Stub Stacks

Recently bought some stub stacks from Calver Tuning. I ordered alloy units, but as Keith Claver did not have any alloy ones to hand, he sent me a couple of Kevlar items-blimey, doubt if there is a slower car driving in the UK that has Kevlar items attached to it! Superb service though, I e-mailed back and stated that if he got some alloy units done I would be happy to replace, Keith kindly said not to worry! Nice bloke.

I was talking to the chap I have previously mentioned who beat me at the Bocardo Autosolo, he has used some of Keith's products on his Mini and found them to be very good backed up with quality service. Nice to hear of someone in the tuning world who is not 'Up their own backside'!

Right, time to sit down and watch the Cup Final, bit nervous, but hoping that Chelsea can beat Everton. Come on you, er Yellows!

Some more pictures!

This is Doug Foreman's mk3 GT6. A good old car that sometimes has been used to carry his anvil. Doug is a farrier and used to use the car for work. Goes well this one. The pic was taken at a Bedford CC Autotest back in 2005.


Excuse the lines through the pic, this one is Martin Randle's lovely TR7 FHC, as can be seen it is sporting the original BL works colour scheme. I think this pic was taken just after the car had been painted in this scheme-looks good for a TR7 eh!



James Carruther's 2000 mk1, really nice car this, looks very good with the minilites. Good colour for a mk1.



This is Andy Flexney's TR3A, taken on the first 10CR at Nice. Paul Darbyshire is beside him, my memory of them on this event was that they spent the whole time laughing. Top car.

Get out and use them!

Time to write about some of the recent events that I have taken part in, these were done during a 3 week stretch using the 2.5 and the GT6.

Club Triumph Historic County Run: Coast to Coast: 18/19th April
Entered this fine event with James Carruthers using my 2.5. We arrived at the start in Southwold in the company of Ellis Stoke/Keith Compton Bishop in Ellis' 2500TC (Known as 'The Bus') and Nick Jones and Duncan Edwards in Nick's superb Vitesse mk1 convertible. I immediately got under the car to resolve a rear suspension knocking noise, found both sub-frame mounts loose-very weird and unfortunately a taste of things to come on the event. After meeting up with Dave Langrick and his mate Howard we decided we would accompany them for a great part of the route. Dave was in his Spitfire/GT6 hybrid affectionately known as 'The Maiden'. This is a terrific little car that I think is presently running a 2000cc six cyl engine with Lucas Pi, this coupled with the fibreglass bonnet makes her a fast old thing that does not suffer from the usual GT6 trait of understeer. After a serious bit of plotting from the start to the finish in Wales it was decided that 'Chips in Diss' were required. Luckily we found a good chippie on the outskirts of the town that suffers from the good chip shop recommendation of big queues-we enjoyed very nice savaloy and chips washed down with a can of coke-bloomin marvellous! Then it was time to get motoring and of we went, bumping into many of the 25 or so entrants at various places. The only grief that was encountered was at Greys Court near Henley where we seemed to wake up the inhabitant of the gatehouse, he seemed a bit pee'd off so we beat a hasty retreat-never nice to see an angry bloke in a dressing gown-I was looking for the shot gun and the words of 'Get off my land'! We got to the halfway stop at Chieveley Services on the M4 and submitted our half time results to the organisers Dale Barker and Brian Maslin. A quick cup of coffee and some more map plotting and it time to make a move. Up to Worcester the car seemed to be going well, however we started to hear a grinding noise which turned out to be the crankshaft pulley rubbing on the electric fan motor. At a well lit petrol station I took the fan off the car and off we went with James driving. As we seemed to be losing time and the roads having less traffic the driving became more spirited with Dave and Howard setting the pace. Once we crossed into Wales I took over and with 20 miles could feel some problem with the nsf wheel. Pulling into a garage, I pulled the dust cover off the hub to discover a totally shagged wheel bearing, depressingly enough this meant 'Game Over' as I did not have a spare one with me. Dave and Howard got on their way and me and James waited for the recovery truck. On stripping down the hub I have found the stub axle to be badly damaged as well, replacement of all of this and the rectification of the electric fan issue goes on at present.
A bad way to end this event, this has affected my chances of winnig the CT 'Drivers Challenge' as bonus points are being awarded to entrants who have successfully completed the HCR-bummer!

