Despite the popularity of the Rover V8 engine, most famously used in the Land Rover Defender and Range Rover Classic, practically every car which used perhaps the most famous engine in British motoring history has a story to tell.

From the Rover P5B proving the strength of the concept to the Land Rover Discovery and the Bowler Wildcat proving its sheer power and longevity, most Rover V8 cars are special in one way or another.

However, one of the most fascinating of these was the Triumph TR8, a car which not only was an attempt to redeem the legendary badge but also the end of an era of classic mass-produced British sports cars.

The redemption part was the result of the most famous car never to use the Rover V8. The Triumph Stag was a highly beloved sports car that was beautiful, practical and designed to be as comfortable when gently driving down country lanes as it was pushing itself to the limits.

All of this would have been the case had it used the Rover V8 engine, which many drivers and enthusiasts would easily modify the car to do later. However, Triumph instead stuck two four-cylinder engines together to make a Frankenstein’s Monster of a V8 engine that was, rather fittingly, horrifically unreliable.

The Stag should have used the Rover V8, but by the late 1970s, Triumph attempted to help a reputation ruined by their own V8 engine by adapting the four-cylinder TR7 to fit the Rover V8 to provide a simple, powerful and uniquely shaped car for the American market.

To a degree, all of this worked; whilst the TR7 was blighted by low power and horrific reliability issues, the TR8 was built better, had a far more suitable engine and was beloved by the people who owned it, being compared positively to the Chevrolet Corvette of the era.

The problem was that it came too late; whilst the TR7 was the wrong car launched at the right time, the TR8 was the complete opposite.

Alongside guilt by association, a weak dollar relative to the pound meant the cars cost far more, petrol prices had surged thanks to another oil crisis and Japanese small cars and sports cars have proven to be formidable competition.

Estimates vary, but no more than 2800 were sold, almost all of which were made for the American market, before BL cancelled production in 1982 amidst a wholesale restructuring of the then-nationalised manufacturer.