Triumph TR7 V8 TUD 683T
Tony Pond's car of 1980, the second works TR7 V8 to carry the plate: winner of the 24 Hours of Ypres and the Manx, seventh on the team's last rally under a borrowed plate, JJO 931W, and a winner again for Pond in 1998.
About the pictureSJW 548S, another works TR7 V8, photographed in 2008.
In October 1980 Motor Sport reported September's Manx Rally without ceremony:
TONY Pond and Fred Gallagher won the Manx Rally on September 13th by nearly four minutes from second place crew, Ari Vatanen and Dave Richards (Ford RS).
The car was Tony Pond's TUD 683T, and it had already won the 24 Hours of Ypres that June.source 1source 2
Two cars, one plate
Sources for TUD 683T
Chris Turner (credited by the club), "The Works Triumph TR7 V8 Rally Cars" and the car pages (group), TR Drivers Clubsource 2; Motor Sport, Rally reports on the works TR7s (group), Jun 1976 – Jan 1981source 1; Aaron Severson, "Way of the Wedge: The Triumph TR7 and TR8", Ate Up With Motor, 5 Feb 2012, pp. 1–5source 3
The first TUD 683T was a left-hand-drive V8 built at Abingdon in 1979 for the team's continental drivers. Per Eklund and Hans Sylvan won a televised rallysprint in it in June 1979, and Simo Lampinen drove it on the 1000 Lakes, on the Sanremo Rally in October and on the RAC, retiring twice and finishing 17th on the RAC.
When Pond came back to BL for 1980, after a year with Chrysler and Talbot, Abingdon built him a new right-hand-drive V8 and gave it the same registration.source 2source 1source 4
Ypres and the Manx, 1980
The car's first event, the Critérium Alpin in May 1980, ended in retirement with engine trouble. At Ypres in June, Pond and Gallagher won after a gearbox (transmission) change, and with a replacement box that jumped out of fourth gear, against the private Porsches of Béguin, Vincent and Zanini. In September came the Manx, where they were fastest on 20 of the stages and beat Vatanen's Escort by nearly four minutes.source 2source 1source 3
The last RAC, and after
On the RAC Rally of November 1980 TUD 683T ran under a borrowed plate, JJO 931W, so as to look a younger car than its T suffix made it. The rally began badly:
He distinguished himself on the very first stage by crashing his TR7 V8 through a fence and into a pile of railway sleepers, causing such extensive frontal, windscreen and roof damage that many believed that he had rolled.
Pond went off again later, and in the lion enclosure at Longleat, by the club's account, he hit a feeding table and lost 100 places, but he finished 7th, the best of the TR7s. Then BL closed its rally programme.
The car survived it. In July 1998 Pond won the historic rallysprint at the Coys Festival in it, again as JJO 931W, two seconds slower than a current works Escort WRC, the TR Drivers Club records. No source read says where the car is now.source 1source 2source 5
Where it has been
- 1980
Built at Abingdon as a right-hand-drive V8 works rally car for Tony Pond
Built for Pond's return to BL in 1980; the TR Drivers Club calls it "Tony Ponds favourite car", quick on tarmac and in the forests, and "the most successful of the factory TR7s". It ran with Pierburg fuel injection on one 1980 rally. A left-hand-drive car of 1979 had carried the same registration
Chris Turner (credited by the club), "The Works Triumph TR7 V8 Rally Cars" and the car pages (group), TR Drivers Clubsource 2
- 1980
Ran on the RAC Rally as JJO 931W
November 1980. The plate came from a TR8 development car and was fitted "to make it look newer", while the car's own plate went on a reconnaissance car; the TR Drivers Club tells it as a well-known story in which John Davenport did it after seeing four brand-new works Escorts. It was the works team's last event
Chris Turner (credited by the club), "The Works Triumph TR7 V8 Rally Cars" and the car pages (group), TR Drivers Clubsource 2; Motor Sport, Rally reports on the works TR7s (group), Jun 1976 – Jan 1981source 1
Results
A yellow year marks a win.
- 1980
- 1980
- 1980
- 1980
- 1998
Sources
Every source the site cites is on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Motor Sport, Rally reports on the works TR7s (group), Jun 1976 – Jan 1981, Oct 1980, p. 102, "TONY Pond and Fred Gallagher won the Manx Rally …"; Oct 1980, p. 102; Jan 1981, p. 67; Nov 1979, p. 46, Sanremo; Aug 1980, p. 92, Ypres; Oct 1980, p. 102, the Manx; Jan 1981, p. 67, "He distinguished himself on the very first stage …"; seventh; Aug 1980, p. 92. motorsportmagazine.com/archive Primary
- Chris Turner (credited by the club), "The Works Triumph TR7 V8 Rally Cars" and the car pages (group), TR Drivers Club, car page, TUD 683T; car page, TUD 683T: the first car, left-hand drive, 1979; the second, right-hand drive, 1980; car page, TUD 683T: the Critérium Alpin, Ypres and the Manx; car page, TUD 683T: JJO 931W; Longleat; the Coys rallysprint, 1998; car page, JJO 931W. trdrivers.com/articles21/rallyhistory.html Reference
- Aaron Severson, "Way of the Wedge: The Triumph TR7 and TR8", Ate Up With Motor, 5 Feb 2012, pp. 1–5, p. 3; p. 3, Ypres 1980. ateupwithmotor.com/model-histories/triumph-tr7-tr8 Reference
- John Davenport, "Public face, private man" (Tony Pond), Motor Sport, Apr 2002, p. 60, p. 60, Pond's return for 1980. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/april-2002/60/public-face-private-man Reference
- Keith Cox, "Gaydon cars with a TR7 connection", TR Drivers Club, rally car: the end in November 1980. trdrivers.com/articles21/gaydoncars.html Reference