The video below, provided by the V8olvo team, tells the whole story. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and the Volvo will be ready to race later this morning. It seems unlikely that the TR7 can be fixed, but you never know what miracles of duct-tape repair might happen at a 24 Hours Of LeMons race!

We've got some still photos of the action as well, thanks to Jesse of the Killer Bee MGB team.

The images of this shiny red British Leyland product come to us courtesy of Vintage Racer, the man who sends us so many great car photos. Here's what VR has to say about this find:

So I'm over in West Seattle at a friend of mine's art gallery opening, and this car caught my eye. I've seen them on the tack, but I've never seen one on the street. And considering how wet it gets up here, the fact that's it, and its Lucas Electrics are still running - well, not on a par with the Resurrection, but still pretty miraculous....

That's right, a British Leyland product has won the coveted IOE! This 1978 Triumph TR7 just kept going around and around and around, received only one black flag all weekend, and suffered from just two major mechanical problems. 46th place, a really cool trophy, and a cool thousand bucks in nickels. Congratulations, Black Knight Racing!

Given the large overlap between Jalopnik readers and Stag owners- a relationship we're probably better off leaving unexplored- it isn't surprising that we've heard from Zeusnemesis, the owner of this Triumph. Here's what he has to say about his car:

I was trying to post a few pictures in the thread of how Stags should properly appear: Replete with blonde, and top removed (car hardtop, that is, being a family-friendly site.)
Regardless, I know that editors surely hate being the "tech-guy" for every Jalopnik-yokel who wants to post a picture of his junk (uh, his car junk, that is) but I figured given the near-universal love of Stags, blondes, and V-8's on Jalopnik, perhaps I'd forward a few photos to you to include into the thread if you so choose.
It's got a '64 Buick 300 in it, T-350, and Corvette rear end. So, in essence, it's the "Rover swap," but with a few more cubic inches and a cast iron block with aluminum heads — just like the original OHC "Twin-Dolomite" boat anchor.
No 8 foot long single row Simplex timing chains or any other English-engineered tomfoolery (at least under the hood!). Otherwise, it's all English original Stag, through and through.

Steps from the Manhattan entrance of the Holland Tunnel, the club’s HQ is a vast open space, dotted with classic cars, supercars and the machinery to keep them alive and healthy. You can see the whole roster of cars available to their members at the club’s website. Until you pony up the funds to become a member, enjoy this quiet stroll through what they had in the shop as John Krewson and I were about to head out of town.

1974 Triumph TR6

Insert overused joke about not driving this very far from the club.

2006 Ariel Atom

The club’s Atom is a 2.5 model: the chassis is an Atom 2, whereas the engine is the same Honda unit found in the Atom 3 Krewson drove at Lime Rock Park.

1975 Ferrari 308 GT4

Look at the wall and you’ll see a line painting of this very car a 308 GTB/GTS—executed by none other than Camilo Pardo, designer of the Ford GT. Which, incidentally, is one of the cars in the club’s fleet of modern supercars.

1966 Ford Mustang Fastback

Behind the Mustang is John Krewson and behind him are old German and Italian exotica.

Buckets

Car paraphernalia at the head of a service bay, right below Pardo’s painting of the Ferrari.

2007 BMW Z4M Coupé

The last car to come with the awesomest engine ever made by BMW: the straight-six 333 HP S54B32, also found in the E46 M3. Behind the Bimmer is the Atom.

Lewd Signage Above Atom

That rod is what will prevent your head from coming apart should you flip the Atom.

The Atom’s Headlight

Further proof that Ariel’s supercharged shopping cart is in fact street legal.

Screws

Cars need fixin’ at times!

Toolbox

I spoke English and was allowed to stay. Those with keen eyes shall spot the 24 Hours of Lemons sticker (it’s below and to the right of the flag previously seen on the grounds of the State Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina).

The Offices

Krewson knows I’ve got my viewfinder trained on him. Notice artistic paint overflow.

