1978 Triumph Lynx Broadside
Yet another sad and shameful car to be notched up to the list of 'what ifs' we sadly will never be privy to. Born for the ashes of the TR7 Lynx fastback project, the Lynx Broadside was once again an attempt to make the TR7 fashionable in America, but sadly, much like the original Lynx, it would be shelved, and the TR7 would wander aimlessly on to poor sales and eventual death.
In the first year of the Triumph TR7's life, it was apparent that this car was simply not working. A car that had been specifically designed to win over the American market like contemporary FIAT's and Porsche's was absolutely bombing in the sales department, due largely to its biblical unreliability and its arguably hideous design.
To combat this, British Leyland attempted to revamp the car's image with a fastback version known as the TR7 Lynx, a very handsome car that could have easily been a winner in the United States, doing away with the very strange linework that made the conventional TR7 so despised. However, by the time the Lynx project was reaching fruition, British Leyland had just been nationalised after its 1975 bankruptcy, and thus had no money to follow new projects. Without any desire to take unnecessary risks, the Lynx project went to the wall, but this was not the end.
In 1978, designers went back to the drawing board and decided the best thing for the old TR7 was to take the roof off. Due to proposed legislation in America which would have banned all convertible cars, car builders prepared themselves for this by halting construction of conventional drop-tops in favour of alternative designs. British Leyland however had taken it too far, and only offered the TR7 as a hardtop, which didn't fit most customer's desire.
The Lynx Broadside took a leaf out of the previous Triumph Stag's book, by having a very clever T-Bar rollcage arrangement on the roof, a combination of safety that would protect the car's occupants in the even the car flipped over, but also that much loved open-top fun that only a convertible could give you. The light clusters from the Lynx and other tweaks to the styling also made it across to the Broadside, making it something of a very handsome car.
However, the death for the Lynx came in 1979 when America repealed proposals to ban convertibles, and thus Leyland took the cheaper option and decided that the regular TR7 and upcoming TR8 would simply be offered as full convertibles, though still with the same questionable styling. With this, the Broadside project was abandoned, and the TR7 would stumble on until 1980 before it too faced its inevitable end.
Would the Broadside have worked? Who knows? Though a much more handsome car, British Leyland's massive unrealiability streak would probably have doomed it. The only way it probably could have kept its head above water would've been to combine the reliable Rover V8 put into the TR8 with the handsome design of the Broadside and called that the TR8. How long such a car could have survived, especially based on the reputation of the previous TR7 is debatable, but it would have at least shown that BL tried!
1978 Triumph Lynx Broadside
Yet another sad and shameful car to be notched up to the list of 'what ifs' we sadly will never be privy to. Born for the ashes of the TR7 Lynx fastback project, the Lynx Broadside was once again an attempt to make the TR7 fashionable in America, but sadly, much like the original Lynx, it would be shelved, and the TR7 would wander aimlessly on to poor sales and eventual death.
In the first year of the Triumph TR7's life, it was apparent that this car was simply not working. A car that had been specifically designed to win over the American market like contemporary FIAT's and Porsche's was absolutely bombing in the sales department, due largely to its biblical unreliability and its arguably hideous design.
To combat this, British Leyland attempted to revamp the car's image with a fastback version known as the TR7 Lynx, a very handsome car that could have easily been a winner in the United States, doing away with the very strange linework that made the conventional TR7 so despised. However, by the time the Lynx project was reaching fruition, British Leyland had just been nationalised after its 1975 bankruptcy, and thus had no money to follow new projects. Without any desire to take unnecessary risks, the Lynx project went to the wall, but this was not the end.
In 1978, designers went back to the drawing board and decided the best thing for the old TR7 was to take the roof off. Due to proposed legislation in America which would have banned all convertible cars, car builders prepared themselves for this by halting construction of conventional drop-tops in favour of alternative designs. British Leyland however had taken it too far, and only offered the TR7 as a hardtop, which didn't fit most customer's desire.
The Lynx Broadside took a leaf out of the previous Triumph Stag's book, by having a very clever T-Bar rollcage arrangement on the roof, a combination of safety that would protect the car's occupants in the even the car flipped over, but also that much loved open-top fun that only a convertible could give you. The light clusters from the Lynx and other tweaks to the styling also made it across to the Broadside, making it something of a very handsome car.
However, the death for the Lynx came in 1979 when America repealed proposals to ban convertibles, and thus Leyland took the cheaper option and decided that the regular TR7 and upcoming TR8 would simply be offered as full convertibles, though still with the same questionable styling. With this, the Broadside project was abandoned, and the TR7 would stumble on until 1980 before it too faced its inevitable end.
Would the Broadside have worked? Who knows? Though a much more handsome car, British Leyland's massive unrealiability streak would probably have doomed it. The only way it probably could have kept its head above water would've been to combine the reliable Rover V8 put into the TR8 with the handsome design of the Broadside and called that the TR8. How long such a car could have survived, especially based on the reputation of the previous TR7 is debatable, but it would have at least shown that BL tried!