Michael, Jim, all, the idea that the fuel injection would be too fiddly for
US dealers is attributed to Bruce McWilliams, who was one of Triumph's
marketing/distributor guys back in the 60s, and presumably would know. I
just happened to be reading the "Triumph TR250/TR6 Companion" this week and
that is what it says, adding that their "moral was low at that time" and
they didn't need another issue to deal with, but in other sections it talks
about the cost it would add to the car, and also I believe does make some
mention of bigger climate differences in the States being a potential
issue. It does state that the system could have been made to meet US
emissions with only a modest loss in power. My theory is that the
cumulative effect of the all the various things, additional cost both in
development, and to the car, the time that development would take, plus the
additional burden on the dealer and or potential hit in reputation if
dealers didn't keep them running well, that contributed to the decision to
offer the TR250 with Strombergs in the US. Maybe the dealer issue was the
last one that was brought to the table and therefore broke the camel's back,
but that is pure speculation on my part.
If it would not have been that hard to meet emissions with the fuel
injection it is too bad they didn't offer it along with the carburated car,
kind of like they did with the BMW 2002 and 2002tii,
I think they could have shifted a few more units and helped the reputation
of the British sports car in the US (all the contemporary road test reports
were talking about the dated designs of the MGs and Triumphs and low
specific output, dated designs, and not so stellar straight line performance
by then). When introduced the TR2 could outdrag any American car to 60 mph
according to one magazine. Of course the American horsepower race a started
shortly thereafter and Triumphs and MGs were left in the dust for straight
line performance soon thereafter, but the fuel injected TR could have at
least kept performance up in the same ballpark as the early Porsche 911s and
the soon to be introduced Z car.
Greg Lemon
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