It seems safe to say there were approximately 145 preproduction and (at least) 150 Production TR8 coupes manufactured from 1977 to 1980 Today approximately 65 coupe's still exist , With 3 in the Netherlands ( will be 2 as one is sold recently ) and 1 in Belgium , owned by the former President of the Belgium TR club . This one is produced on july 8 1977, ansd shipped to California , as they were nevere sold in Europe. Vin number ACN/ 01015- UCA with Engine number 00017 , both numbers are correct and with the car is the original building sheet( very rare) This TR8 in particular is a well known car in the USA , as it was from Bill Sweeting the founder of the TR8 club in the USA. I have 2 shields from carshows as the car was picked out as a winner on that show .
Bill Sweeting died in 2009 , and the car went to his brother. He never drove the car and after his dead it stayed for many years untouched in the garage. Till 2017 when a
friend of the family bought the car , this friend Zach Torman, is a well known TR8 specialist , who has a collection of rare TR8 mostly pre-production. After he aquire the car the was send to TR8 specialist in the USA the wedgeshop owned by Woody Cooper who is the specialist in TR8 and and the epic centre for the TR8 society. Once this particular car was owned by Woody and sold to Bill sweeting (early 80 ties) I have a copy from the magazine of 1986 to confirm this .
This story is confirmed by Paul McDonald the secretary of the TR8 register who keeps records of TR8 in the world .
In 2017 when the car came to Woody's workshop , they did the following : All belts, fluid, hoses new New holley 600 carb New polished intake New steering rack New Power steering Pump
New aluminum radiator New single hi flow electric fan New alternator New Wilwood Big Brake set up New 15" wheels and tires Reconditioned TR8 rear end from a 17k mile car New drive shaft 92k miles since new, total rebuild was around the 54k mile mark Car has the 3. 5 v8 with a wedgeshop mild road cam, custom exhaust, dipped headers, Edelbrock intake, electronic ignition, spax adj suspenion, busings. During the time the car was owned by Bill Sweeting it has attented on many shows in the USA and also in Canada. It is a very well know car in the TR8 society all USA members know the car, so on the web there are hundreds of pictures of the car also from members. Early days .. Car was restored in the 90 ties also by Woody Cooper, and got his white paint that time. i do have a full set of restoration pics from this car, also from the wedgeshop. 2018 - july Finally the car arrived in the Netherlands and got his dutch licence without a problem in july 2018. Several trips were made in 2018, to see how the car was driving ... fast ! never had a TR so fast and feels very safe . In 2019 i attented the European meeting with the and it was a pleasure to drive it in the mountains in Spain. This TR8 was exposed in the club magazine from the dutch TRclub in 2019 (i have a hard copy with the car ) And in 2020 it showed up in the Belgium TR magazine as part of a story about TR8. ( will add a pdf .)
After the Spain trip of 2019 , oil was changed , and new frontwheel bearing were placed (timken) and also all Belts were replaced by Payen from good quality. Drives perfect with many mentioned updates. Overall in very good condition , small spot on front and back, but overall very good.) 35000 EURO. ( thats including tune up, and spot repair)