One color resonance enhanced two photon ionization spectra of the tropyl C 7 H 7 and C 7 D 7 radicals were recorded in a molecular beam. Tropyl was produced in a supersonic plasma source using different precursors to identify its vibronic bands. The vibronic system is assigned to the 2 E′′ 3 r X 2 E′′ 2 electronic transition with origin near 25 719 cm -1 . It covers 6 000 cm -1 revealing a large change of geometry due to a Jahn-Teller distortion in both the ground and the excited states. Ab initio calculations were carried out on the JahnTeller configurations to guide the assignment.