1996 Porsche 993 C4S

The last of the air-cooled 911’s. This car has one of the sexiest rear wheelarches in recorded history. Also, water cooling is for sissies.

1974 Triumph TR6

What was I saying a few captions ago about not driving it far from life support? Oh, never mind.

1975 Alfa Romeo GTV

Do not approach this car if you’re not wearing a well-cut suit. It will sense your lack of style and expend all the voltage in its battery to shock you into submission.

The Triumph Mayflower ad, for a car James May condemns as the Ugliest Vehicle Ever Made, is especially puzzling. Did Triumph think that associating their products with some hookwormy clod pounding on a wagon wheel was a good idea?

Autocar has been around forever- since 1895, in fact- and even has the distinction of having fired James May (for inserting a secret message in an issue reading "So you think it's really good yeah you should try making the bloody thing up it's a real pain in the arse"). I'm definitely looking forward to some enjoyable reading with this haul; just a quick flip through the stack produced this sextet of PCH Gold machines, including the 1951 Hillman Minx Magnificent, the 1950 Vauxhalls, the 1962 Triumph Herald, the 1951 Singer 1000, the 1957 Daimler One-O-Four, and the 1961 Wolseley Hornet. Whoa, it's a red-letter day for Wolseley Hornet aficionados! Enjoy:

Bad people, that's who doesn't love happy little Triumphs! You're not a bad person, are you? Of course not! Thing is, most of the affordable Triumph projects these days are Malaise Era TR7s and Spitfires with huge bumpers. Is it even possible to find a pre-Malaise Triumph project for cheap? Really cheap, that is. What's that sound? Why, it's the doors to Project Car Hell opening, and they don't squeak one bit… because they're lubed with the blood of Triumph owners!

After you saw James May turn a Triumph Herald into a sailboat, you probably thought something like "Whoa, I haven't seen a Triumph Herald in… well, ever!" They didn't sell particularly well in North America, and that's a damned shame. You see, the Herald combined simplicity with Italian styling and woefully underpowered nimble performance, at a time when Americans had to buy Datsun 411s for such features. That doesn't mean you can't find them for reasonable prices nowadays, provided you're willing to overlook a bit of the ol' iron oxide. We've found this '64 Herald convertible in Baltimore (go here if the ad disappears), and it's only 400 bucks! Sure, sure, you should could turn this staggeringly terrible basket case TLC-deprived project into an awesome 24 Hours Of LeMons car, but that's taking the easy way out! We say you ought to do an obsessive frame-off restoration, correct down to the original warm-beer-influenced Coventry chalk marks and OEM Lucas Electrics components. The seller doesn't go into any detail about the rust situation, but then he doesn't have to. But hey, it has a clear title!

The Herald really wasn't a proper sports car, with a one-main-bearing four-cylinder displacing 18 Whitworth cubic inches or some such (slight exaggeration) and all. You need more engine in your Triumph! You could go for a Stag- which we strongly, in fact overwhelmingly recommend- but for the purposes of this challenge we're going to stick with smaller Triumph offerings. The GT6 is a truly wretched fine machine, and certainly affordable if you look hard enough, but we really like the iconic TR6 when it comes time for a six-banger Triumph. But dang, have you seen what sellers are asking for the pretty and/or running TR6s? These are hard times we're in, and you need your shillings to feed the gas meter in your dismal, mildew-coated flat! That's what makes this '68 Triumph TR6 (go here if the ad disappears) so appealing. It ran when parked, and that phrase always means eternal torment an easy walk in the park! The seller isn't trying to do a hard sell here, freely admitting that the "CAR IS RUSTY & ROT BUT HAS MANY GOOD PARTS," and it's true that it's composed entirely of rust and fungus a little rough, but you couldn't possibley can solve those problems with a cubic yard of $100 bills little elbow grease in your pit full of boiling sulfur garage! Come on, it's only 500 bucks!

