ROUND 11: MGF vs TR7

Here we are, the final round of this epic battle and things could not be more finely balanced with 15 points apiece. And while you have the advantage of being able to scan ahead and see the final results, at this point I really have no idea how this contest is going to end. It doesn't help that while these two contenders share many similarities, there are also major differences. As a newer model you'd expect the MG to score well in the survival stakes, but on the other hand their prices are only now starting to shift off rock bottom while the TR7s star has been in the ascendancy for a few years now. I suspect that it will all come down to production numbers in the end, and for this one Triumph can no longer count on its superior factory square footage to clinch the win because the MG was built at Longbridge, not Abingdon.

Still, let's not get ahead of ourselves because whatever the eventual outcome, we still have two great models to showcase. For MG, we saw in round 9 how the MG RV8 was introduced effectively to warm the market up prior to the launch of an all new car, and the MGF is it. The idea was to create an MGB for the 1990s, but starting from afresh rather than revisiting the past.

There were a number of different possible configurations for this, so they commissioned three prototypes from outside contractors to help them decide. Motor Panels were given a Maestro floorpan and M16 engine from the Rover 800 and asked to build a front- engined/ FWD car. Reliant were given a Rover V8 engine and instructions to design a car with the engine up front and RWD. And finally, Automotive Development Centre in Luton got the new 1.4 K-series engine, a selection of Metro sections and instructions to mount the engine in the middle.

The mid- engine layout was the one eventually chosen. To test out the engineering, Metro vans were chopped up to take the new configuration in perfect secrecy, and a number of K-series engines were also fitted to Toyota MR2s. Eventually the K-series was stretched to 1796cc for production, further than the original designers had ever intended and building in one key weakness – head gasket failure which was to be an inseparable part of life with an MGF or TF.

The new model was launched at the Geneva Salon de l'Auto in March 1995. It received a rapturous reception, and once sales started that September, demand was so high that for a while you could get more money for a secondhand MGF than it had cost new. Initially there was only one engine option, the 1.8i K-series with 118PS, but within six months a more powerful 143PS VVC ( Variable Valve Control) had been added to the mix. For the 2000 model year there was a cosmetic facelift and the addition of a CVT automatic version. A 1.6 entry-level offering followed in early 2001, as well as a Trophy 160 SE with the VVC engine tuned to give 160PS.

January 2002 saw the MGF give way to the new TF, with much sharper and more aggressive styling (along with much greater torsional rigidity). The biggest change though was a switch from Hydragas to coil-and- damper suspension, which proved to be very harsh – or sporting, depending on your viewpoint. This was softened in 2005, just before MG- Rover collapsed into administration in April. The TF was to re- emerge in August 2008 under Chinese ownership, but it struggled to regain traction and fewer than 1000 were built before production ended for good in May 2010, though it took some time for the final few to find homes.

So much for the history lesson, but what are they like to drive? I have owned both an MGF and a TF, and both were an utter delight to drive. With perfect poise and balance, the chassis could cope with far more than I was ever willing to throw at them, and even when driving like a teenager trying to impress his mates, it was a struggle to drop below 40mpg. There was a slightly strange feeling of sitting on the car rather than in it and some of the trim was a bit on the cheap side, but pound for pound I could think of nothing that offered so much driving fun for so little outlay.

Practicality was good too, with a decent boot – decent for a sports car that is, even if the proximity of the engine did tend to melt shopping on the way home from the supermarket. Starting was instant whatever the weather, and the ECU combined with modern fuel injection ensured the cars idled smoothly even when covered in ice. There were flaws of course, not just the dreaded HGF but also some slightly questionable electrics and a clutch release arm that had

a tendency to seize up if left unexercised for too long, but all in all these MGs really did add up to more than the sum of their sometimes humble parts.

Turning now to the TR7, the reception this received could not have been more different to that given to the MGF. In short, Triumph fans either loved or hated it, and sadly the former camp was probably smaller than the latter. For the naysayers, it suffered mainly from not being a TR6! More specifically it had no chassis, it only had four cylinders, there wasn't a convertible option, and the styling was, well it was just so damn modern. This was all true of course, but Triumph had eked out the old separate chassis format for as long as they possibly could and something totally new was required to carry the line into the 1980s. And the wedge-shaped styling that so alienated traditionalists was sensationally on trend at launch – January 1975 in the USA, and May 1976 in the UK. So much so that schoolboys would drool and pin posters of the TR7 up on their bedroom walls alongside that one of the lady tennis player scratching her butt. The TR7 was new, it was forward-looking and it was exciting.

It also had a roof, because that had been the design from the outset after it looked as though the USA were going to ban the sale of convertibles. They never did, but that was just bad luck as far as timing went, (Jaguar suffered the same fate with their

XJ-S,) and a drophead convertible like the one pictured here didn't arrive until late in the day, in 1980 for the UK.

Engine wise, the TR7 got a mixture of Dolomite 1850 and Dolomite Sprint, with a capacity of 1998cc but only eight valves. A TR8 with the Rover V8 engine was added to the mix late in the day in 1979, but for export only and just a handful escaped onto the UK's roads before TR production finally drew to a close in October 1981. It is worth noting that by this point the TR7 had become the biggest selling of all the TR variants with no fewer than 112,368 finding new homes, suggesting that maybe BL had known what they were doing after all.

It can't be denied though that for decades afterwards, the TR7 was the poor relation of the TR family. They were generally regarded as something of an outsider, and values languished in the doldrums for far too long. It was left to a dedicated band of enthusiasts to support the underdog, but they have had the last laugh because prices started to pick up a few years ago, and now they have begun to soar. The best cars can change hands for £10,000, an unthinkable amount just five years ago, with genuine TR8s costing multiples of that. And while on most cars convertibles are the most desirable, there are many who feel that the original Coupé with its distinctive profile is the one to have. In fact, it can be surprising just how fierce bidding can be for an early Spekebuilt car with the four-speed gearbox when conventional wisdom would suggest that one of the final dropheads built at Solihull with the five-speed gearbox should be the one to go for. I am in two minds on this debate because I do love the shape of the coupé, but I also love the sense of freedom that comes from dropping the top. I've made a decision now though, because after looking for a TR7 on and off for some years in a rather desultory fashion, I've just taken the plunge and bought one. That, though, is another story for

another day.