[san rensho]

I had a TR7 for about 2 weeks and I was working on getting the dual side-draft carbs synched. As I took off the air cleaners on the carbs, I noticed there was a bolt missing, no big deal right?Well, I got carburetors synced and the car ran like a champ, for only another week, when suddenly it's making the classic rapid rat tat tat noise that comes from bent valves. Remember that bolt that was missing from the air cleaner? Well it got into the intake and was sucked into the engine and bent a valve.

So no big deal, just take off the head and take it to a machine shop to have it fixed right? Well the British, in their infinite wisdom, had designed the head so that it bolted onto the block with a combination of studs and bolts. But it gets even better, the studs and bolts are not perpendicular to the block, they are at an angle. So there's no way to just slide the head over the studs to get to head off. Of course the studs are completely frozen and after trying myself to get the studs out, with everything from solvent to a blowtorch, no luck. I take it to my mechanic and he has it for another six months trying to get these studs out, again with no luck.

The long and short of it, I had the TR7 for about three weeks and ended up selling it as a roller for 300 bucks.