Just click on any of the thumbnails below to jump to the original post about that car.

1937 Beardmore	1953 Citroën	1956 Morris	1959 Morris
1960 Peugeot	1960 Triumph	1961 Morris	1963 Land Rover
1965 Austin	1965 Alfa Romeo	1966 Jaguar	1966 Lancia
1966 Volvo	1969 MG	1969 Volvo	1969 Volvo
1969 Citroën	1970 Volvo	1971 Volvo	1971 MG
1972 Triumph	1972 Steyr	1973 Volvo	1973 MG
1974 Jensen-Healey	1975 Citroën	1975 MG	1977 Fiat
1977 Volvo	1978 Jaguar	1978 Saab	1980 Volvo
1981 Fiat	1982 Fiat	1984 Jaguar	1985 Alfa Romeo
1985 Saab	1985 Peugeot	1986 Jaguar	1988 Renault
1988 Peugeot	1989 Ferrari	1989 Alfa Romeo	1991 Peugeot
1991 Alfa Romeo	1991 Rolls-Royce

The H is still being manufactured to this day, serving in the Saab 9-3 and 9-5. That means that the engines that power those two vehicles are not-too-distant relatives of the wonderfully horrible Triumph V8 in the Stag! By the time Saab got around to the H, however, the reliability had been improved by several orders of magnitude over the Triumph four, and nearly 30 (or 40, if you count the B engine) years of front-line service stands as a very impressive engineering achievement. We don't recommend the H as a 24 Hours Of LeMons engine (though the Box Wrench Garage Saab 900 Turbo managed to finish fourth at the Goin' For Broken '09 and fifth at the Altamont '08 race), because of that rod-throwing thing, but it makes for a solid street engine with plenty of turbocharged power potential.
[Wikipedia]

If you prefer being a nitpicker to being merely observant, you might then point out that the British Leyland name existed only from 1968 to 1986, and thus several of these ads fall outside those boundaries as well. But here at Jalopnik, we defy categorization of obscure European machinery!

When you're done here, you might check out our favorite VW ads, then go right on with the Datsun, Toyota, Mustang, Renault, General Motors, and Chevrolet ads.

1972 Triumph TR6 (USA)	1981 Austin Rover (UK)	1966 Austin Mini (Australia)
1975 Triumph Spitfire (USA)	1970 Hillman Hunter (Australia)	1975 Triumph, MG (USA)
1980 Austin Metro (UK)	1977 Leyland Princess (Germany)	1976 Triumph TR7 (USA)
1973 Triumph (UK)	1976 Leyland Princess (UK)	1974 Triumph Spitfire (USA)
1981 Triumph Acclaim (UK)	2003 MG ZR (Spain)	1977 British Leyland (UK)	1970 Simca 1000 (Spain)

The one that caught my eye first was the very clean, automatic-equipped 1976 BMW 2002. The odometer reads just over 4,000 miles, which means it's either a very well-maintained 104,000-mile car or a 4,000-mile car that spent several decades moldering in a driveway somewhere. When I mentioned this car to 24 Hours Of LeMons Assistant Perpetrator Nick Pon, he had to rush right over to the yard to pull some pieces for his '76 2002.

Right next to the 2002 sits a fairly complete 1970 Triumph Spitfire. The engine and front suspension look pretty nice; a Spitfire Hell Project owner could definitely feast on this junkyard find!

That's not enough? Hey, there's something for you lovers of vintage Japanese machinery as well: a California-built 1988 Toyota Corolla GT-S. It's an automatic car, and the underhood sticker identifies the engine as a 4A-LC… but that sure looks like a 16-valve 4A to me.

Now let's see what the Server Hamsters do when I present them with these photos in our new gallery style. Fasten your seatbelts!

