Title: The Triumph TR7

Book: From \'Classics and Nostalgia\' in HJ\'s Book of Motoring Answers 1998

\"You recently referred to the Triumph TR7 as a \'horror of horrors\'. This is throwaway journalism of the worst kind. The TR7 is written off in one sentence without justification. May I suggest you read Steve Cropley\'s article in the October 1997 issue of Classic & Sportscar magazine? To quote: \'A TR7 steers, rides and stops in a far more modern manner than the MGB.\' And: \'The TR7 is one of the emerging classic car bargains of the 1990s.\' It may be ugly to some, but for affordable open-air touring, how can you beat it? I know you can\'t. I have one. Come for a test drive once I bring it out again in April.\"

The trouble is, one of these monstrosities was foisted upon me as a \'company car\' in 1978. It was a five-speed coupe with a Webasto roof, and I speak from a year of the most miserable motoring I have ever experienced. The only good thing about it was it spent so much time in the garage I got to drive many far better \'pool cars\' such as a Lancia Beta 2000 coupe and a Citroen GS 1220 Estate. Good grief, even a Fiesta 1.3S was a better car than that TR7. Its legion of faults included overheating at 80 mph on the Autobahn, leaking poisonous carbon monoxide into the passenger compartment, dashboard rheostat fires, 15 mpg on a good day, a pair of loony \'emissions\' carburettors that, when I lifted off for an ice-covered bend, increased my speed from 70 mph to 90 mph. When a car keeps trying to kill you, I reckon it\'s fair comment to describe it as a horror. Because Roverhire, the Triumph West London agents, could never get parts and could never fix the damn thing, they resorted to cheering up disgruntled customers by handing them a motoring joke book (no kidding). Not only that, the car rusted almost as badly as my previous Alfa Romeo 105 coupe. You can forgive rust on an Alfa, but not on the appalling piece of junk the TR7 was. Steve\'s right about the suspension. It was twenty years ahead of that of the MGB, but still rubbish compared to an Alfa\'s. He\'s also right that the TR7 is a \'classic car bargain\'. They go for buttons at auction (coupes: £300; roadsters: £850). I accept that, over the years, a painstaking owner such as yourself, using aftermarket mods, may well have solved many of the car\'s design and build deficiencies, but this was impossible when I had mine and the TR7 remains the worst car I have ever had to live with.