ITS TR8 Torque and Horsepower Numbers -- Dynojet

[trd77]

Jeff,
what happen to Kischbach? Why is he not running and do you have and email for him?

There was also a guy in the mid-div running a green Tr8, ex T. Himes car. his name is Charlie Murdock. Very nice looking car. Does any know him or have an email for him?

[JeffYoung]

George, I meant 150 pre-production coupes, and obviously the are quite rare (the 78s). You can tell them by the TR7 steering wheel (the 8 had a Moto-lita) and the darker dashboard (black, 80 and 81 TR8s were greyish).

Most were automatics and oddly enough, they are probably the cheapest 8s out there. Every once in a while one will pop up on Hemmings or Ebay, usually in the $5k range and as Andy noted, they usually are not in good shape.

In 1980, Triumph made 200 TR8 coupes (about). Almost all of these were 5 speeds. They are sought after by performance guys, but they also sell for a discount over a convertible, usually in the $5-7k range.

Coverts are the ones that were garage queened, and there were about 2000 of them, about 400 being 81s with fuel injection.

A nice low mileage 8 convert will go for $10k, some as much as $15k in rare cases.

Andy, I forgot about Murdoch, from Arkansas I think. There was a pictuer of that car on the web for a while. I haven't seen any results for him lately though, wonder if he has parked it? I do not have contact information for him.

Todd Kischbach I hear about through Woody. When I bought my short block from Woody last summer, Woody said he had parked the car with the intent of making a GT car out of it. Sounds like a hell of a project.

You have any idea if the car will be classed in the new D Production?

[Knestis]

Hmmm. My memory is suspect but wasn't the TR7 classified in the OLD DP? Interesting statement about how performence creeps up over time?

K

[trd77]

Jeff,
I do not know about D prod. that would be interesting. I tried to get the TR8 classified in EP and the TR7 moved down in production. ( I have a production coupe, less motor, waiting). They wouldn't move the 7 nor would they classify the 8 with limited prep. I think the comp board does not want to put a V8 into production. They will not even move it out of GT1. I have not heard about D production. What do you know abouit it?

[trd77]

yes the 7 was in D production. even won a national championship in D production. showes you what technology is now days

[JeffYoung]

Andy's right. Paul Newman beat Lee Mueller (Newman in a 6, Mueller in a 7) in 1975 for the D Production championship. I think Mueller or possibly Ken Slagle won one or two D Prod championships between 76 and 80. I saw a road test of the Group 44 D Prod TR7 and I think the got 175 hp out of that crappy 2.0 liter 4 cylinder. The 7 was the D Prod car to have at that time, with the 924s coming on after that before D Prod passed away....

The 8 was in C Prod, I think with the 280zs, etc. Ken Slagle won a championship in 82 in his convertible, and Lee Mueller ran a beautiful black convertible as well that was competitive. I even think the E-Type was in C Prod? Is that right? Or was it B?

Great racing back then. Kirk, you are right. Amazing how much technology as progressed.

The TR8 is probably a prime example. In 1980, it was the second quickest mass produced production car you could buy, after that Vette. And it had 133 hp and ran a 15 second quarter. Crazy. Bad times for cars. Hell, I think one year in the late 70s the fastest American vehicle in a straight line was that crazy old Dodge Lil Red Express wagon.

[trd77]

Jeff, what do you know about the new D production? where can i find any info on it?

[JeffYoung]

Not much. It was in fast track a while back. D Prod is coming back, with higher performance potential cars than E, but not sure what precisely will be in it. I certainly think that the 8 would fit in E, especially limited prep, and definitely in D. Like you said, might be some resistance because of the V8 though.

I'd go back through fast track for the last six months.

[JeffYoung]

Take a look at this:

http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/Brennan77start.htm

Let's play ID the D Prod cars...lol.

Two TR7s at the front, probably within meants of warping a head gasket or some other catastrophic failure.

A Corvair!