Oxford Motor Club 'Bocardo' Autosolo: 26th April
I took part in this event last year and throughly enjoyed my self, so when the Regs. for the event came out my entry went in very quickly. Many reading this will have heard about the terrible accident that happened to Doug Foreman on the M25 in February. Last year both Doug and Katie Foreman took part in this event using Doug's now written off Herald 13/60 and after the terrible time that Katie has endured I thought it would be an idea for her to enter the event using the GT6, a quick telephone call and she accepted the offer. Well it would not do for the 'Club Triumph Drivers Champion' not be doing any competitive motoring this year.
For this years event Oxford MC had hired a big car park at Silverstone just off the main entrance road. I arrived nice and early to see Mike Helm and his TR6 already parked up and after all the bureacracy of signing on, scrutineering and drivers briefing the timed runs started. 50 drivers were entered and us Triumph folk were in the 'Historic' class. Other cars in this class being Mike's TR6, Mike Bishop's Herald rally car and couple of Minis, one a really nice bright yellow 1275 Cooper S replica, making it a 6 driver group. The mornings runs consisted of two tests that we drove 3 times each, nest two times being used for event total. I thought I was well off the pace and not really in the swing of things, however after looking at the times I seemed to be leading the class by lunch. The afternoon sessions got going and I got into the groove and was feeling alot happier with my driving and come the last test all I had to do was drive well and just post reasonably competitive times. Not sure what happened but my first one was very slow, the second run was good and competitive all that was now needed was a similar time and the class win was mine. Alas I made a real dogs dinner of it and wrong slotted, having to reverse this resulted in a bad time. Got back to the paddock area to lots of mickey taking from Mike Helm and Andy Flexney who had dropped in to spectate for an hour or so. After some quick mental arithmetic it seemed that Katie had won the class with me second so we hung around. When the results were announced the chap in the yellow Mini had won and I came second, very surprising. Without sounding patronising I think Katie drove my car very well, in fact alot better than me, she seemed to be very smooth around the course. I must say it was weird watching my car being driven hard, but I had faith that she would drive the car with care and so it turned out. I understand she is now barracking Doug to get him to build a decent roundtail GT6! Come on Doug, stop messing around with Heralds and get a round tail to complement your square tail! Please see below a pic of Katie driving the car, weirdly enough the chap who took the pics did not take any of me driving it?

An absolute top event that was great fun if a little ultimately a little disappointing. Club Triumph will be running its own Autosolo in July, I hope that many members will take the chance to have a go at this event as it is such good fun.

