Mike from Australia wrote:
Were any of these cars ever sold by dealers in the U.S.or are the cars in
the
U.S. privately imported ? If so, how do you get around the emmission laws to
register them?
AFAIK, Standard-Triumph never offered the injected car in the US for the
simple reason that the injection system was way to pollutive and could not
be adjusted to meet the California emission laws in force in 1968 when the
TR5 was on sale.
Those cars that have somehow snuck in are either ex UK build (RH steer) or
Belgian build (LH steer for European markets) From wat I can determine, US
Customs have been oodwinked with owners misrepresenting the contents of the
commission plate BS AU 1965 (???) claiming the AU 1965 is the cars actual
build date. This of course is hogwash as the BSAU is a UK conformity nnumber
that has nothing to do with either a build date or the acceptability of the
injection system meeting US levels. There is no doubt whatsoever that cars
fitted with the Lucas mechaical injection system did not meet the pollution
requirements in force as per US Federal requirements effective 1 Jan 1968.
Moreover, no amount of fiddling with different springs in te vacuum unit or
playing with te fuel trackig curve on the datum settings could make the car
comply. It's clear that the few cars in the US that started out as genuine
injection cars from the start are valued at a far higher level than the more
pedestrian performance of the Stromberged unit. The bhp and torque figures
speak for themselves - and te noise, well - completely different!. I don't
own a TR6 myself but the (almost) same engine in my big Triumph saloon will
still give one of today's Audi's or BMW's a good run for their money - and
my Triumph is 33 years old in January 2003.
Jonmac
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