Two Datsun 200s. A Lotus 7, and what appears to be an Elan. Then, Ron if you read this check it out, a Jensen-Healey.

Then I can't make anything out until I get to what appears to be a 911. Last car I can see is the second from the far left, coming down the hill before Turn 12. Definitely a TR6.

[Knestis]

There might be a Turner back there someplace...

K

[dickita15]

I remeber being at the runoffs around then when Lee Mueller won by a large margin in Jenson Healy, but what was amazing was that the first 6 cars were 6 different models.
JH, corvair, alfa spyder, datsun 2000, TR6, GT6. talk about parity
dick

[Ron Earp]

Excellent, a JH on the track. Not many pictures of those that I've seen. I know there is someone racing a JH in the cone driving stuff, but none in IT. I find it amazing that the fields were so diverse back then and I suppose, those guys all had a change. I'm sure there were the cars to have and all, but it is cool that many different cars were running right up front. Be excellent to see something like that today.

R

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Ron
http://www.gt40s.com
Lotus Turbo Esprit
Ford Lightning
RF GT40 Replica
Jensen-Healey: IT prep progressing!

[ITANorm]

In the photo, in run order:
TR-7
TR-7
Datsun Fairlady (2 liter)
Corvair
Datsun Fairlady
Lotus 7
Jensen-Healy
Jensen-Healy
?? Maybe a Turner ??
Datsun Fairlady
Corvair
Alfa Duetto Spyder
Porsche 911

Beyond that, they are too small to pick out. I do see a couple of TR-6's and another Fairlady, and what looks to be maybe a couple of MG-C's.

I was working that race - at T-11, but I don't remember so well 27 years later.

[racer14itc]

I watched that 1977 race from right next to the starter stand, as a 15 year old kid. My dad started racing a Yenko Stinger (what you guys see in the picture as a Corvair) in 1976 and has several still today. They were "built" in the 60's by Don Yenko, a famous Chevrolet racer. We were there helping crew for one of the Stingers in the picture.

History: John McComb won in 1975 in a TR6, in 1976 P.L. Newman won in the same car, but only after inheriting the lead from the Yenko Stinger driven by Atlanta local James Reeve when it got a flat tire about halfway through the race. In 1977, Tom Robertson won the race in a Lotus Super 7, beating the factory TR7's of Mueller and Slagle, Brennan and James Reeve in the Yenko Stinger.

A Jensen Healey won DP in 1973 and 1974, prepared by Huffaker Engineering with Lee Mueller driving it. The exact same car won the EP national championship with Bruce Qvale driving it in 1995. Many people forget the Jensen Healey started out in C-Production but was moved to D-production very quickly where it was definitely competitive!

Those were some heady days for SCCA production racing, back in the late 70's and early 80's. The factories were heavily involved. I remember going racing in the Northeast with our Yenko Stinger and having to race against the factory backed TR7 of Ken Slagle, the factory backed 924 of Doc Bundy, and the national championship Lotus Super 7 of Tom Robertson and another Lotus Super 7 driven by Peter LoBianco (who battled wire to wire with Lee Mueller in the Huffaker TR7 in 1979 only to lose by less than a second). Talk about tough competition!

I also got to watch Ken Slagle race his CP TR8 at every NEDIV national it raced. Very cool car, and he raced against the Bob Sharp 280ZX's, I think driven by P.L. Newman at the time. Those were some amazing races to watch. The first CP RX7's were just coming out around then, and I had never heard anything SO LOUD in my life! Cool stuff...

MC

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Mark Coffin
#14 GP BSI Racing/Airborn Coatings/Krispy Kreme/Tristram's Garage VW Scirocco
http://pages.prodigy.net/Scirocco14gp

[racer_tim]

Don't forget that Bruce Qvale won EP in the late 90's in a JH.




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Tim Linerud
San Francisco Region SCCA
#95 GP Wabbit
http://linerud.myvnc.com/racing/index.html