MGoT Cadwell Park Track Day: 1st May
This was my second TD at Cadwell, CT visited this venue last year. What a great circuit, full of twists and turns and apart from the back straight, one that does not seem to have any places for a quick breather. Its a narrow track, however a GT6 is an ideal little car for use owing to its narrow width. I think about 20 or so CT members were there using GT6s, Spitfires, Wedge TRs, Heralds and Lloyd McNeill's glorious Standard Ten (Pic posted previously on this blog).
I did my first run but came in after some serious rear end noises started. On examination it was found that the rear end propshaft UJ looked suspect, so I got stuck into changing the coupling once Ken McNeill very kindly gave me a spare he had in the van they had used to trailer the Ten to Cadwell. I have not changed a coupling in years but found the job went very well using some sockets, a hammer and flat piece of wood-very surprising. This meant that I got out on the third session and found the car to be most improved. I had also with the help of Paul Hughes put some washers inbetween the front calipers and vertical link mounts as I seemed to be getting some wheel to caliper rubbing. After lunch I did a further three sessions and thoroughly enjoyed myself. For the fourth session I went out as a passenger with Chris Shaw and his sorted TR7 8V convertible, this is one tidy car all the work having been executed with care and consideration. Chris's car seemed so much more civilised than my GT6 and owing to his skills behind the wheel we seemed to be going very well around the track, I think the only car that went past us being Paul Michelmore and his rapid Pi 2000cc Spitfire. This is a neutral handling car that has had the engine moved back by using a Spitfire front plate and mounts. Paul was driving in his usual spirited manner and did have a serious monment after overtaking us, as he went over the rise adjacent to the pits he put his nsr wheel onto the grass. This resulted in some serious oversteer, he must have kept his 'Foot in' and eventually drove it out but I bet it raised the old heart rate! Below is a black and white pic of this car taken at Donnington in 2006.
After the last session a few of us, Sarah and Andy Johnson, Chris Shaw, Dale Barker and Tom Keys went to a decent pub for a pint and some grub, the perfect way to end a great day. Dave Langrick calls these 'Event De-Briefs', must say I like 'De-Briefs'!
As usual it must be said that the standard of driving at Cadwell amongst the CT drivers was very good. The thing to remember about Track Days is that one can drive at a pace that one is happy with, not worry about other drivers and just have a good time. It is important though to take part in a TD that has similar cars being used, I have done a modern cars TD using the GT6, not fun. The extra benefit of TDs being that I think it does improve ones driving when it comes to driving on the road-makes sense to leave the fast driving to circuits and the like.

The next MGoT/CT TD is due at Brands Hatch in June, I will def. be going, however I will take the 2.5 as I think it is time to give that car a good blast!

A few more groovy cars!

Thought it would be an idea to show some more pics!


Picture from the first 10CR, taken in Nice. Red GT6 is the one owned by Doug Foreman, besides it is the Herald 1200 of Andy and Sarah Johnson. A few other CT cars are scattered around the car park.


This one is from the same event and strangely enough these are still owned by the same people:
L -R: Martin Randle's TR7, Don Cook's GT6, Andy Flexney's TR3A, Doug Crutchfield's TR2 and my GT6. Good eh!

Andy MacDonald's 'Worksalike'. His glorious old mk1 that had a Rover V8 and was running Pi. This car flew, this pic was taken on the 05 10CR, think its on the motorway near Nice? Paul Shattock is in the driving seat, Andy Mac beside him and Sam Shattock in the back. Andy has recently sold this car, shame as she was a good 'un.

Nigel Gair's glorious 2000 Mk2. A famous CT car and many an inspiration to CT members. Nigel has done many RBRRs in this car. I hope he will be joining us at the forthcoming MGoT at Brands Hatch in June.

Modsport GT6: This pic was nicked from a copy of Sports Car Monthly an old car magazine from the early 80s. I seem to remember the writer complaining about the heavy steering, evidently it was fast though!

Andy Martin's Vitesse 60002VC, is there a better Vitesse? Andy uses this car, it has been on most CT events, most recently the Historic County Run. Andy is true Triumph enthusiast, has owned them since the early 80s. He also owns a gorgeous TR4A, lucky fellar!

One of my old Mondeos, this one was superb, 100K miles and nothing went wrong! Apols for sticking this up here, but I just love series 2 Ford Mondeos. Not so sure about the new one though, styling is a bit heavy!

CT Competition Secretary Dale Barker's Herald. Another superb car, again tuned and modified but reliable. I have sat as passenger in this at Castle Combe, it handles nicely and goes really well.

This car is another of those inspirational Triumphs. Owned by a chap called Bill Haseldine, Bill used to hillclimb and sprint the car in the early 80s, I remember an early morning blast to Goodwood in about 1983 in this car, seem to remember we did the trip very quickly! The first triumph I saw on revolution wheels, made an impression on me! Bill still owns the car, though I have not seen it for a couple of years.

