<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><p><strong><font color="#000099">Never be beaten by equipment.</font></strong></p></div></div>
<div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><div>This is all very interesting. In 1966 after the great success at Sebring with the team trophy (which I still have) there was serious talk about me setting up a deal at each of the import points of the cars to start a modified line of TR-4A cars just like the Sebring racers. The engines and suspension of the cars would be exactly as the racers were and all street legal.</div><div><br></div><div> But, as the planning was being worked on the huge specter of the emission regulations and the D.O.T. problem coming up so soon put a big damper on the project in the fear that we'd have cars left over that would not meet the new regulations and thus the plan, it ended up on the cutting room floor. Warranty issues were also a sticking point that had not been resolved but not discounted either. The success of the Shelby Mustang and Cobra car programs had been the spark to start this talk. It was a petty exciting time even though it never happened.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div><p><strong><font color="#000099">Never be beaten by equipment.</font></strong></p></div></div><div><div class="h5">
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 17, 2016 at 11:39 AM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rdavis4@cfl.rr.com" target="_blank">rdavis4@cfl.rr.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid">I had passed the Ebay info yesterday to Charles Runyan at the Roadster Factory.He has two of the cars and I think he may have missing one set. Maybe he bought them.<br>
<br>
Bob<br>
<br>
---- <a href="mailto:robertten1@aol.com" target="_blank">robertten1@aol.com</a> wrote:<br>
> Curious,<br>
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><br>
> Did someone on this list purchase them or did some Triumph old timer guru grab them?<br>
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> Bob T<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> -----Original Message-----<br>
> From: Michael Porter <<a href="mailto:mdporter@dfn.com" target="_blank">mdporter@dfn.com</a>><br>
> To: billdentin <<a href="mailto:billdentin@aol.com" target="_blank">billdentin@aol.com</a>>; fot <<a href="mailto:fot@autox.team.net" target="_blank">fot@autox.team.net</a>><br>
> Sent: Wed, Mar 16, 2016 7:39 pm<br>
> Subject: Re: [Fot] Now that's something I've never seen before. Sabrina motor carbs for a TR<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On 3/16/2016 1:10 PM, <a href="mailto:billdentin@aol.com" target="_blank">billdentin@aol.com</a> wrote:<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> Agreed! If nothing else, it would be nice to have just for its rare, historical significance. But down through the years I have always wondered why the SABRINA engine never made it into their production cars. They sure seemed to do their job on the race track, but there must have been issues why they never went into their normal production cars.<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> I wonder if Kas or Mike Cook has any take on that.<br>
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> I imagine they do, but, my first guess would be the overall cost. At precisely the time that the American market was expecting lots of changes year to year, Triumph was making just a few cosmetic changes to control expenses and to address manufacturing problems. It made no sense to hang onto an engine the basic design of which dated back to the `30s--which Triumph did==except for reasons having to do with money.<br>
><br>
> Tooling costs, especially for low-volume producers, are horribly expensive. With talented people and enough time, it's possible to make a few units in-house without production tooling and come up with something that works reasonably well (this might be why the engines had, IIRC, some persistent oil leaks during racing), but translating that design to production is quite another matter. New castings means new forms, and any changes in the design means changes to production equipment, too--most manufacturers at the time had specially-made gang drills to drill out the bosses for head bolts in the block and the head, etc. (by and large, no CNC machining centers then, especially for small producers), and all those had to be redone or adjusted to new tasks. And all this would have come at the precise time that Triumph was just absorbing new tooling costs for the Spitfire and the T<br>
R4. And in that period, early `60s, market conditions were already changing--the trend toward muscle cars in the U.S. certainly had an impact on the sports car market--and emission controls were coming and the company was already inching toward receivership (wasn't the first part of S-T turned over to British Leyland in 1968?).<br>
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> In a way, it was a perfect storm of adverse conditions. I'm sure that S-T sensed a need to make some radical changes, but they only had the money to make do.<br>
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> Cheers.<br>
><br>
> --<br>
><br>
><br>
> Michael Porter<br>
> Roswell, NM<br>
><br>
><br>
> Never let anyone drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance....<br>
><br>
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