I was a regular spectator at the Manx International rally held in September.
Fond memories of Tony Pond piloting the TR8, Vatanen in the black Mk2 Escort and Rohl in a 911.
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T'was in excellent condition. I wasn't sure what it was from a distance, I said to the ole woman "that looks like a TR7".
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For marketing-led reasons, the rally cars were TR7V8’s, not TR8’s. The TR8 hadn’t yet been launched in the US.
Very competitive on Tarmac, pace note events, less so on ‘blind’ gravel rallies - partly a function of the short wheelbase making the car very twitchy, partly because the crew were sitting lower down that competitors in, say, an Escort, which meant visibility over crests in the the road became an issue.
I was talking to Mark Higgins a few weeks ago, as per back in the day, looking after the rear axle is a priority as they’re £11,000 each…
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I see the owner is nobly continuing to submit it for an MoT inspection, despite only having done around 35,000 miles.
Mind you, it has failed a good few times!
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