Pic of my 2.5 with two ex-works cars and a Triumph Chicane. Taken last year after the LCC in June.

Bank Holiday Weekend

As usual its been a busy week, work is a bit manic, which is nice-busy times means job security.

Right back to the cars, I have just been speaking to my Brother in Law who has carried out some blasting and powder coating work to some wheels and an old Aleybar rear roll over cage I have, these are shown below, a good job eh! I hope to fit the bar to the GT6 on Saturday afternoon in time for the Standard Triumph Forum meeting at Duxford on the Sunday. I am not one for car shows, however the Imperial War Museum is so good that the chance of cheap admission and the ability to spend some time there should not be missed.



If time permits I will fit the Wilwood four pot calipers to the car, just got to have some brake pipes modified to fit the american threaded unions that are in the calipers. The pads for these calipers have a larger surface area than the standard calipers and the calipers weigh considerably less as well-I hope that the braking of the car will be improved?

The pics of the brake pads show the difference in size between the Wilwood and Hi Spec, the greenstuff items being the ones for the Wilwood calipers. The Wilwood caliper has a bracket bolted to it which I hope will fit the GT6's uprights, no problem if they don't as I have a set of the brackets that will fit.

Bank Holiday Monday will be spent working on the saloon, I have more or less got the new stub axle back on the car, just need to fit new wheel bearings to the hubs and a new track rod end and I can then drop the car back onto its four wheels. I have hit a stumbling block though, the Pacet fan has been fouled by the crankshaft pulley. This was taken off the car during the LCC and slung into the boot. I had intended to use it mounted in front of the radiator and was hoping that I would be able to take the fan off its spindle and simply reverse it around. No such luck, once I managed to get the fan off I found that it is not reversible and that unless I can source a smaller crankshaft pulley and damper I will need to get a different fan for the car. Only saving grace is that I may be able to use this one on the Herald? Looking on-line I see that Kenlowe do a 13'' dia fan for under £100.00, this is reversible so would be suitable if I cannot mount the fan because of space restrictions to suck the air through the rad. Looks like a purchase may be necesary.

Just been in my shed, what a mess, need to sort it out. I am thinking of buying some decent racking to store parts upon as it needs to be a tidy shed. I spend so much time messing around looking for parts, this time wasting needs to be reduced! I may at some point buy another shed and have that as a workshop, not sure? I was at Micheal Helm's place the other day, man oh man he has a set up that is very impressive. Two big units that house all his cars and a 4 post lift-lucky sod! Anyrate Mike has said that I could use his premises anytime, very decent of him eh! That is the thing about Club Triumph, so many members are willing to help others, top bunch of people!

Below are some snaps from the recent MGoT Track day at Cadwell Park as attended by 20 or so CT members. These pics. show Keith Dandridges silver mk2 GT6, Lloyd McNeill's glorious Standard Ten historic racer and Bryce Greenwood's just MOT'd after a re-build TR7 V8. The quality of cars that CT members took up to Cadwell was really good and a cracking day was had by all!

As mentioned previously I am taking part in the La Carrera Caledonia in a week or two and the after fiting the roll over bar and the new calipers I will have the car in the state that I want for this event. I have decided to take part on my own, following Keith Bennett's lead in the 2005 event when he did that in his TR4A. This will mean that I need to make some notes that can be easily read whilst on the move. I will be travelling up to the start in Gretna with Dave Pearson and Jason Chinn, not sure which car they are using, I hope its Dave's Courier Van? We usually stay at 'The Old Stone Trough' near Barnoldswick and get to enjoy the 'Pendle and Pennine' meeting, unfortunately their were no rooms left so we have decided to drop in at the OST for a meal and then go and stay up near Carlisle. This will mean the usual early morning blast to Gretna is avoided, a drive that is often undertaken with a mega headache following a few too many beers the night before. Really looking forward to the LCC, just a shame that Jim McGuinness is not running a small 'Test' for us on the Saturday evening. This will be my fifth LCC, 2 in the 2.5, hopefully 2 in the GT6 and 1 in James Carruthers 2000 mk1 following GT6 issues and a break down on the way to Scotland in 2007.

