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The car is June 81 build & was delivered to Hewitts Garages of Walsall. It remained unsold for over 12 months so in the summer of 1982 the sales manager at Hewitts decided to buy the car as a birthday present for his wife (I expect he gave himself a good deal!). Anyway the car was duly registered for 1st August 1982, but when the good lady wife saw her present she apparently wasn’t very impressed & announced she didn’t want a TR7!

So, the car stayed in the showroom for a month until it was seen by the man who eventually became the first proper owner, a Mr Owen. He bought the car in September 1982 & drove her for the first 12 months of ownership, putting 4,450 miles on the clock. In September 1983 Mr Owen then drove the car down to his holiday home in Devon, put her in the garage, & there she stayed – for 21 years!!

Fast forward to August 2004. I wander into my local garage to book the daily driver in for a new exhaust. There in the corner of the small showroom is this blue TR7. Whilst waiting I look it over out of curiosity. Note the apparent low mileage. Note 1983 road tax disc still in windscreen. Note lack of rust! Ask salesman, who I know, where car has come from. It’s all genuine, the first owner has asked the garage to sell the car for him & they vouch for its authenticity, having been called out to the car several times over those years of storage to start it from time to time.

Blimey! Test drive, brief haggle with the salesman, & I am back that afternoon with the cheque!

She is a lovely car. Had a few problems due to the lack of use, like non working fuel tank sender, faulty distributor advance mechanism, carbs full of crap, etc. Nothing major though. In the picture you can see I have changed the wheels for minilite replicas, but I have the original alloys. I also fitted a recon distributor & Lumenition to sort the ignition problems. She has now covered 9,600 miles, I keep her taxed & tested all year round though I avoid driving her in the worst of our weather. I feel very lucky to own such a good example of this under rated car.

Regards,

Tony Francis

Devon