TriumphTune TR7

A 2-litre, 8-valve TR7 has long been considered the poor relation in the TR line, but how many people have actually driven a good one? And not only a good one, but how many have driven one that has been uprated similarly to many of the earlier TRs? This is the story of one such car, a car that has been in the ownership of Triumph World contributor John Clancy since the early 1980s and kick-started an enduring passion.

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TriumphTune was originally the generic parts name given to the factory-approved uprated components supplied by SAH Accessories. Syd Hurrell was the man behind SAH, but the mantle was passed to his son Terry and thereafter the company name was changed to TriumphTune. I had no knowledge of the company until Sports Car Monthly magazine featured a two-part article entitled 7 Up in 1985. I made the mistake of reading this and becoming interested in the possibility of tuning my own TR7.

There were a series of tuning options, of which the ultimate was Plus Kit C. I wanted that kit, but it would be a major outlay for me at the time, plus I had no idea how to install any of it. But I took a chance and towards the end of 1985 the first part of the kit was purchased and installed. This was the Weber DCOE twin choke carburettor conversion. The car still had the standard exhaust system at the time, but that didn’t seem to matter as performance was noticeably more lively, but it was the noise that came from under the bonnet that was the most impressive feature. How I liked to squeeze that throttle pedal after those Webers went on! Funnily enough, I still like to do the same thing to this day, I just wish the price of petrol would come down!

It wasn’t long before the Achilles heel of the TR7 reared its head in the form of a blown head gasket. Still, that meant the head was coming off and I would have the opportunity to install the TriumphTune sprint profile camshaft, long stemmed and gas-flowed valves and uprated valve springs. It took a couple of attempts to get all this installed correctly, but the first test drive with that camshaft in place was memorable. The engine was released from its standard, strangled state and it revved more like a motorbike than a car. In the mid-80s there wasn’t really much around that could compete with it and that made it all the more enjoyable.