So I have always wanted a TR8. Ever since seeing one sitting in the JTR showroom here in Frederick in 1980, I have wanted to get one. Back in 1989, I looked at one that was a non-runner in my price range, but it was rusting, interior needed work and had obviously led a hard life, so I passed. I then got into the older Triumphs and had and still have several. Closest I have come to one is a TR7 convertible that a friend gave me, but it was too rusty to restore. But a TR8 has stayed on the list. So on the Triumph Experience forum, there was an advertisement for multiple TR8's in New Mexico. The owner had been collecting them and restoring them as a batch which he eventually planned to ship to Europe for resale. The cars were advertised as having been fully rebuilt, rebuilt motors with Woody's cam,eggy pistons, etc, rebuilt transmissions, rebuilt suspensions with koni shocks, and all with low mileage rust free bodies from the southwest. Skeptical, I send a PM to the seller interested in either the running complete car or the second one that just needed the engine assembled and installed. Two were already spoken for but the runner was still available. We talked on the phone and he gave me the full story. It all checked out and one of the former TR8 club presidents took a look at the car for me and another buyer and he confirmed the car was as described. So after a few weeks of waiting, this showed up this morning.
Car is really nice, it will need painted to be perfect, but is just fine to use as it sits. Engine, transmission, front and rear suspension are better than new as you can see below.
The seller and the TR8 club former president pulled the distributor and spun the oil pump to build up oil pressure but had some issues getting it to run right, so we negotiated the price down and that is why the air filter boxes are off. The car came with a second set of rebuilt carbs, full interior rebuild (seats, seat foam, door panels, all interior panels, new convertible top) and a new battery. I'll get it running and this will be my fall toy while I work on my other projects.
The car has 60xxx miles on it, he pulled the motor and painted the engine compartment before reinstalling it. Unlike most of these cars, the engine retains all the stock pieces and even the AC works! The engine was rebuilt with a better cam, pistons and probably makes more power than stock, but this is a survivor so I won't mess with it, just maintain and enjoy this one. With the value of these going up on BAT, I will treat it to a high quality paint job in the spring and redo the interior with the kit he supplied. But for now, I am going to get it running and enjoy it!
So looked at everything over lunch and decided to pull the tape off the carbs and see if it fired up. Started up just fine, ran fine, no issues. so I put back on the stock air cleaners and started up fine again, but was low on gas. So went to the gas station, got some hi-test and came back and put it in. Now it won't start :-)
Talked with the previous owner to get more details as he has been troubleshooting before it was picked up. The issue he was having was intermittant starting. I am not complaining as I got the car with a healthy discount due to the issues he was having with getting it ready for me. Car was restored but sitting and he thought the issue was with the carbs, so he took them off, went through them and everything seems to be fine (send me a second set of rebuilt carbs as spares). I asked him what else he had done to troubleshoot and he said he thought it was related to the carbs but had not checked for spark when it won't start, so I'll be trying that next. Looks like these are known to have intermittant spark issues with the Lucas distributor. I am sure you are all "shocked" to hear that......
I test drove one when they were new and was blown away. I ended up getting an '80 TR7 in the same color as yours (the TR8 was gold), and although I liked it, it was not the same thing. I have wanted one ever since and it remains the only car that I lusted after then that I haven't bought. Congrats on a great looking find!
Mr_Asa
SuperDork
10/13/20 4:03 p.m.
Lucas electrics and he started troubleshooting a no-start with the carbs? Okie dokie.
Nice looking car you have there.
That does indeed look like a good find. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding the intermittent start issue.
I've only driven one once and was quite surprised by how much I liked it. The thing is, I would love to have a TR8 coupe and they are rare (150 pre-production and 250 later on). I suppose one could recreate the Group 44 TR8 race car out of a TR7 coupe, but the cost would be pretty high.
Enjoy.
Nice! That thing looks super clean!
JoeTR6 (Forum Supporter) said:
That does indeed look like a good find. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding the intermittent start issue.
I've only driven one once and was quite surprised by how much I liked it. The thing is, I would love to have a TR8 coupe and they are rare (150 pre-production and 250 later on). I suppose one could recreate the Group 44 TR8 race car out of a TR7 coupe, but the cost would be pretty high.
Enjoy.
The seller had a coupe project for cheap. Had everything to finish it, red with all the good parts ready to assemble. I agree a coupe would be nice if I had the space for both.
I was under it tonight to have a look. Falcon stainless exhaust, powder coated sub-frame, front and rear suspension pieces and all new bushings. Even the steering column is powder coated. I was kind of disappointed that there will be nothing to do except paint it and finish the interior :-)
I started it after work and it started right up. Took it around the block, by the time I got to the driveway, it stalled and would not restart, so really looking like an ignition issue that occurs after it warms up. More diagnosis tomorrow but pretty sure I'll prove that there is no spark once it warms up.
Whilst I'm not familiar with original US spec TR8s (mine was a 7 with a mongrel V8 on 2 HS6s in it) Is that one on points/condensor or an electronic ignition in the dizzy? That would be my first port of call. Another issue the rover V8s can suffer from is the distributor drive gear - it can strip (mine managed it at 7pm on Christmas Eve one year). Good luck, looks like a nice one
Not only is it an electronic ignition but a Lucas electronic ignition, so I agree with you that this will be my first place to look. The problem is that I'll need to keep it incognito, since this car is basically stock other than a few bolt on suspension pieces like koni shocks, falcon exhaust and some internal engine parts, so I want to keep it as so for the collector's value. So I will need to confirm it is the distributor and then replace the guts with a pertronix or similar.
