Catch up!

Just a quick one!

Did another 'Autosolo' last weekend, took part in the Sevenoaks District Motor Club event at North Weald Aerodrome near Epping in Essex. I was entered in the 'Historic' class alomng with fellow CT'ists: Katie Foreman (Herald 13/60), Clive Senior (Toledo), Mike Helm (Spitfire 1500) and Mike Bishop (Herald 1200). I came first out of the Triumph cars and 2nd in class, beaten by a Ford Escort RS2000. Luckily a Austin Healey Sprite fitted with a powerful 1900 Ford Zetec engine acheived FTD and was therefore moved out of class! Must admit that I was pleased, however I think I would have come third if Mike Helm had not had to go and get some welding sorted and therefore did not do all the tests. He's a real bandit, and bloody fast!

This event was different in that the Cones were not numbered, I was apprehensive about this, but in fact found it to be ok. We all taped the route diagram to our dashboards in case of problems. I only made one mistake, that being the first attempt of the 4th Test, as one's best two times count I was ok as my two other attempts went well. This event was definitely the fastest one I have done and very enjoyable. Must say though that I thought the previous w'ends Club Triumph event was better organised. The best thing about the 7oaks event was that we did not have to Marshal, time was therefore spent drinking tea, swatting wasps (Or not eh, Clive) chatting and bull*hitting! Doug Foreman was his new chatty self, and Katie seemed to be thinking its time for more power-easy answer and its spelt 'GT6'! Mike Bishop is getting bloomin' quick as well. Umm, thank the Lord for 6 cyls and 2000cc!

The little car did very well, once again the exhaust started to blow at the collector joint after the manifold. Really fed up with this as these exhausts cost so much money and one cannot get a decent seal. Last night was spent sorting this problem as I hope to take the car to Cornwall for a couple of days tomorrow. Otherwise the car is going very well, no other issues to talk about. Not sure what to do with her next, keep as she is or maybe lower the gearing to make her into a more competitive Autosolo car. This will involve changing the diff for either a LSD unit with either 3.89:1 or 4.11:1 ratio. I still have not fitted the Wilwood brake calipers to the car, this will happen soon.

However I must think about the 10CR and getting the 2.5 ready-next w'end? Saturday will spent at Curborough where my mate Mike is sprinting his Mini, have'nt been there since 1984! Jeez, time is flying!

Right Cornwall, here I come!

Club Triumph Competition Committee

I do hope people reading this do not mind me writing about the above Committee.

I think it is important to remember that Club Triumph is not a 'Classic' Car Club, but the original Triumph Motor Club owing to its 50s origin. By stating this I have nothing against 'Classics' but I think the terms 'Motor Club' or Car Club' portray the Club's history. The Club used to organise a wide range of events such as tours, autotests for new owners of Triumph cars, however by the late 70s membership was dropping off. The 'Classic car culture that sprung up at that time boosted interest in Triumph cars, membership starting to pick resulting in the membership of 1475 we presently enjoy. CT always had a problem in that it used to organise the biennial RBRR but for driving events more or less become dormant in between, thankfully the Club had the Show scene available to show its prescence.(Please note that the above comments are mine, not the Club's and certainly not the Club's policy).

This situation was relieved in 2003 by the first running of the 10 Countries Run, as conceived by Martin Randle. The other great tool in bringing together the membership is this website and its superb forum, making it easy to tap into the enthusiasm of the membership of make things happen-nice one, Mr Bennett!

Therefore in 2005 we formed the Comp. Ctte. and since then have produced some decent events, managed to get together a calendar of events that CT members can take part in and recently inaugurated four Championships. All of this hoping to make it exciting to be in the Club and of course further the use of Triumph cars either competitively or just getting them onto the road. The help of organisations such as Bedford Car Club, MG on Track, Caledonian Historic Motorsport Club and NESCRO must be acknowledged as they have been very willing to let our Members take part in their events, often making it unecessary to join their organisations. I do hope that this does not get read as self congratulatory, we are fully aware that we have lots of work to do to keep up the interest in Triumph cars and of course most importantly create or maintain events that the membership of CT can take part in and enjoy.

