Hi,
While the points about Triumph and innovation were apropos, the
characterizations about limited parts count is a little off-base. To wit,
a number of parts interchange across entire product lines. Citing the TR
line in this case is a little off base, hovever. Off base because the TR6
design criteria were OLD - like 50's, not 70's when the TR6 was produced.
If you look at the Triumph saloon cars of the era (like the 2000 or the
2500), they were very modern indeed. My first reaction after digging into
a TR7 (for example) was along the lines of "wow - this is like a modern
car".
Sure TR6's have a relatively high component count, but they were really
just an extension of the TR line (starting with TR2 and through the TR6)
and they shared many components of those cars. To wit, racers _still_ use
the TR6 front suspension on TR4'a and the TR6 trunnion on the earier cars
(to get the built in caster). Try doing the same thing with some of the
modern cars - the really fast new cars have TONS of specialized
components. Sure - you can bolt in an Acura subframe into a Honda, but a
lot of the parts that matter do not go along in the transformation.
Further, the ability to use the stock components in non-standard
orientation may have been intentional so that racers could meet the rules
of the era for production cars - e.g. if the rules say stock lower a-arms
and the rules don't mention ride-height - voila!, you get a lowered car
with better steering geometry and you're still legal. How kool is that?
One of the reasons that I still like Triumphs is that "back in the day"
the real builders (like Kas Kastner, Huffaker and Bob Tullius and the Gp
44 guys) could take these "mudane" cars and make them insanely fast
without having to resort to completely fabricating everything. Put another
way, the Prod cars way back when were a lot closer to what you could buy
anywhere in the WORLD than what some so-called "stock cars" are nowadays.
So, it's kind amazing that this little car company in England could
out think the really big car companies for way less money. That fact will
always be awesome in my book.
Sorry - I needed to chime in on this one.
rml
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