Time to right a half-century wrong as we officially welcome Triumph’s elusive TR5 PI to the USA. This is the event, you may recall, that did not happen in 1967, an oversight that still troubles Triumphistas of a certain age.
To them we say fret no more, your wait is over. And to compensate for this lengthy delay, we present …
The federalized TR6 put out a whopping 104 bhp vs. the home market version was 150 bhp. A friend had imported an injected TR6 so we had a chence to evaluate the differece - it was laughable! I don't know what the story as as to why the injected version couldn't be passed by the US - one would think that in general it would be easier to attain required emissions with an injected car than with carbs. Possibly BLMC simply lacked the funds to certify the injected model over here based on expected sales.
Performance difference:
the (injected) Triumph TR6 manages to cover the 0-60 mph sprint in 8.2 seconds and the standing-start quarter mile in 16.3 seconds. Maximum stated speed is 192 km/h (119 mph).
On North American cars the figures were 1/4 in 17.9 secs., 0-60 in 10.7 secs and 109 mph top speed.
Tht's not to say that the TR6 we got was a waste of time - it was certainly better tan nothing and was a good looking car despite the shortcomings in straight line performance and handling (they botched the rear spring rates on the IRS suspension a tad).
They were still fun to drive. I had a really nice one behind me on a long, long hill on a British car club run once. He pulled out to pass and I floored it. Sadly for him, he thought that I was driving an MGB - I wasn't, I was driving my six cylinder MGC that I had reworked to 175 bhp. The only way he could have told that it wasn't an MGB was by the hood bulge but of cours he never got to see that until we stopped. The MGC had a GPS verified top speed of 130 mph (and more, as it was still pulling when I ran out of road) 
The Lucas petrol injection was in fact the first choice of many race teams in the Sixties. In addition to the obvious British F1 teams, though, its use in the Autodelta-prepared Alfa Romeo 33s led to what I've always considered the greatest spontaneous smart-ass comment in motorsport history.
Dr. Paul Tenney was an American Alfista whose snark would earn him the sobriquet of "The Grinch." He was part of the Alfa Romeo team at one of the great North American endurance races—I'm thinking it was Daytona, where the Alfa Romeo 33 would become associated with the event's name, but I can't confirm.
At the time, Alfa had just introduced their Spica fuel injection system as a way to meet U.S. emissions regulations. However, for its usability and tuneability as a racing injection system, the Lucas PI was used on the endurance cars.
As the story goes, a writer for one of the car magazines of the day approached Dr. Tenney who was leaning over the engine bay of one of the 33s. The writer made the (logical in retrospect) assumption that this was Alfa's new production injection system, and asked if it was in fact Spica.
Without missing a beat, Dr. Tenney responded:
"No Spica, English."
Lucas was very cagey - they marketed the FI system to the Italians (Maserati c. 1961) and got free development time!
The TR5 was the first car to use their new Mk 2 FI system.
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