Right Hand Drive Triumph TR8

When the project began, Motor Sport reported in April 1980 that it would be "at least a year before the V8-engined car — without emission control — is available in the UK". Garry Owen, who managed it, told triumphtr8.com that when the quality-build and development cars ran round Britain that year "there was no decision to not launch the car in the UK it was still an active project". By the time the last car was finished it was over. The product planner, Dennis Chick as triumphtr8.com spells his name, gave the site the reason:

triumphtr8.com sorts the Home Market cars into five groups by what each was built for. The first two were single cars and the next a pair of methods-build pilot cars; the rest were built on the line in two batches, the first meant for the press fleet and the second for sales and marketing at Longbridge. The Triumph Wedge Owners Association leaves such details out of its decoding pages to stop fakers copying them, so the table gives ranges and features.

The first two cars had American-specification engines, numbered 10E; the others had British engines numbered 20E with the manual gearbox (transmission) and 21E with the automatic. The chassis numbers of the press batch carry Solihull's code, though Owen said they were built at Canley and stamped for Solihull: "we did all sorts of things like that at the time."⁠source 1​source 5​source 8

Three more right-hand-drive TR8s were built as experimental cars, outside the Home Market count, and appear in Canley's experimental-fleet records under their registrations.

EXP 921 and EXP 923 were built in April 1980 and EXP 925 in December. According to triumphtr8.com, from Roy Ford's account, EXP 923 was timed over a flying quarter mile at MIRA on 27 August 1981, after the programme had ended; its speed is among the readings in the specification on this page.⁠source 1​source 7

Four counts of the British cars come from records, and the production tally on this page gives each with its source. The highest, which the tally leads with, is triumphtr8.com's: every Home Market car in the build records, from the quality-build car to the last of the sales batch, without the experimental cars. Garry Owen, asked how he could be so sure of the number, answered "because that's all we built!" BL's own table, as the TR Drivers Club reproduces it, counts the same number of "home" TR8s in 1980 as in 1981, and the club's batch table agrees; triumphtr8.com reads those figures as the two batches built on the line. The two lowest count only the cars sold at Measham without registrations: triumphtr8.com's figure for the right-hand-drive cars, and the higher figure in Canley's lot lists, which may include some left-hand-drive cars.

The British cars had carburettors, not fuel injection, and a higher compression ratio than the American cars, which the specification gives. triumphtr8.com's photographs show Zenith-Stromberg carburettors, and it says that a factory TR8 had "either twin Stomberg carb setups or Lucas/Bosch EFi only"; Ate Up With Motor says that TR8s outside the United States had two S.U. carburettors. No source read gives a factory power rating for a British TR8; the figures in print are set out in the specifications.

Their papers differed too. triumphtr8.com describes a single British chassis plate on the front suspension turret, where an American TR8 has its plates in the door shut and behind the windscreen (windshield): the TR8's own British plate, part TKC6764, on the sales batch and the manual methods-build car, the TR7's, TKC4542, on the press batch and on 402290, and an American TR8 plate on the quality-build car. triumphtr8.com adds that reproduction TKC6764 plates sold today differ from the original in the placing of the serial number and the size of the lettering. Most of the right-hand-drive TR8 shells were numbered in a CHP 300 series. The cars had square door locks and blue or tan velour, the first car apart, which had the TR7 Spider's grey stripe, and every one had an impact sensor made for the American market. Their type approval, number 377, sets a design maximum speed, which the specification also gives.

BL Motorsport at Abingdon worked on the development car, NWK 988W, late in 1980. Richard Hurdwell set out why in his report of 16 December to Rover Solihull's plant director:

The memo lists higher compression from the Rover SD1's pistons, the "WL9" camshaft, ventilated front discs with Ferodo DS11 pads, the front spoiler of the TR7 V8 rally car, which wind-tunnel tests at MIRA had indicated should reduce front lift by 10–30%, lowered springs, firmer dampers, stiffer bushes and raised mountings for the lower trailing links, and it proposed Michelin TRX tyres. The British engines already had the higher compression; none of the other changes reached production.⁠source 5​source 13​source 14​source 3​source 1​source 15​source 6

The British cars went up for sale in the summer of 1981 with BL's left-hand-drive development fleet, on a decision taken in June. Most went through BCA's auctions at Measham in August and September, a sale for dealers only, since new unregistered cars had to be sold through a dealer to keep the factory's warranty; five more were sold privately to dealers BL favoured. The British School of Motoring used some on its advanced driving courses. triumphtr8.com estimates that all but two of the Home Market cars survive.⁠source 1​source 7​source 5

Many right-hand-drive cars sold in Britain as TR8s were not built that way. Some are American cars brought back and converted, some are TR7s given V8s, and TR7 V8 conversions and identification explain how to tell them. Converting a TR7 or TR8 is not a matter of moving the steering column: triumphtr8.com notes that the body is handed, so the bulkhead has to be changed, which a specialist put at 80 hours' work or more, and that moving the parts into a right-hand-drive shell is easier. From first owners' accounts it names Grinnall, Robsport and TRGB among the firms that converted cars bought at Measham or through staff schemes after 1981. Two V8 cars that the factory itself built on right-hand-drive TR7 shells are recorded too: EKV 397T, which the experimental fleet lent to the British School of Motoring, and a test car for Lucas's injection.