The aim of this Ctte is to provide cheap motorsport for the members of the Club to take part in. The Ctte will never be able to organise races or stage rallies, but we see no reason why we cannot organise fun events at the small budget end of motorsport culture. Talking with Dale Barker and Martin Randle, I think the CT Competition Committee have a few more exciting events planned over the next few years, information will be forthcoming as soon as finalised. This Committee is an imaginative bunch and whilst some of our ideas are a bit whacky the ones we run with are sure to offer a good time for CT members.

We have just held the first of what is hoped to become an annual event, the Club Triumph Autosolo and we managed to get 33 entrants together, this being far more than we expected. All CT members taking part seemed to be having a good time, whatever car they were using and however they were doing all were smiling throughout the day, not bad considering the awful weather we enjoyed. Top 3 results were:

1st. Mike Helm: TR6

2nd. Nigel Abdullah: Herald 1200 (Using Dale Barker's Herald)

3rd. Andy Martin: Vitesse 1600 (Ex Monte Carlo Rally car)

Their cars are shown below. Amazing pic of Andy's Vitesse eh!!

After the Autosolo, we have the first 12 Car Rally that the Club has organised taking part in Essex in August. New Ctte. Member Mike Banks has sorted this out, the attention to detail and planning he has done is top notch and again we are sure the event will be both challenging but fun.

Right, end of my sermon.

However, please get involved as driving cars is fun!!

Blimey, 2 useable Triumphs!

After an afternoon and early mornings work on the GT6 the longer driveshafts are now fitted to the car. As this involved stripping the rear suspension off the car, this meant dis-connecting the rear brakes. My old mate Diz popped over and pumped the pedal whilst I bleed the brakes. Alot of enthusiasts use 'Ezzi Bleeed' kits, personally I do not get on with these as I find it difficult to get a seal at the lid of the master cylinder. Therefore I have always used simple little bleeding pipes that have a one way valve fitted, these being available in motor factors for not much money. In fact they are so cheap that I have four of them are used in conjunction with small water bottles that have drilled caps with the pipe pushed through, makes it tidy for when they fall over as fluid does not get everywhere. So with one attached to each brake bleed nipple., its an easy job to whizz around and get a pedal, something like 15 mins.

So that was it the car is ready for next Sunday! After years of stripping and re-building rotoflex suspension and fighting gainst the distortion bought about by the rotoflex couplings its a joy to work with the CV suspension. The only sticking part is the attachment of the inner CV pot to the diff output shafts as getting the 3/8unf nylocs onto the studs is a bit fiddly. As usual the car exhibited positive camber whilst up in the air, however a reverse out of the garage and back in soon had the suspension sitting at the correct level, surprisingly enough it seems to be showing 1 - 2 degrees of negative camber now, weird as the longer shafts should not be at the end of the splines within the CV pots?

Its great to have the car back in use after its short time off the road. I mentioned last time that rot is starting to break out again, this is very apparent in the bonnet and the tailgate. Also badly affected is the return panel in the boot, this being badly holed especially in the area by the exhaust silencer box. Once the summer is over I will be taking the car to one of my mates houses as he has kindly agreed to let me leave the car in his dry garage. This means that the Herald can go into my garage. I think I am going to cost out how much it will cost to build a new double garage, luckily I will be able to buy all the materials very cheaply through work.

Right, next week I will be using the car in the Club Triumph Autosolo, I have also offered the use of the car to James Carruthers for this event. James is a tidy and smooth driver so it will be interesting to see how we compare, last time I did this I only managed to beat Katie Foreman using my car by 0.3secs over the day, I hope I can do better against James?

Found this photo of my car taking part in a TR Register Track Day back in 2004 at Mallory Park, really like it as the car looks to be going fast owing to the slight distortion, pretty little car eh!

This one is from the 2000 RBRR and is of my old mate Richard Arthers looking remarkably happy after 36 hours in the car!

Spanner time!

Been working on both the GT6 and the 2.5. GT6 to get ready for next weekends CT Autosolo and the saloon for last weekends CT National Day at Beaulieu.

