[ffindling]

The TR7 suffered badly in British Leyland's downward spiral. Originally they
had planned to use the twin-cam 16 valve version of the Dolomite engine
in the TR7, but it wouldn't fit under the hood. BL management so haphazard
that clearance issues for the 16V Dolomite engine weren't checked before
BL began stamping out TR7 bodies. So they were forced to use the 8V single-
cam engine in the TR7. The Dolomite engine was a sound design but BL's
build quality was so appalling that many of these engines seized up shortly
after leaving the production line. Saab also used the Dolomite engine in
the 99 and it cost the company dearly as they had to replace countless
shortblocks under warranty in the cars. Besides the poor build quality of
the Dolomite engine, the rest of the car equally suffered from quality issues
to the point that the cars were falling apart when delivered to their dealers.
The TR7 was such a fiasco, that BL Chairman Sir Michael Edwardes put the
car out of its misery by cancelling production of it in 1981.

....Fred