Group 44 TR8?

[Moderator]

I'm collecting any information I can get about the Group 44 TR8 racecars, or about replicas of them.

Can you help me? Photos would be especially helpful. I know next to nothing about these cars.

Did anyone have their camera with them when the British V8 2001 meet was at Sebring FL and the Group 44 hanger was toured? Here are three snapshots that may refresh your memory...

[MGBV8]

I may have taken a pic of it in the hanger/museum. I don't think I had a digital camera then. Jack Renaud took a lot of pics.

[kayakjack]

Hi, Curtis & Carl,  I finally found my 2001 Sebring pics but the only Group 44 cars
were a couple Jags & part of a Triumph.  Sorry!
        Ted Schumacher was very involved with Triumph.  His site is:
http://www.tsimportedautomotive.com/
Maybe he could help you, Curtis.
Regards, Jack

[triumph10]

Anyone know where the body panels came from or can be had?

[Group44registry]

Curtis-

  I am lucky (maybe even skilled enough) to be on the crew for Bill Warner's Group 44 TR-8 and TR-6.  Got lots of pics of both
cars.  I also maintain the Group 44 Registry.  Drop me a line sometime.

-Rick

[Group44registry]

Allan-

  Lanocha Racing took molds off Bill Warner's Group 44 TR-8 for their body kit, so I know it's accurate.  We use the Lanocha
kit pieces as spares for the race car, so I'll go out on a limb and say if it fits the real Group 44 TR-8, it will be the look you're looking for.

  Little bit of TR-8 body trivia....  Lanky Foushee told me that the nose piece is modified from a Trans-Am Porsche 934 chin that
Group 44 found in a dumpster at Daytona.  The roof spoiler (really only needed at slow speed tracks) is narrowed from a BMW
3.0 CSL roof spoiler.  The fender flares and trunk spoiler came from Group 44.

-RIck

[WedgeWorks1]

Curtis-

Here are a few pictures from the Sebring 2001 British V8 Meet. I was fortunate enough to have Bob Tullius let me take a look at, in around......under the car. I over 100 pictures of the group 44 TR8s from vintage up to about 5 years ago. I also work with Tim Lanocha of Lanocha Racing so I know the body panels very well and chat with Jay Fox who was on Lanky's crew who still knows how to remake the fiberglass panels the Group 44 way!

Michael



and a teaser!

[Mr. T]

Whoa...where did you guys come from (Curtis - you just turned on the lights in the kitchen!)?  Great to here from you all!!

Michael - Talked to Tim about a month ago about dyno tuning my 3.9/carb and exploring supercharger/fi over the winter.


Regards, Tony

[Moderator]

Michael, these pictures are awesome - thank you for posting them!

(Can I beg you for a CD-ROM of the rest of the collection?)

I'm scheming to collect and publish a whole huge bunch of information on TR8 and especially TR8 racers!

I don't know if you guys noticed the "special sections" we've run in the last two editions of our online magazine regarding MG's "factory" MGB GT V8? (20+ articles and 200+ photos, I think.) Ideally, I'd like to do something like that about TR8.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could show all sorts of construction and preparation details of the race cars, and also back them up with detailed captions. The thing is, I don't know much about TR8 or racing...  so I need to recruit volunteers to do it right.

[Mr. T]

Michael - Please keep us updated on your Works/TR7 replica project...very cool!

Curtis - Check out Michael's project at LanochaRacing/Arsenal (if you haven't already).

[MGBV8]

Hi Michael.  Good to see you here. I remember kidding you & Tim about bringing a donor car to Sebring. I really was kidding.

I gotta say this is one awesome Triumph Wedge:

[WedgeWorks1]

Thanks Guys!

I remember all the comments at Sebring in 2001 about the donor cars. I figure its stranger that my TR8 coupe is going to be converted to a Works Rally replica TR7 V8......not a TR8! This is my first posting in a forum so far it is pretty fun getting some of these pictures out and into circulation! I have some more pictures that are really pieces of Group 44 History.

The paint, numbers & stripes are still wet from the first paint job!




First drive in the Sterling, Va Group 44 Shop around May of 1979 (XJS Group 44 Jaguar is in the background)


Lime Rock in 1979

[WedgeWorks1]

Curtis -

I can get a CD together for you on the Wedgies! I do know a lot about the cars after working with Woody Cooper and now Tim Lanocha. The TR8 Coupe I have now is British car #53. Lets say back in the early to mid-90ies cars were dirt cheap! I was honored to meet Lanky Foushee at his North Carolina shop when we was restoring Bill Warner's #4 Group 44 TR8. I got to take pictures under the car, inside and a majority of the parts as they were struned around his shop. I have a good archive of other competition TR8s, so enjoy the flash back to 1980!


Huffaker TR8s

Ken Slagle TR8

Janspeed LeMans TR8 with 2 Works Rally TR7V8s in the back ground!

........Group 44 TR8

[glensullivan]

Mike,
I just found this site while surfing around. You have pictures here, including one of my backside changing the rear tire on the TR8 and others of the day we rolled the first of the two 44 TR8's out of the shop. If you took those, I must have known you at the time. I have a small stack of photos from that day that I recently scanned and printed and gave to Bob Tullius.
I too would love to get a CD of any pictures you have of that era as I was usually too busy to take many myself! I spent two years with 44, 1979 & 1980, which was when we built those two cars. The first was an EPA test car that could never have been registered and the other which we completed in spring, 1980, for Bill Adam to drive. It was oringinally built as a TR7 for SCCA club racing but never completed and we cut out a lot of the cage and converted the car over to run in IMSA GTO and Group II Transam.
The body pieces everyone is talking about were beartifully made and painted by my good friend John Lyster in colaboration with Lanky.
Thanks,
              Glen Sullivan
Here are a vew pics, one from the first roll out, one for the Lockheed wind tunnel test we did shortly before we left for the first race at the Watkins Glen 6 hr. (1st place) and one from the paddock at Road America.

[WedgeWorks1]

Glen-
This is all too interesting! I would love to tell you I took the pictures but seeing how I would have been 7 years old at the time would be quite impressive to anyone! I will tell you the pictures are from Jay Fox and his brother! Some of my others I have collected over the years. The one of the first day roll out is the same of my "first drive". The molds are awesome! A work with a guy who now owns all of the molds including the doors which no one ever used. I can make both you and Curtis a deal............get all you can scanned and put onto a CD and I will burn one of all my past & present Group 44 pictures to you and also Curtis after I get a mailing address and get you mine. Glen did you know that is going to be a Group 44 reunion at the Amelia Island Concourse in 2009? I would also love to have you autograph my dealer poster if it is possible of some other pictures. I got Dick Gilmartin, Lanky & Bob so far on seperate pictures and the Dealer poster has Bob & Lanky. Here are some pictures of the molds that Lanky said were the original molds and the start of a project car that is now finished.



I hope to hear back from you soon or see some more pictures!

[WedgeWorks1]

Here are a few more pictures!

[8racer]

Does anyone know what happened to the Mueller (huffaker), black TR8s in C-production.  Those car were cool.  are they still around? any info would help

[Saleen12]

1

[mowog1]

I drank a couple of pints with Bob Tullius at the bar at the Chateau Elan after the "banquet" at MGV8 2001 in Sebring.

He's quite a gentleman.

We talked primarily WWII warbirds.

[WedgeWorks1]

Here are some more pictures I ran across!


Both cars at Road America in 1980