Triumph TR7 Lynx

There were two cars of that name. The first, of 1968–69, was a 2+2 fastback with a hatchback, drawn by Triumph's Les Moore with Giovanni Michelotti to succeed the GT6, and Leyland cancelled it in 1969. The second, begun in 1971–72, was a 2+2 hatchback built on the TR7's mechanical parts and first drawn by John Ashford of Triumph's studio; Ate Up With Motor writes that its final form returned largely to his design, with David Bache's influence. It was to replace the Stag and take on Ford's Capri, with Rover's V8 for the Triumph and BL's O-Series four for an MG version, the five-speed gearbox (transmission) of Rover's SD1 and the SD1's rear axle. Its wheelbase was longer than the TR7's, by 305 mm (12 in) in AROnline's account, or by 279 mm (11 in) from Ate Up With Motor's figures, by our arithmetic, and it had longer doors.

BL gave it the go-ahead for Speke, and by 1977 tooling had begun for a launch in 1978. The closure of Speke in 1978 ended it. Why is told three ways. AROnline puts it down to the plant; Ate Up With Motor adds that Bruce McWilliams later told David Knowles he had said again, at the meeting where the Lynx was decided, that it would not sell in America, and that the Speke workers thought BL simply lacked the money; and the museum's notes, as the TR Drivers Club reproduces them, add the falling American market, the exchange rate and its costs. AROnline's own verdict:

The museum's notes say that 15 running prototypes were built and that 75% of the Lynx's sales had been meant for America; Wikipedia gives 18 prototypes. One survives: the left-hand-drive Lynx in Java Green at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon.⁠source 1​source 2​source 5​source 4​source 6

After the Lynx came the Broadside, first called SC1 and then RT061: a coupé and a convertible on the TR7's underbody, stretched by 127 mm (5 in) in AROnline's account, or by about 100 mm (4 in) from Ate Up With Motor's 2,260 mm (89 in) wheelbase, by our arithmetic, and fitted with the Lynx's doors. It was to have the O-Series engine or an injected Rover V8. David Bache's studio styled it, and Michelotti restyled the coupé late in 1979; by BL's plan of 1980 it would be launched in the spring of 1983. Two styling prototypes survive at Gaydon, the museum's notes record: a Broadside GT, a 2+2 hatchback made from a Lynx shell, in Bordeaux red with a British-specification TR8 engine, and a silver drophead with an O-Series engine. AROnline writes that BL dropped the Broadside when it put its money into the Metro and the Maestro, after changes in interest rates made exports to America unprofitable, and when the new Light Medium division of 1980 ended Rover-Triumph's independence; the museum's notes date its end to late 1980.

The MG Boxer, RT078, was to be a TR7 with MG badges, a cheap stopgap to replace the MGB in the spring of 1981; Ate Up With Motor, citing Knowles, writes that its tooling was to cost no more than £1 million. It was cancelled by the middle of 1980, after a marketing study predicted poor sales and warned that it would offend MG's buyers. The O-Series TR7, planned for the autumn of 1981, got further: Canley Classics' records of the experimental fleet list about 25 development cars, most of them listed as scrapped in June 1981, though many survive, often re-engined with V8s. One BL engineer, Tony Cooke, remembered its end, as AROnline quotes him: "I was told O-Series would not pass North American emissions specification, and the project was cancelled. We had just wasted months." According to Canley Classics, a turbocharged O-Series TR7 lapped MIRA at an average of 207.86 km/h (129.16 mph), the fastest ever Triumph.

Smaller plans went the same way: a hardtop for the convertible, RT066, and model-year changes for the TR7 and TR8, RT057, AROnline records. One derivative was finished, though not by BL: Crayford Engineering's Tracer, a sporting estate made in 1976–77 for the dealer Page Motors. It stayed the only one, AROnline writes.⁠source 3​source 1​source 4​source 7​source 8​source 9​source 10