Above are two snaps from the 2005 event, these show Steve Waddingham and the GT6 somewhere in Scotland and James Carruthers, Steve Waddingham, Keith Bennett and Jim McGuinness at a stop again somewhere in Scotland! I reckon McJim has put on some weight!

Cars to own one day!

Like most 'Anoraks' I have a list of a few cars that I would someday like to own, whilst there are many on this list, there are a few specfic cars that I really like so I thought it would be good to post a snap or two of them:





Ex-Works 2.5Pi mk1 as photographed during the 07 Norwich Union Classic.


John Chatham's gorgeous 'Big Healey' just look at those Borrani alloy wire wheels-this car is superb.


Not sure if this little Lotus is a Type 47 or a Europa, still, bloomin' lovely eh!

A good day.

Last weekend I bought some Dunlop 5.5J solid steel wheels from fellow CT member Clive Senior, a good purchase.

To tidy them up I have just dropped them at my brother in laws company to get them blasted and powder coated, I am also getting my old Aleybars roll over bar (Blimey, bought this in about 1988) for the GT6 done as well. For all items I have gone for mid grey, decided upon grey for the roll over bar as I think a black bar would be a bit oppressive in the tight confines of the GT6. I have decided to re-fit the bar to the GT6, I seem to be using the car for track days and the like and after witnessing the injuries that have befallen Doug Foreman and Karl Dandridge I have decided that making the old cars a bit safer would not go amiss. I have also purchased a good quality 4 point Luke safety harness and 3 sets of 'Eye Bolts', these will be fitted to the GT6, the 2.5 and the Herald. This will give me the option of being able to switch the harness around the cars.

On the subject of Doug, I have just been speaking to CT member Bob King, seems like him and Roger Baldwinson and a few other Gatwick Area CT Members have just been to Doug's place and fitted the engine, gearbox and drivetrain from Doug's smashed Herald into his newly acquired red 13/60 saloon and got the new car running-good work fellas!

Tomorrow will be spent fitting the a new stub axle and wheel bearing kit to the 2.5. I also intend to change the engine mounts and re-mount the pacet fan as this is now fouling the crank pulley-this is weird as the car has had the Pacet fitted for years and then suddenly on the CT HCR the pulley started to hit the fan motor! Weird things these old cars.



Thought I should mention that on behalf of CT I was invited to attend the RNLI Dinner and Awards Presentation that was held at The Barbican in London last Thursday. CT President Derek Pollock was also invited and I must say we had a cracking lunch and afternoon. Thanks to Heidi Chaplin for looking after us and making sure we were comfortable. The RNLI is a top organisation and some of the stories we were told about were very moving. I still find it incomprehensible that the RNLI needs to raise over £100million to operate each year, most comes from annual donations from estates of the dead, the balance being raised by a mammoth team of volunteers raising events etc.
Must say I am very proud of the amount of money that all the CT members raised by taking part in last years 2008 RBRR, £65,000.00 was a fantastic amount of money. I hope that we can achieve a similar amount for the Charity we decide to support when we do the 2010 RBRR. Worth showing the amount of money that CT members taking part in the RBRR have managed to collect for the various Charities:
1990 British Heart Foundation £13,500.00
1992 Imperial Cancer Research Fund £ 8,500.00
1994 Leukaemia Research Fund £11,500.00
1996 Alzheimers Research Trust £21,750.00
1998 MacMillan Cancer Relief £37,800.00
2000 Children with Leukaemia £41,000.00
2002 Multiple Sclerosis Society £37,300.00
2004 Children with Leukaemia £47,100.00
2006 BLISS: Premature Babies £50,600.00
2008 Royal National Lifeboat Institution £65,000.00
Grand Total £331,650.00


Below is a pic of the 2.5 as taken by Kevin Rochfort on the RBRR at Lands End with the RNLI stickers attached. Beside it is the Herald of Andrew Plews and the Vitesse of Andy Martin.



