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The story so far.... We left Page 20 with the car on the road and displayed at the two major UK Triumph shows. The brakes were still un-servo'd and engine power was disappointing so with the onset of winter, work began again....


Engine out...	Front Bulkhead/Transmission Tunnel join rolled & seam-welded, Firewall gaps plugged..	Sexy little gusset, Front Bulkhead to Front Chassis leg, left side.

Firstly the engine came out. After a fair bit of deliberation I drove it up to J.E Developments. This was not an easy decision as it's a 600 mile roundtrip and to be frank, I had cheaper quotes locally. I've always believed though that if you buy cheap, you buy twice, ...so many people recommended John Eales that in the end I decided to go with it. The engine was an unknown quantity, it had never been apart in at least the last 15 years and the car had never seemed very powerful (even though the rolling road said 200bhp at the wheels!)

More on the engine later, but on dismantling is was found to be (in technical terms) totally knackered!

The engine was to be gone a couple of months. Typically, after the car was virtually completed first time around, more information on bodyshell strenghtening came to light. It seems that a particular weak point (remembering that rally cars fly through the air on jumps) was the join between the front bulkhead and front chassis rails. Having no engine in the way, this was the ideal time to carry out these mods.


Sexy little gusset, Front Bulkhead to Front Chassis leg, left side...again.	This time showing new, much improved strut-brace.	Sexy little gusset, Front Bulkhead to Front Chassis leg, right side.

Firstly the joint between the front bulkhead and the transmission tunnel can also be strenghtened by seam welding. This seam can also be rolled back and beaten out to provide better clearance in order to move the engine position as far backwards as possible for better balance and handling....

The front chassis legs are already seam welded but in addition they have now been gusseted to the front bulkhead as well.

The original front strut-braces fitted were pretty poorly welded to the suspension towers both in terms of the quality of the welding and in their design. The original fixing plate did nothing to spread the load so these have now been redone with a plate that now spreads the load though the flitch joint at the bottom, the top of the strut-tower itself plus also the inner wing, not to mention the facing side of the tower as well of course.

March 1st, drove up to John Eales in freezing temperatures and snow flurries to collect finished engine. Apart from the obvious stuff, the engine now has a serpentine front end, a baffled sump and Weber 50's. The 40's were not able to take the engine beyond 250rpm and we have now exceeded that....

An unexpected glitch then reared it's ugly head. The engine had gone off without the PAS pump attached so no provision was made for one with the new arrangements at the front end. The pulleys had all been replaced with the wider ones which are used in conjunction with a toothed belt, the alternator was repositioned in the process.

The way around this was to fit a different PAS pump. This too was supplied by John Eales Developments (01455/202909) along with a longer belt. The new pump bolts to the top of the engine right-hand side (looking from the front) about a foot higher than the original location. This is presumably a set-up used on later V8 applications.. the pump appears to be a Land Rover part... supplied by BMW. New pipework now needs to be made up to connect it to the steering rack. Unlike the original TR8 pump there is no built-in reservoir, so a remote reservoir is being supplied once again by John Eales.


New Remote Power Steering Fluid Reservoir	Webbed Rear Cage Stays (mine)	Webbed Rear Cage Stays (Someone Else's)

Meanwhile the rear supports for the roll-cage have arrived back from being modified. Despite the original roll cage being homologated back in the 70's the latest MSA regulations say that the rear stays should be straight. Whether this mod would pass scruteneering at an MSA event is questionable. I am also in touch these days with several other people building rally/race TR7/8's. The pic on the far right is somebody else's solution to the problem and I understand that he is pushing the MSA for a decision on this. No response from them yet though.

Suffering from withdrawal symptoms after a winter without getting behind the wheel of WAC, I bought another car.. this one begging to be a "Victory Ltd. Edition". More details here. I had the pleasure of dispaying this car on the TR Drivers Club Stand at Triumph Day at Stoneleigh. Originally I was invited to display WAC but with no engine installed it was this car's moment of glory instead. The car went down very well indeed and I really enjoyed the day. With the day drawing ever closer that WAC once again hits the road, this beautiful and unique car has now been sold. (sob!)

This website seeme to be getting quite well known and people are sending me pictures of their cars. Here are a few plus a few pix collected whilst cruising E-Bay!


1981 TR7 of Matthew Taylor, Brisbane Australia with fast road cam, ported head and twin weber 45's.	Andy Jerrom's genuine TR8	For Sale...Purchased new by vendor in 1977, car mostly garaged, now only put on road for MOT in the summer, genuine 37,779 mile.Unleaded conversion,original condition, no rust, engine very clean, no oil leaks. Owner works abroad hence the low mileage.Very, Very good condition. Asking for £2,500 due to genuine condition. North Devon. Mike Mellor.

Sorry, this finished on ebay before I got any further details... My wife keeps horses and I keep TR's so we both liked these pix. I do not keep a TR8 on her horses muck-heap though!

This one is in Kansas, item number 4628391230. No reserve, currently sold for £444 GBP with one day still to go.


Strut-brace/Suspension Tower Plate.	It's an engine.	Re-united...


Applying the Graphics	New Logo	The day before she went to her new owner.


Just surfaced in France... TR7V8 (or should that be TR8?) of John Buffum


Another ex-Buffum car (far right) is currently for sale in Norway.