TR7 & TR8 VIN NUMBERS AND PRODUCTION DATA

QUICK INDEX

• 1975-1978, Speke-built cars (Prefix: ACG, ACH, ACL, CAN, ACT, ACW)
• 1978-1979, Canley-built cars (Prefix: TCG, TCN, TCT, TCV, TCW)
• 1979-1980, Canley-built cars (Prefix: TP)
• 1980-1981, Solihull-built cars (Prefix SAT)
• 1981, Solihull-built cars (Prefix: SAT, with check digit)
• Note on production figures
• Note on TR8 Coupe deliveries to the USA

1975-1978, SPEKE-BUILT CARS

Production of US specification cars began in January 1975

Production of cars for the home market, Europe and Australia began in May 1976

Production ended in May 1978

Speke built cars are identified by a three-letter prefix in front of the chassis number, as follows:

Specific Speke Model Series Information:

1. 'ACL' 1975-76 model year North American Coupe

• 1975 m.y.: ACL 1 to ACL7248 (Jan '75 to Sept '75)
• 1976 m.y.: ACL10001 to ACL34099 (or 33775) (Sept '75 to Oct '76)
• Maximum total production possible by chassis numbers: 29798 (31023)

2. 'ACG' 1976-78 coupe for Home Market, Europe and Australia

• ACG 1 to ACG4688 (June '75 to Oct '76) approx. 50 cars built
• ACG 10001 to ACG 23406 (Oct '76 to June '77)
• ACG 25001 to ACG 27053 (Aug '77 to May '78)
• Maximum total production possible by chassis numbers: 22808

3. 'ACW' 1977-78 model year North American Coupe

• 1977 m.y.: ACW 1 to ACW17115 (Sept '76 to May '77)
• 1978 m.y.: ACW 30001 to ACW 33051 (June '77 on)
• and: ACW 40001 to ACW 44328 (Aug '77 to May '78)
• Maximum total production possible by chassis numbers: 24494

4. 'ACH' 1977 TR7 16V Sprint Coupe with four-valve/cylinder engine

• ACH 1 to ACH 700 (Feb '77 to Oct '77)
• N.B. Not all numbers used. Maximum 60 cars built Feb'77 to Oct '77

5. 'ACN' Pilot Production TR8 Coupe (for North America?), 1977-78 m.y.

• ACN 1 to ACN 1166 (Feb '77 to Oct '77)
• N.B. Not all numbers used. Approx. 150 cars built Feb '77 to Oct '77

6. 'ACT' 1978 Prototype Convertible for North America

• ACT 1 to ACT 110 (April '78 to May '78)
• N.B. Not all numbers used. Approx. 10 cars built April '78 to May '78
• Built at Speke and converted to V8 spec at Canley in late 1978

Total possible production by chassis numbers: 77320 (or 78545)

Each of these models with different prefixes had its own series of chassis numbers

Official British Leyland (BL)/Austin Rover production figures for the TR7/8 range at Speke vary between 76081 and 76979. (It is quite possible that not all the chassis numbers, even in the ACL/ACG/ACW series, were used).

1978-1979, CANLEY-BUILT CARS

Production was transferred to Canley in October 1978 and continued until August 1980 when car assembly at Canley was stopped.

1978-79 cars built at Canley are, similar to Speke cars, identified by a three letter prefix in front of the chassis number. The prefixes follow the same system as those on Speke-built cars, except that the first letter is now always "T" which indicates Canley assembly. The Commission Numbers can be decoded as follows:

Another difference is that, while different models of Speke-built cars each had their own distinctive series of Chassis numbers, it would appear (when comparing with the official production figures) that different models built at Canley shared one chassis number series, or else that there were large gaps in the number series which have yet to be discovered.

Specific Canley Model Series Information:

1. 'TCG', TR7 coupe for home market, Europe and Australia

TCG 100001 to 114122 (Oct 78 to Oct 79)

2. 'TCW', TR7 coupe for North American markets

TCW 100001 to 115604 (Oct 78 to Oct 79)

3. 'TCN', TR8 coupe for North American markets

• TCN 150001 to 150198 (78 model year)
• TCN 160001 to 160142 (79 model year)
• N.B. It is likely that most of these numbers were not used

4. 'TCT', TR7 convertible for North American markets

• 1979 m.y.: TCT 100001 to 105825 (Jan 79 to Jun 79)
• 1980 m.y.: TCT 110001 to 115897 (Jun 79 to Oct 79)
• N.B. It is questionable how many of these cars there were. 79 model year had their own Comm. number series. 80 model year shared with Comm. number series with TCG and TCW.

