Group 44 TR7/8s are ALIVE!

[WedgeWorks1]

Well so far about 3 cars have been made recently with the Group 44 body kits for the TR7/8. The first was Tim Lanocha's white with green stripes powered by a Chevy V8 from Maryland.



Then Canadian Benoit Laflamme build a road race TR8 with a Rover V8 white with orange & red stripes.




Finally Jay Fox finished his yellow TR7 with a Ford 302 using the small rear fender flares. He recently took the car to Summit Point in West Virginia and took a few laps. Jay fox was one of the crew for the original Group 44 TR8s and had hands on experience with the cars. From this he was able to build the rear small SCCA flares out of pieces left over from another totaled TR7 with the body kit and missing parts from the molds.




Even the original Group 44 #4 TR8 owned by Bill Warner got some new spare panels in exchange for some molds made from his panels. The Canadian TR8 built with help and parts from group 44 back in 1980 after a bad crash needed panels. I love knowing that somewhere in traffic you might see a white or yellow blurrrrrrrrrr! Preserving the breed!

[nadg63]

All nice but prefer the yellow one!

[Moderator]

Very exciting!

We definitely need a lot more photos of each of these, because the devil is in construction details.

Incidentally, I'll be at Summit Point on Thanksgiving weekend for VRG's "Turkey Bowl" races. It would be great to run into Jay there, if he lives nearby...

[WedgeWorks1]

Jay lives just west of Washington DC and he got lucky to run the car for free on a....of all things.....CORVETTE weekend!

[MGBV8]

They ALL look awesome, Mike!

[jellison]

Now that looks Really Good. (And not usually a TR7/8 fan), Prefer the first ones coluor scheme.

[Phillip G]

Love the white with green stripes best !

Sure wish someone in the TR8 group would get the TR8 recognized by the SCCA in the GT2 class.

keep them on the track

phillip g
.

[WedgeWorks1]

Jay Fox payed me a visit a last night and dropped off some fiberglass he was working on for me. I have a set of front early works TR7V8 spoilers; one with brake duct holes and one with out for a trial fitment. He also made a mold for the Group 44 TR8 rear spoiler from a one off original. Amazing considering he has not had anything to do with Group 44 cars or parts since 1980!

Then he made me a "street version one off" spoiler that looks great and is less outrageous!

[DiDueColpi]

Hi Mike, I bought an 82 TR8 convert in a box.
Every sensible fiber of my being says put it back together and restore it.
As the lovely Lynne calls it, "my unreasonable, you can't tell me what to do, cost is no object" side says that it needs to look like this.
Are these flares realistic for a street car? By that I mean will they hold up to daily use or are they an ultra light race only affair?
Thanks
Fred

[WedgeWorks1]

The flares can hold up for a street car if you fully attach them and not at the outward edges. You need to also bond them to the inner fender well area. Now there are two sizes of rear flares. The white cars have the IMSA flares that are really wide and the yellow car has the SCCA flares that are smaller. I think it depends on the tires and if you really need HUGE tires! You can always requirest some extra material to stiffen the panels up more.

[77v8]

I will be adding my car to the group 44 styling in a few months! I will be adding lemans style extensions to the B-pillar and a hatch for improved aero

[WedgeWorks1]

Most excellent! Pictures, pictures, pictures!

[spudrace]

Check out all my other Group 44 racing photo's in several IMSA galleries at
www.martinsactionphotography.smugmug.com