I am wary of being too keen with this Blog, so many seem to start Blogs with good intentions and then after an intial burst of activity stop updating them, I hope I can manage to update the Blog regularly.

Car Pics. Bit dull eh!

Above are some pics of the other cars I own. The Sprint ain't dumped!

Wotcha!

Well I started a Blog years ago, and like a real mungo forgot how to re-new. So here goes, hopefully after writing some notes down I may do better this time? I will use this Blog to talk about my cars and my interests, these being music, books, football and film. I can be a bit anal about music so I must apologise in advance if I get a bit sad and rant on about good bands and crap bands! 

I am Secretary of Club Triumph, a National Car Club (1450 members) that is dedicated to the use and up keep of old Triumph cars. Bloomin' excellent club full of great people, some of whom I will discuss (look out) and one that also happens to organise great car events! Mine is the usual story within CT, took part in the Round Britain reliability Run and found I liked the Club and stayed. I work for a company called Spadeoak Construction Co. Limited. A great place to work that is staffed by some top people, some who have become good friends of mine. There are also one or two losers at work, but hey, ain't that always the way! Most of my colleagues think I am a bit of an anorak as I am into old cars, but what is wrong with knowing the torque setting of Triumph 6 cylinder head nuts-essential info if you ask me! 

I own 4 Triumph cars, these being: 

1970 GT6 mk2 (Pic above): I have owned this little car for over 25years and obviously am very keen on the car. Most of the work on the car has been done by me apart from welding and painting, and a bit of spannering. During these years I use the old thing for many activities, endurance events, track days, rallies, autosolos, commuting(!) and of course going down the shop to get the paper. Thinking about it I even used her for a bit of courier work when I was a self employed courier, did'nt get much into her but a few sacks of mail but I seem to remember I got paid well for the particular collection - broke one of the luggage boards though. So much has been done to the car, and without being deadly dull I think I am now on the third engine, fifth gearbox, and fourth diff. The car has been painted two times during my tenure, the last job done about 5 years ago is not lasting very well and will almost certainly need doing in a year or so. Rot is starting to break out again, so I will need to source a good bodywork shop, I may possibly use Karl Dandridge if he can manage to look after himself! The car is not extremely modded, apart from the lack of rear bumpers and the addition of Revolution alloys looks almost standard. The car has Canley Classic CV driveshafts, the CC big front hub kit, a J type overdrive, 3.63:1 diff and a slightly modified engine with SU HS6 carbs fitted. I have no plans for the car other than the fitment of some alloy brake calipers, basically I intend to just use the car for the future. I have just completed a Track Day at Cadwell Park with various friends and mates with Club Triumph. The little car did ok after I had changed the rear UJ on the propshaft. She ain't the fastest GT6 but has quite neutral handling and is very easy to drive at 80-90%. A week before the TD I used the car for a Oxford Motor Club Autosolo event at Silverstone. The little car did really well as it was 'Double Driven' by Katie Foreman, Doug's daughter. I just lost first place in the 'Historic' class by a second or two to a lovely prepared Mini (Cocked up my last test by wrong slotting) and managed to beat Katie by 0.3sec! She did very well considering she had not driven a GT6 since driving 'Bob' her father's red mk3 a couple of years ago-this was all a bit annoying actually-I think she would almost certainly beat me next time if she uses the car. 

