Editing Triumph TR8 (section)

== Motorsport ==
[[File:TR-8 race car from the 1970s.jpg|thumbnail|TR8 racer on display at the Canadian International Autoshow.]]

Despite their low production numbers, TR8s have an interesting racing history. [[John Buffum]] successfully raced one as a rally car in the late 1970s. [[Bob Tullius]] of Group 44 fame dominated SCCA racing in 1979 in one, so much so that the SCCA added enough "reward" weight to the car that Tullius left Trans Am and successfully competed in IMSA GT instead. TR8s ran successfully in the SCCA's showroom stock series being campaigned by Morey Doyle ( Nationals & Regionals) and Ted Schumacher (Nationals). Schumacher with Doyle had great success in the Playboy/Escort Endurance series with his car. Starting the last race of the year, Schumacher was fourth in the overall point standings (just three points away from first) when an accident ruined their chances;  nevertheless, Schumacher still ended up seventh in the manufacturer's points for that year, all with no official factory help. Presently, at least three cars are being run in SCCA's ITS class. Morey Doyle and his son Andy run their TR8s in the Midwest Region, currently Morey and his sons, Morey C. and Andy are preparing the car for the SCCA National Runoffs in E-Prod at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2017).  Jeff Young runs his green TR8 in the Southeast Division with numerous regional race wins and the 2011 Southeast Division SARRC ITS championship, running against over seventy other drivers in Mazda RX7s, Miatas, 240/260/280Zs, BMW 325is, Porsche 944s and Acura Integras.

The TR8 was [[homologated]] for [[Group 4 (racing)]] on the first of April 1978. According to the [[FIA]] rules that applied at this time, recognition would have required the production of 400 similar cars suitable for normal sale. However, production records (in the [[BMIHT]] archives) show that only about 150 cars had actually been built by this time, mostly due to major industrial action at the BL Speke plant that included a 17-week-long strike from November 1977. Rally journalist and historian Graham Robson quotes John Davenport (director of BL Motorsport at the time) as reminding him that "In those days there was no rigorous FIA inspection system. Provided that one provided production sheets signed by an important manager, then nobody worried...." Robson goes on to state that "A lot of fast and persuasive talking then went on, to show that the makings of well over 500 [sic] cars were either built, partly built, or stuck in the morass of the Speke strike".<ref name="FIA1976252G">FIA, Appendix J to the ''International Sporting Code'' 1976: Classification, definition and specifications of cars, 11 December 1975, Article 252, clause g.</ref><ref name="BMIHT archive">British Motor Industries Heritage Trust Archives, [[Heritage Motor Centre]], [[Gaydon]], [[Warwickshire]], [[England]].</ref><ref name="marren2009">{{cite journal|last=Marren|first=Brian|title=Closure of the Triumph TR7 Factory in Speke, Merseyside, 1978: 'The Shape of Things to Come'?|year=2009|url=https://liverpool.academia.edu/BrianMarren/Papers/137296/Closure-of-the-Triumph-TR7-Factory-in-Speke--Merseyside--1978--%E2%80%98The-Shape-of-Things-to-Come%E2%80%99-|access-date=16 July 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820125525/http://liverpool.academia.edu/BrianMarren/Papers/137296/Closure-of-the-Triumph-TR7-Factory-in-Speke--Merseyside--1978--%E2%80%98The-Shape-of-Things-to-Come%E2%80%99-|archive-date=20 August 2010|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Robson 1993">Robson G., ''The Works Triumphs: 50 Years in Motorsport'', 1993, J H Haynes & Co Ltd, {{ISBN|978-0854299263}}.</ref> However, the FIA rules are clear that only "entirely finished cars" might be counted towards this requirement.<ref name="FIA1976">FIA, Appendix J to the ''International Sporting Code'' 1976: Classification, definition and specifications of cars, 11 December 1975.</ref>

An alternative explanation that does not ignore the FIA's explicit requirement for finished cars comes from an article on the Group-4 Vauxhall Chevette HS, published in Autosport only a few weeks after the TR8 was approved. That says "there had arisen an understanding that some leeway was allowed. For instance, if the 400 cars were built within a few months of the homologation date then the car would normally be allowed through." And while the homologation of the Chevette HS was approved on 1 Nov. 1976, the 400 Chevette HSs weren't finished till the end of 1977.<ref name="Autosport">R. Saunders (Ed.), "Chevette 2300 HS-what went wrong", Autosport magazine, 27 April 1978</ref> Production records show that about another 250 fixed head coupe TR8s were built in 1978, making up the FIA requirement for 400. While the fixed head version of the TR8 does not appear to have ever been a catalogued model, only the convertible, and "[f]ollowing the cancellation of the project, normal practice might have been to dismantle the cars or convert them to normal TR7 power",<ref name="Piggott 2009">Piggott B., Clay S., [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVRq-KUY_bgC&q=Chapter+39&pg=PA320 ''Collector's Originality Guide Triumph TR2 TR3 TR4 TR5 TR6 TR7 TR8''], page 312-5, 2009, MotorBooks International Company, {{ISBN|9780760335765}}.</ref> most or all were sold to private buyers in the US or Canada. This may be as a result of the FIA requirement for such homologation specials to be "meant for the normal sale".<ref name="FIA1976252A">FIA, Appendix J to the ''International Sporting Code'' 1976: Classification, definition and specifications of cars, 11 December 1975, Article 252, paragraph a.</ref>

The TR8 did not go on sale in North America until mid-1979, and then only as a convertible model. According to Graham Robson, the Group 4 rally car was therefore called the TR7V8 as a compromise with BL Sales and Marketing.<ref name="Robson 1993"/>