Keith,
Sorry to have taken so long to get back to you. Let's see...thanks for
mentioning some of the car makers that produced wedge shapes that PREDATE
the 7.
Rust: At our dealership, we had 7's that had rust perforation in under 1
year...we thought that Fiats were bad before that!! And this was in Texas!
However, you DO have a point about the B's...after 20 years, or so, they
rust.
You are correct about improperly modified B heads..they fail. On the other
hand, we had TR-7 heads that failed during the grueling drive to the
7-11....lots of them.
Gear boxes...Yep...the layshaft problems on the A series cars were well
known. "Course, THAT gearbox was designed in the 40's and the 7 'box was a
product of the '70's. Too bad the design group retrogressed in the
intervening years. BTW, the Spit trans had the same troubles as the A
trans....Dough!! The B trans was nearly bullet-proof in comparison.
Look, I'm sure that by now the surviving TR7's have improved to the point
that you can take them out in the rain and enjoy shifting gears on a
winding road while revviing the engine to the design redline, but when they
were new, you were taking a chance doing so.
History has a habit of improving the way people look back on most things,
and the TR7 is one of those things.
I saw a guy looking at a Lancia (Fiat) Beta the other day, and recalling
the joy he had in it.
Ray
At 12:00 PM 11/28/97 -0700, Keith Wheeler wrote:
>I think what was being pointed out Re: TR-7, shape of
>things to come was: X1/9, Fiero, MR2, loads of things
>with prancing horses on 'em...
>
>My fiancee is 19. She thinks my cars are cool, loves the
>Bugeye, agrees with my desire for an E-type, but the
>TR-7 is the only one that looks "modern" to her eye.
>
>It's strange how all you gotta do to stop the in-marque
>bickering (TC vs A vs B) is say TR-7. Then everyone
>jumps on BLs "wonder" wedges case. As car enthusiests,
>we have to stick together (witness California SB46!).
>
>The claimed problems with the TR-7. Oooh, they rust. And
>MGs don't? My TR-7 survived the rain soaked days of
>Arkansas far better than anything I've got from
>Abingdon. The heads fail? Try getting more HP out
>a B-series engine and you can practically hear
>the head cracking. The gearboxes were weak? And
>that wonder in the A-series Midget was the best
>thing to ever grace a sports car (not!). A lot
>of those old sports cars had a lot of problems.
>There are ways to fix 'em on a TR-7 as well
>as an MG. Of course the '8 was a better car, but
>then the thing was designed for that engine.
>If more '8s had been built, or the standard
>TR-7 had the sprint engine, I think things
>might have been different.
>
>As far as I'm concerned, it's just another
>sports car. A fun machine to be fixed, driven
>hard until it breaks, and then fixed again.
>
>-Keith Wheeler
>
>Team Sanctuary
>
>
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