This is just the second (presumably) running Stag I've ever seen in my life, and it has taken up residence not far from my house. Stags were sold in the United States for the 1971, 1972, and 1973 model years, so I'm going to say this one comes from the middle of that range. Even by British Leyland standards, the Stag was nightmarishly unreliable, mostly due to its not-quite-ready-for-real-world-use Triumph V8. According to the Wikipedia page, the Stag suffered from:

• long simplex roller link chains combined with inadequate engine maintenance and factory specified 7,500-mile (12,070 km) oil change intervals. The chains could last less than 25,000 miles (40,200 km) resulting in expensive damage when they failed;
• inadequately sized main bearings in the early OHC 2.5 litre V8 design with short lives, changed in the 3.0 litre design;
• aluminium head warpage due to poor castings, head gaskets which restricted coolant, leading to overheating;
• water pump failures relating to poor drive gear hardening, prematurely wearing out the gear and stopping the water pump.
• In some cases, overheating was caused by clogged waterways in the cylinder block, found to be filled with casting sand left over from manufacture.

But this one has risen above all those handicaps and survives down on the Alameda street. It lives just around the corner from the 1948 International Harvester KB-2 pickup, as we can see in this photo.

LS1Tech forum member, deathbyspoon, received a Triumph 10 when his father retired out of the country and decided that the cool little wagon needed a little extra oomph. His source for V8 power? A swapped 6.0-liter LS2 from a Corvette donor mated to a T56 6-speed transmission. His source for ultimate coolness? Quite possibly his American Bulldog shop dawg. Check out the post on LS1tech to see the full (yet uncompleted) build of this badass Triumph. (Hat Tip To tenbeers!) [via LS1tech]

As Davey Johnson has made very clear, there's something special about brown cars, and as for a brown British Leyland product... well, it's very much of its time. For reasons we have a hard time understanding, May's woman
lacked enthusiasm for the gift, so now the Triumph is part of his own fleet.
That brings up the question: What Detroit vehicle is the counterpart to the brown Triumph 2000 MkII? The vehicle the well-intentioned American or Canadian car geek would buy his or her S.O. in order to share not-quite-ironic-enough appreciation for such things? Perhaps a two-tone 1975 Mercury Cougar XR7?
Telegraph.co.uk

Strolling down London’s streets with traffic coming at you from wholly unlikely directions, you very often bump into cars that don’t really exist. A soft landing into this mind-boggling maze of dead British carmakers is provided by the Triumph Herald, this example apparently someone’s daily driver.

The blue convertible is the restyled 13/60 version, introduced in 1967, with a 1.3-liter engine making 61 HP. It’s a cute little button of a car but in spite of the fancy Michelotti styling, it’s definitely an acquired taste. And it’s only when you move in closer to look at the details of 1960s British engineering that you begin to ponder the audacity of James May, who converted one of these things into a boat on Top Gear. That is, a vehicle designed to remain on top of a body of water in spite of it being heavier than water.

Had he not gone for wind power, he could well have stuffed an outboard motor in any panel gap of his choice.

So, new day, new Nice Price or Crack Pipe. And how could you go wrong with a steak and kidney pie mixture of British socialist labor union build quality, and 1970s American safety and emissions standards? That's right — it's a 1980 Triumph TR7 30th Anniversary Edition for an asking price of $6,495. Not only that but this seller loves the exclamation points!

This car has it all — poorly aligned bumpers, corduroy seats, tiny radio speakers, and inscrutable heater controls. Or is that the choke? No, it's the wipers — wait, why does it have that swirl symbol on the knob? Argh!

It does warm our hearts to see MG Mitten sisal mats in the foot-wells, lets hope they're not hiding rust holes in the floorboards the size of the English Channel.