5. 'TCV', TR8 convertible for the North American markets

There were some cars built with chassis numbers from TCV 200001 upwards (see section following) for the 1979 model year.

All of these Canley-built cars have six figure chassis numbers commencing with the figure 1, as the first chassis number issued to a Canley-built car was in fact 100001. In 1979, theoretically from the commencement of the 1980 model year, the previous chassis numbering and prefix system was scrapped and replaced by the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) system which is now used by car manufacturers world-wide under international conventions.

1979-1980, CANLEY-BUILT CARS

These vehicles have numbers in the VIN system. Each car has a Vehicle Identification Number with an eight character alpha-numeric prefix.

These prefixes (which are also found on Solihull-built cars) may be decoded as follows:

The chassis number series for Canley-built cars with VINs, from October 1979 to August 1980 is as follows: 200001 to 215080 (all models mixed in the same series)

Please note however that as mentioned above there were a few cars with numbers from 200001 upwards which still had pre-VIN style prefixes, notably TR8 convertibles type TCV.

Apparently a batch of 1981 model year cars were built from May 80 to June 80 as follows, 402001 to 402026. This fits in with the 1981 Solihull production sequence.

The official BL/Austin Rover figures for Canley production suggests a total production here from 1978 to 1980 of 30054 to 30375 cars.

1980-1981, SOLIHULL-BUILT CARS

Production at Solihull commenced in April 1980 and continued to October 1981.

The cars built at Solihull have prefixes which follow the VIN system outlined in the previous section. On Solihull-built cars the last letter of the prefix is 'A'.

From May 1981, the following three letters were added in front of the existing VIN prefix: 'SAT'

This is the so-called "World Manufacturer Code" which indicates the country of origin and the manufacturer as follows:

The following chassis number series were used on Solihull-built cars, with all models mixed in the same series of numbers:

The maximum possible production at Solihull by chassis number series will therefore be seen to be 8062. The official BL/Austin Rover figure for Solihull production is 8056.

One very important thing to note is that although the very rare UK spec. TR8's were built at Solihull, they were not amongst the last TR7s manufactured (9 built in 1980 and then another 9 in early 1981). This means that they were all built prior to the introduction of the new North American VIN identification standard, which appeared on UK TR7s later on in 1981.

The last TR7 (TPAD37AA408534) produced at Solihull was a RHD Home Market DHC which is now housed in the B.M.I.H.T collection.

1981, SOLIHULL-BUILT CARS (NORTH AMERICAN SPEC)

There were some Solihull built American specification TR8s and possibly similar TR7s that carried another variation of the VIN system. These new VINs were introduced to comply with new American and Canadian chassis numbering regulations. They were in many respects similar to the European system except that a 'Check Digit' was now incorporated, which increased the length to 17 digits.

The Check digit was inserted at the 9th position of the series and could check the validity of the entire chassis number. The other digits that differed from the European system were the 6th, 7th and 8th digits.

Example of North American VIN Check Digit Calculation:

For a typical US spec. TR8 with a chassis number of SATPV458*BA408565 (with * representing the check digit position):

1. Each character in the VIN is assigned a numeric value and multiplied by a weight factor
2. The products are added together (Sum = 340)
3. This sum is divided by 11 (340/11 = 30 remainder 10)
4. The remainder (10) determines the check digit - if 10, an "X" is used
5. So the completed VIN would be: SATPV458XBA408565

NOTE ON PRODUCTION FIGURES

The variance in different sets of equally official production figures compiled within BL or Austin Rover is probably owing to different methods of accounting. However in very round figures we may assume that the total production was in the order of:

• Speke: approximately 77,000 cars
• Canley: approximately 30,000 cars
• Solihull: approximately 8,000 cars
• Total: approximately 115,000 cars

NOTE ON TR8 COUPE DELIVERIES TO THE USA

Mike Cook, whose name was considered synonymous with that of Triumph in North America since the 1960's, is quoted by some sources as making the following comments on TR8 coupe sales in the US:

• "Approximately 150 pre-production coupes were sold in 1978" (most likely ACN or possibly TCN cars)
• "Approximately 200 'and change' production coupes were sold as 1980 coupes"
• Exactly one 1981 coupe, an engineering 'cast-off' apparently with Serial number 199999 was sold

While these numbers apply only to the US, they would appear to be representative of TR8 coupe production in general. It would not be unreasonable to assume that no more than approximately 450 TR8 coupes were sold in total world-wide.

It is also interesting to note that the comments above do not mention any 1979 model year sales, indicating perhaps that not many TCN cars were built or that those that were ended up in other markets (i.e. Canada).