austin Rover letter; TCN page. Reference
9. Michael L. Cook, "1981 Triumph TR8: Fast and Last", Special Interest Autos, no. 156, Nov–Dec 1996, pp. 10–17, p. 13, the Speke coupés, most of them automatics; p. 13, the 1978 company cars; p. 10, the 1981 cloth; p. 14, the 1981 panel, automatic "N/A on 1981 models"; p. 10, the 1981 cloth. Reference
10. tr8.com, "The 1982 Model Year TR7's & 8's", summary (2012 archive copy). Unchecked
11. triumphtr8.com, "European Spec LHD TR8's", 27 Dec 2025, 1980 and 1981 personal-export cars; personal-export cars: no catalysts, leaded fuel, the filler neck. Reference
12. triumphtr8.com, "TR8's Genuine Factory cars: History & Authentication" and "Is it a genuine TR8?", 6 Jun 2026, engine-number prefixes 10E to 21E; the British cars' compression; the chassis plate on the turret; the steering wheel, "made by Moto Lita France"; velour and square locks on 1981 cars. Reference
13. Triumph Wedge Owners Association, Document pages (group): "TR8", "Memos", "Brochures", TSB indexes, "Deciphering the Wedge", "Component Serial Numbers", "TR8 Cooling Fan System", "TR8 ECU", Component Serial Numbers: TR8 engine prefixes; "Deciphering the Wedge", the 1980 row. Reference
14. Michael Lamm, "1st Drive in the Triumph TR8", British Car, Feb–Mar 1999, pp. 46–48, p. 48, dealerships in May 1980; p. 47, Herbert on California and Laredo, as recalled. Reference
15. triumphtr8.com, "Production Figures for the TR8", 5 Jan 2026, production table. Reference
16. Jaguar Rover Triumph Inc. (Leonia, N.J.), Triumph TR8 (sales brochure), USA, printed 4/80, 1980, specification panel: carburettors, "California specifications, when different, are noted in brackets"; bumpers and spoiler; 4/80 brochure, Engine. Primary
17. California Air Resources Board (via the Triumph Wedge Owners Association), California Air Resources Board executive orders A-5-47 (1979 model year), A-5-49 (1980) and A-220-5 (1981), with supplemental data sheets, 22 Feb 1979; 18 Mar 1980; Mar 1981, A-5-47, 22 February 1979; A-5-49, 18 March 1980; A-220-5, 1981. Primary
18. Lancaster Insurance, "The Triumph TR8 remembered", 12 May 2022, the fuel systems reversed. Unchecked
19. Don Sherman, "Triumph TR8" (road test), Car and Driver, Aug 1980, pp. 36–40, p. 38, the 49-state carburettors. Primary
20. Fred M. H. Gregory, "TR8 V-8: A mighty Triumph" (road test), with the sidebar "A String of Triumphs", Motor Trend, Jun 1980, data: carburettors and the FI version; the steering wheel. Primary
21. 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, data box p. 86, f.i. and carbs; p. 83, the grey dashboard. Primary
22. "C.R.", "The Triumph TR7 Drophead" ("Sunshine Seven"), Motor Sport, Apr 1980, p. 35, p. 35, "at least a year". Primary
23. British Leyland Motors Inc. / Jaguar Rover Triumph (via triumphtr8.com), TR8 documents (group): handbooks AKM4335 and AKM4779, workshop and injection guides, parts books, and two sales brochures, the early US sales brochure, printed "9/77": colours and trim. Primary
24. triumphtr8.com, Pages (group): "TR8 VIN/CHASSIS", "TR8 Paint Codes", "TR8 trim codes", "TR8 Documents", "TR8 Adverts", "TR8 Clubs", "TR8 Efi – Injection system and sensors", "WL9 Camshaft", "Leyland Special Tuning", "TR8 FIA RAC", "TR8 Auto Choke", "TR8 Badges where do they go?", parts pages, posts "RHD TR8 UK SPEC" and "Round Britain Reliability Run 2023", TR8 Paint Codes; TR8 trim codes. Reference

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