Now, in case you are not familiar, the TR7 replaced the hair-shirt of a car TR6, and was British Leyland's attempt at a modern sports automobile that would meet all the crazy safety and emissions standards the colonists could throw at it. That meant that on its 1975 debut, it was only available as a hard top, as the general expectation was that the U.S. government was about to ban convertibles and fun. Well I don't know about fun, but topless cars didn't get legislated into extinction, and so in 1979 a fabric roof version was offered, making the car about 10 times more appealing, but sadly not overcoming its other shortcomings of insufficient power, lackluster handling, and poor build quality. The 1998cc engine pumped out a meager 105hp (92 in anti-fun American guise) and it's replacement in 1981 by the Rover-powered TR8 was too little too late. Triumph withdrew from the US market the next year, and eventually went the way of Elvis.

I mentioned that the seller likes exclamation points. It seems they got a deal on them somewhere, as every sentence ends in one. Or maybe they're just so damn excited to get rid of this car! They also claim that they have an appraisal! From 2001! It says the car is great! Isn't that awesome?! So maybe it's not as bad as you might think?! And it's got some shiny-ass paint! It also sports the 5-speed transmission so highway driving is possible without engine-drone induced insanity resulting!

The only sentence that is denied the emphatic punctuation treatment is the one alerting you that the gas gauge works "sparatically". I guess it was also denied spell check. But hey, what the hell- it's English and old, and much like Prince Charles, it's expected to have a few warts and be a little wonky- that's the charm.

So with Summer on its way, and the siren call of top-down motoring luring you to Craigslist, what do you think of this $6,495 TR7? Will the sun never set on its Nice Price empire? Or is the seller living in a Crack Pipe world of warm beer and questionable dental hygiene?

You decide!

Omaha Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears.

Thanks to snidelywhiplash for the tip.

Yes, you're looking at a total of 34 minutes of vintage rally action below, in a vintage Shell documentary put up on YouTube courtesy of this kind soul. We don't want to spoil things for anyone, but you'll be awed by the parade of race cars that go past the starting line (about 2:20 into the Part 1), and it just gets better from there. The usual Alfa Romeo and Porsche suspects are there, of course, but fans of British and French machinery won't be disappointed. Thanks to Scroggzilla for hipping us to this super-addictive find!

There was much grumbling in the pits about the "really nice XJ-S," with talk about the impossibility of getting "such a nice car" for under $500. Nonsense! Anyone who reads Project Car Hell knows that you can get running, good-looking V12 Jaguars for next to nothing… and this one was actually a crude Tijuana bad-welds-and-bondo salvage job under the skin. For a big luxury machine- with all accessories still intact, including the stereo and ashtray- this car was pretty quick on the track, with a best lap of 1:42.746, and its 27th-place finish was very, very impressive. They stirred up some controversy over on Autofiends, thanks to the much-disputed cleanliness of a pass of the V.I.P. BMW, which really adds to the post-race fun.


This car was actually leading the race at the end of Day One, but some reading of the fine print was in order: Supreme LeMons Court Justice Lieberman heard the engine in this car during the BS Inspection- and it sounded terrible, even by very lenient Malaise British standards- and bestowed a whopping 50-lap bonus on the team. Ha ha, funny joke… right? Then, of course, the clattery, Lucas-haunted Triumph just refused to die, going around and around and around the track. Its best lap time of 1:54.673 was- for lack of a better word- gastropodal, but when the race was over, Team Cape Coventry was the triumphant- get it?- owner of the invented-just-for-the-occasion Alfetta Versus TR7 Challenge trophy. 21st place, or 56th place if you don't believe in bonus laps.


The Buick V6-powered Wedginator, which did most of its laps at the SF '08 race behind a tow truck (thanks to fuel-system woes), performed much better this time around, with an 82nd place finish. Its best lap time of 1:40.567 was about a week faster than its Triumph-powered rival- and up there with the E30s and RX7s- but too many thrilling driving adventures led Chief Perp Lamm to put it on the trailer on Sunday. Don't worry, Wedginators, there's always Reno!


This Chevy-powered XJ-6 is a much-battered vet of many previous LeMons events, but it didn't seem to be running quite right this time, with a second-only-to-the-Bipolar-Express best lap of 2:06.140.