All Things Automotive
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10-17-2023 | 03:37 PM
#1960
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From: Mish-she-gan
America was British Leyland's primary market for their Triumph TR6, a little sports car with a torquey six-cylinder engine and four-wheel independent suspension. Sales were very strong, with an average of around 10,000 per year exported here. There was not a great deal of competition in their range--if you wanted a $5,000, six-cylinder sports car with an open roof in the Seventies, you were buying a Triumph. Datsun's Z-cars were close in price, but the top didn't go down. Four-cylinder cars included the less expensive MGB; a BMW 2002 or Jensen-Healey both cost more, while a Lotus was far smaller. An Alfa Spider was probably the closest competition, with a comparable price and more power from the Inenzione four. Triumph still outsold it about two to one. Mid-year changes were common through the 1969-'76 run, and values don't change too much by year. U.S.-spec cars did receive an overhaul for 1973, if not a redesign, with the distinctive black plastic air dam, new instrumentation, overdrive and the end of optional wire wheels. In late 1974, they gained the graceful, enormous bumper overriders.
When the TR7 debuted in 1975, Triumph owners clearly saw the shape of things to come, and not everyone liked it. There was a brisk trade in the "last real sports car," and values even crept up slightly as the marque died at the beginning of the 1980s. But by 1990, the market was wildly different from 15 years before, with four-wheel-steering Honda Preludes and Mazda Miatas and M3s on sale. There was never a crash, but prices really didn't change much for almost 20 years.
By the new millennium, the TR6 was now recognized as a classic, old-school English sports car, less a product of the Seventies than the late Sixties. You could certainly still find driveable cars in the same $5,000 range, but they were now being restored, and both those and preserved originals became collectible, if not bank breaking. In the mid-2000s prior to the recession, we started to see a run-up in prices common with seemingly every other English sports car. But that ended before speculation could really start, and while you will find $20,000 and even $30,000 restored TR6s in this magazine and at Hemmings.com, you'll find them in the $10,000 range, too. English-specification fuel-injected cars, or well-done conversions, will be more valuable. When we see spreads like that, we tend to think it's a market that hasn't sorted itself out yet. We'll be interested to see what happens to TR6 prices when low-priced cars start selling again.
from Hemmings 20 years ago... go for it
When the TR7 debuted in 1975, Triumph owners clearly saw the shape of things to come, and not everyone liked it. There was a brisk trade in the "last real sports car," and values even crept up slightly as the marque died at the beginning of the 1980s. But by 1990, the market was wildly different from 15 years before, with four-wheel-steering Honda Preludes and Mazda Miatas and M3s on sale. There was never a crash, but prices really didn't change much for almost 20 years.
By the new millennium, the TR6 was now recognized as a classic, old-school English sports car, less a product of the Seventies than the late Sixties. You could certainly still find driveable cars in the same $5,000 range, but they were now being restored, and both those and preserved originals became collectible, if not bank breaking. In the mid-2000s prior to the recession, we started to see a run-up in prices common with seemingly every other English sports car. But that ended before speculation could really start, and while you will find $20,000 and even $30,000 restored TR6s in this magazine and at Hemmings.com, you'll find them in the $10,000 range, too. English-specification fuel-injected cars, or well-done conversions, will be more valuable. When we see spreads like that, we tend to think it's a market that hasn't sorted itself out yet. We'll be interested to see what happens to TR6 prices when low-priced cars start selling again.
from Hemmings 20 years ago... go for it
Last edited by dlq04; 10-17-2023 at 03:40 PM.