The cars were first conceived at the end of the 1960's, and entered production during British Leylands bleakest period during the mid 1970's. The development of the range was so seriously disrupted by labour troubles that they never met their planned sales volumes and were taken out of production prematurely.
In 1970 the young British Leyland were looking at ways to rationalise the corporations model range, and decided that a single model should replace the Triumph TR6 and the MGB. The most important thing about the new sports car was that it must meet the specifications and requirements of the North American market, which had previously taken the majority of Triumph's and MG's produced, and would be the foundation on which future sales were built.
The basic design strategy was for a medium size two-seater sports car of advanced styling, that conformed to all existing and planned US legislation on crash safety and exhaust emission control, and that utilised simple, reliable and easily serviced mechanical components.
BL merged Triumph with Rover in 1971, and drew up a plan for a range of four new models as follows:
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