The next event that I think I will use the car for is the La Carerra Caledonia, Jim McGuiness' superb Touring event in Scotland set for the first weekend of June. Loads of Club Triumph members are going up for the event, so it should be a good giggle. Good roads, good company and a few drinks in the evening-sounds good eh! Otherwise I will use the car for the Club Triumph Autosolo that is set for 19th July, this is shaping up into a superb event, I hope we manage to get 40 cars taking part. Could be some serious needle as many within the Club fancy themselves as good drivers and this will be the first time that CT has offered a competitive event in nearly 30 years and therefore given members the chance to compete amongst themselves! I am confident that GT6s will come near the top as they are so suitable for this discipline owing to their small size, the ease of placing them and the torquey nature of the six-cylinder engine. 

1969 2.5Pi Mk1: 

Bought this old car in 2004 from a chap called Andy Topp in Dorset. What a fantastic car, Andy had looked after her, all the work that he had done was of a high standard. However as I have done some serious motoring in the big car I have had to replace the diff and gearbox. She has a 28% J type overdrive that coupled with 15'' wheels and 65 profile tyres results in 27/1000rpm in o/d top. This enables the old beast to eat the mileage up making the car very suitable for long distance motoring. The car should be fitted with Lucas Petrol Injection, however when I bought her she had a set of SU HS6 carbs from a 2500S model fitted. I have all the old injection kit, but am hesitant to fit at present as the car is so reliable. I may have to embark on a engine re-build soon so will think about fitting the PI kit then? Otherwise the only mods apart from a bit of suspension work has been the addition of alloy body panels: Doorskins and bonnet. This work was done last year by a company run by my mate Steve Waddingham, and what a superb job, best thing that can be said is that these panels which were hand formed are indistinguishable from the old steel panels. They also stamped some louvres into the bonnet to give the car a nice ex-works touch. This has proved to be a valuable cooling aid, knocking the engine temp down by 5 degrees C. Again the car is fitted with Revolution wheels which do set the car off nicely. The last use for the car was the Club Triumph Historic County Run, unfortunately the nearside wheelbearing failed, this resulted in a 6 hour trip home on the back of a car transporter! Apols. to co-driver and fellow grey mk1 owner James Carruthers for this-shockingly poor maintenance! The next major use for the car is the Club Triumph 10 Countries Run in September, CT Mate Dave Kent is accompanying me, just hope the car is ok as we will be heading to Andorra-bloomin' long way or what! 

1962 Herald Coupe: 

Bought this little car in 2006 and have only driven her 31 miles. I have great plans for this car, I have already re-built the suspension and brakes and fitted a 3.63:1 diff. The next work is to fit a J type o/d gearbox and a racy engine. Other mods are the fitment of some nice 5.5J solid Dunlop wheels that I have just bought from CT Member Clive Senior, these wheels are now ultra rare and I think a nice period touch. I suspect they will not be much good from the aspect of allowing cool air to hit the brakes, but hey, style over substance! I also bought a full cage from renowned Herald racer Kevin Hadfield, this will be fitted when I have the bodywork tidied up by the aforementioned Karl Dandridge later this year. At present I am awaiting my cylinder head back from Roy Burrell Engineering in Coventry, once back I have to source some clutch parts and then it will be all steam ahead to get the car running. Once back on the road I will use her for some of the events that the GT6 is used for, possibly the RBRR next year? 

1977 Dolomite Sprint: 

Umm, not too good this one. Bought in 1994 and hardly used since. I must get stuck into this car next year, a good reason to finish off the Herald! No real plans at present, but one or two thoughts tat are to probably to turn her into a Track day vehicle as these cars are so suitable for track work once the brakes are sorted. Nice predictable handling, but would it be as good as the 2.5? Trouble with old Triumph motor cars is that they represent relatively good value for money (Apart from TR5s) making it too easy to suddenly end up with a collection. I have many friends within CT who have at least two of them, and as is the way, many have one on the road plus one in the garage being finished and another squirreled away ready to be started on once time is available. This a terrible situation that causes nothing but stress and angst. People only have to mention the words Dolomite Sprint to me and I start to feel terribly guilty, I have this fear of going to the lock up that the car is in and finding a pile of sandglow coloured dust,not good for the constitution!