Introduced for the 1975 model year, this was Triumph’s all-new sports car for the British Leyland era and a major break from the earlier TR roadsters that had built the brand’s reputation. It was designed as a modern, fixed-head coupé with the distinctive wedge shape that became one of the most recognizable British sports car forms of the 1970s. The model was aimed especially at export markets, particularly the United States, where changing safety and emissions rules made a fresh design necessary.
The car’s history is closely tied to the reshaping of Triumph’s sports car line. It arrived as a coupé first, with a more open version following later in the run, and it also became the basis for the factory’s competition and rally programs. That motorsport activity helped keep the nameplate visible even as the road car developed a mixed reputation for styling flair, practicality and the build-quality issues that often shadowed British Leyland products of the period.
Production continued through the 1981 model year, by which time the car had become the last chapter in Triumph’s long-running TR sports-car family. It is often remembered as a transitional model: not a traditional open TR in the old sense, but an important attempt to carry the sporting badge into a new regulatory and market environment. Today it remains a recognizable and debated enthusiast classic, valued for its era-defining design and its place at the end of Triumph’s sports-car story.