European LHD TR8's (PED) 

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If you think about it logically you’ll appreciate that if Triumph were going to launch the car in the UK then they would have also launched in Europe as well. Following on from that logic you’d expect a pilot run similar to the UK cars and you’d be right except that in this case Triumph had an easier time in that they were able to use the cars already built for the USA and Canada as they were already LHD. In addition they already had a small customer base for these cars in the form of USA/Canadian forces and diplomats serving in Europe. In 1981 Solihull built 39 Personal Export Derivative (PED) TR8’s most of which were shipped to mainland Europe

All of these cars are based on a 49 spec TR8 (basic federal variant without AC as standard) and all were supplied to either US/CAN service personnel or Diplomats entitled to tax free cars based in Europe.

Tax free bill of sale

Tax free service book

 In 1981 Solihull built the following 39 Personal Export Derivative (PED) TR8’s:

Number	Spec	Built	Paint	Colour	Trim	Location	Original Reg	Reg Now	Build Record	Actual Car
40699898	PED	28 JUL 81	CCK	BORDEAUX RED	AMG
407110110	PED	30 JUL 81	JMW	PERSIAN AQUA	JMN
4071211	PED	17 AUG 81	CDE	CARMELIAN RED	JMN
407456	PED	27 AUG 81	NME	ERMINE WHITE	JMN
407462	PED	20 AUG 81	NME	ERMINE WHITE	AMG	USA	LOC615X	Not Known
40746767	PED	20 AUG 81	NME	ERMINE WHITE	JMN	USA
407473	PED	13 AUG 81	NME	ERMINE WHITE	AMG
407478407478	PED	13 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG	Germany	LOC620X	Not Known
407484407484	PED	14 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG
4074957495	PED	17 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG
407500500	PED	14 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG	USA
40751111	PED	13 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG	USA
407524407524	PED	14 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG	England	LOC602X	JRV459X
407529529	PED	14 AUG 81	NME	ERMINE WHITE	JMN
407535407535	PED	18 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	England		OAV576W
4075407540	PED	25 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN
4075466	PED	18 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN
4075522	PED	17 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	USA
407563407563	PED	19 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	England		MVP???X
40757474	PED	18 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN
407585407585	PED	27 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	England	LOC685X	LOC685X
407596596	PED	19 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	USA
407603	PED	19 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	USA
407609407609	PED	22 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	England	LOC238X	LOC238X238X
40761414	PED	19 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	USA
407620	PED	20 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN
4076255	PED	19 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	USA
407631407631	PED	27 AUG 81	MME	SILVER LEAF	JMN	USA
4076699	PED	1 SEP 81	CMV	MONZA RED	AMG
4076744	PED	24 AUG 81	CMV	MONZA RED	AMG
407708	PED	4 SEP 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG
407714407714	PED	26 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG
4077255	PED	27 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG	Holland		Not Known
407736	PED	27 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG
4077422	PED	28 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG
407747	PED	28 AUG 81	GMD	CASHMERE GOLD	AMG	Germany		Not Known
4077699	PED	9 SEP 81	CMV	MONZA RED	AMG
407775775	PED	7 SEP 81	CMV	MONZA RED	AMG

• Standard viscous coupling fan (NO electric fans fitted)

• Efi engine (slightly higher power output due to no cats – this may account for the two quotes of 148bhp and 137bhp for Efi cars in various Triumph publications – having checked on a rolling road removal of the cats does give an extra 10bhp)

• Engine setup to run on leaded fuel (very little unleaded available at that time)

• NO Catalytic converters fitted (catalytic converter packs were included with the car only as an extra and so they could be fitted if the car later went to the USA or Canada)

• NO AC fitted

• Air vents fitted to the foot wells (small door in each foot well that when opened allows cool air to come in from under the front wings – excellent idea as it works really well, shame they didn’t do that on all cars – it’s also found on some 49 state spec cars)

• Blue or Tan velour interiors

• Chassis number stamped round the suspension turret (a small number didn’t have this)

As you can see above quite a few of these cars have remained in Europe. What’s also interesting about these cars is that they were all registered in the UK first before being driven onto ferries for individual delivery to their new owners in Europe. All of these cars were exported / registered by:

SW6 1SF

Free service voucher showing Tax Free Sales as the Heading where as the VX1 below shows Rover Hire Ltd - Note Voucher and VX1 are from different PED TR8's.

All (that are known to me) were given a LOC???X registration number as a temporary DVLC (form VX1) skeletal record prior to their departure from the UK – as can be seen from the records above some still carry the original number largely because current/previous owners either bought the car from a USA/Canadian service person before they went back home or the UK plates were still with the car and the owner was able to apply for a conversion of skeleton vehicle record to full record (DVLC form VX2). In some cases cars have been brought back from the states without the new owner knowing the car had a previous UK registration number thus they now have different registration numbers.

            VX1                        VX2

Because these were all personal exports, type approval wasn’t required although it did exist for RHD UK spec cars (see below), so some of these cars have very late experimental parts (which were used up at the end of production) – my own LOC238X has a 35DM (35DE is the standard) distributor with the coil fitted to inner wing as well as two others that I know of. Also some cars are equipped with the UK leaded fuel filler as opposed to the smaller unleaded filler and others have horizontal striped velour in the door panels as opposed to the more normal vertical.

A type approval for a RHD UK Spec TR8 was sorted out!

An interesting quirk is that all of the PED cars I've seen so far have a different set of chassis letters (number remains the same) in the boot/trunk rain gutter. This is the European non USA/Canada check digit system, for the example below I've used my own car LOC238X.

    SATTPVDV8BA407609

The chassis number on the plate in the window and on the chassis plate in the door is SATPV458XBA407609

In addition the SATPV458XBA407609 chassis number appears stamped (very poorly) round the LH suspension turret

Whether some of these features are purely PED quirks or last of the line quirks I don't as yet have enough data to confirm.