Installed the Pertronix in the distributor and wired up to the stock ballast resistor so it looks 100% stock. Starts on the first crank, but the carbs are still having issues, so not running well. Talked with the previous owner and got the history of what he has done. Carbs on the car are the original carbs, as he swapped them out when troubleshooting the problem. The carbs in the box that came with the car are NOS carbs that had been on the car after it was rebuilt and they were balanced had the mixture adjusted. But sitting in the hanger for a few years, the gas must have gummed them up (they are beautiful on the outside. He recommends that I take them apart, clean them in a sonic cleaner and reinstall with new gaskets. I am hopeful that will work, ordered a new gasket/rebuilt kit for the car and will get the carbs cleaned this week. Would really like to be driving this soon before it gets too cold.
So I took the carbs off the manifold and got the rebuild kits for each. Carbs were clean, but sitting so disassembled both and cleaned everything in the ultrasound cleaner. Both carbs are in great condition so just new gaskets and cleaning and are going back on the car. The auto chokes are a different story and 99% are the source of the problem. One was seized and the other did not have the metering needle holes centered properly. I cleaned them with the ultrasound cleaner, carefully reassembled them using the best parts from the NOS carbs and the original carbs, aligned the metering pin holes properly and they should be working properly now. I'll get this all re-installed and hopefully will get to enjoy the car for a few weeks before the weather changes. Jacked the car up to drain the coolant and the filter is marked "20-50 break in oil". It is obvious that this car was completely rebuilt mechanically and cosmetically underneath, everything is new and has almost zero miles on it. Definitely happy with my purchase, this car is a collector's dream! I'll resist urge to modify this one, just a nice paint job and keep it as original. I can see picking up another one as they are still a real bargain currently.
So the TR8 has been sitting for the last year and a half and I really want to take it to the Kastner Cup in Pittsburgh next weekend. So I threw in the towel and trailered the car to London Auto Services in Falls Church, VA as they had a good reputation with the Capital Triumph Club. I knew I had picked the right shop when I got there and there was a good 20+ British, Italian and German cars in the parking lot (Morgans, Alfas, Triumphs and MG's). I explained the situation, that the car should not need any parts, as it is all new, but that there is something wrong with the chokes or carbs.
Two weeks later, they called me and said they had finally fixed it. Took three mechanics and his exact words were "we stopped charging you as it was a matter of pride at this point. We were all stumped and had three mechanics on it ". After they went through both carbs and adjusted the linkages, chokes and set the timing properly, it would still not run right. In messing with it again, they discovered that the rear Stromberg carb had a loose needle in it, which must have messed up the mixture as it was "variable". They swapped the entire piston, diaphragm and needle from the other rebuilt set and now it runs beautifully.
So been driving the car now for the last two weeks (after replacing a bad alternator) and all seems well, so fingers crossed that the next update is from Pittsburgh. I do love driving it, not a beast by any means, but great engine sounds, transmission shifts perfectly and that V8 torque makes it a great top down cruiser. Car is still on the break in oil, so I'll put a few 100 more miles on it and change the oil and filter before heading to Pittsburgh.
did the Euro cars still have the huge stick out bumpers like the US cars?
They supposedly had slimmer bumpers but not by much from what I can tell. Places like Rimmers and TWS sell fiberglass "european" bumpers but they are still pretty huge. If I had a 2nd TR8 that was not restored in stock condition, I could definitely see fitting a set, along with suspension and other mods.
In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :
Glad she's road worthy again. Refresh my memory: is this one a keeper (drive and enjoy as is) or are you planning on flipping it?
These drive remarkably well! Very clean example of a very cool car.
This one is a tough call. Technically everything is for sale :-) but I really have no desire to sell this one. Car is one of the best out there, never any rust, completely rebuilt mechanically, powder coated and detailed and 100% stock. I have a complete new interior for it, new top and it just needs paint, but he pulled the best parts off of other cars he had to build this one, so it has really nice bumpers, powder coated stock alloy wheels, etc... So I will likely keep this one, but I may be looking for another one that is not stock, so I can play with it.
My collection is pretty eclectic at this point, mostly European fun stuff, so selling is really more of when I want to get into something else. Sometimes I sell something because I have to, such as the MSM, which I could not bring myself to decontent it to pass Maryland smog laws as it was too sweet. It is now tearing up VIR as the new owner is a racer so I found a good home for it.
Current inventory.
1980 TR8
1976 Lancia Scorpion (stock restoration?)
1977 Lancia Scorpion (037 conversion?)
1972 Spitfire (turbo Miata drivetrain)
1972 Citroen SM (no idea what I will do with this, could go either way)
1973 Porsche 914 (Guards Red, restored and will be for sale this fall)
1972 Porsche 914 (will have a 2.7 911 engine and suspension, full M471 metal flares and 7 and 8 inch Fuchs) - will be keeping this one!
1973 Triumph GT6 (Free car from the batch of three last year, solid car for restoration)
1991 Miata (Automatic, but rust free, will likely keep this but swap to a manual and 1.8 when I finally kill it).
The second Scorpion sort of fell into my possession, so was too cheap not to buy it, and it turns out it is much better than was described. So always looking but really don't have enough time for all of them, so my cars come and go as necessary. Been a fun ride so far!