I replaced the TCAs for the saloon, of course this was not easy as both the bushed joint was rusted solid on both arms and the drag strut to TCA joints were both rusted up. As speed was of the essence I bought re-con'd arms from James Paddock and bought a pair of secondhand drag struts from Canleys. This meant that I went up to Dave's to pick them up as well as the new longer CV driveshafts for the GT6. As I got there late in the afternoon we decided that a pint would be in order, so I popped down to The Manor in Fillongley with Dave and Joe Welling. Talking with them both, it looks like Canleys are about to enter another period of exciting new products for both small chassis'd, TR and big Saloon Triumph cars. I cannot divulge too much, but one or two saloon boys will be spending some money with Dave in September!

Anyrate back to the saloon, Saturday was spent sorting the front suspension out, I took the front subframe off the car and cleaned that up, re-fitted the frame, fitted the new TCAs and drag struts and then fitted the hubs etc. Followed by a good wash of the car it was soon time to get inside as darkness had descended! I enjoyed the day apart from the humidity. Only pig job being the fitting of the ARB links, these being the ball joint type as sold by Paddocks, I ended up having to drop the arb to get the link into place. Must say I did not find much difference with this better locating system, maybe its time to think about a different mounting and link them directly to the TCA. The car does roll, however I am loathe to fit a bigger diameter arb as I do not want any more understeer.

The next jobs to do to the car before the impending September CT 10CR are to get some localised welding to the sills of the car done to enable a MOT ticket to be obtained and change some UJs. Also of course I must change the cylinder head for the 2.5s unit I have.

Pic. showing the ARB link. I wonder how long it will last?

On the Sunday it was the CT National at Beaulieu in the New Forest. After talking to Doug Foreman during the week before the National, I offered to go and get the big fella from Ringmer, picking him up at 08.00. After an eventful drive we arrived at the National in a mega rainstorm making my fear of every CT National as a wet disaster seeming very probable. Anyrate it did not rain again, in fact many of us left the establishment looking a bit pink, especially Pete Fern and Alex Chandler, must be their ginger colouring? Besides is a pic of Mark Bland's fantastic 2000mk1, great the way mk1s are becoming so appreciated-Triumph's best?

It was great to see many old friends at the National. Good to see Doug and Mary Crutchfield in their glorious TR2, which got voted 'Car of the Day' following the submission of voting slips by nearly all present. Must say I was disapointed not to receive one vote for the 2.5, come on, open your peelers and see the quality of this car! Doug and Mary's TR2 won this award back in 2005, what is great about this car is that it is used, in fact I spent some time with them on the first 10CR in 2003. Last time I saw them was at last years Classic Le Mans, they were in Doug's gorgeous Morgan V8, they are always very welcoming and always good fun, some of Doug's observations are priceless and boy oh boy can he build a car!!

Also heartwarming was the reaction that Doug Foreman received from many who have not seen him since his M25 incident in March. The obvious fondness and greetings that he received from so many CT friends at the National emphasise the fact that he is a a popular sod! Doug's a strong old bugger, his injuries would have put paid to many a person, to see him walking around and obviously enjoying himself was terrific!

I always enjoy the CT National, it is not as big a day as the TR Reg or TSSC events, but it def. has a certain laid back charm, where the vibe seems to be have a chat, a cuppa and chill out talking about one's old car-seems ok to me! Club Triumph, the Club that likes to chat-dammed right!

On the way to Beaulieu we had passed a massive queue of cars on the A27/M27 attempting to get into the Goodwood Festival of Speed, as we seemed to have a ready made audience on the other side of the road I enjoyed giving the 2.5 some revs and letting the exhaust do the talking-fun if very childish!

I got in for about 19.00hrs after dropping Doug back at home, pleased in the fact that my work on the 2.5 had been successful and the car was definitely better than when I brought her back from Scotland following the LCC in June.

Above are the Vitesse of Nick Jones and 2000 of Chris Allen, both cars completed the last RBRR in October of 2008. I really like Chris' 2000, he uses it alot and the car has more or less converted Chris from being a Herald man to a big saloon man! As for Nick's Vitesse, I doubt if there is a more advanced Vitesse in the UK, the car features a Toyota gearbox, megajolt ignition and Nick's scratchbuilt single throttle body fuel injection. A superb car that will be going to Europe for the September 10CR. Also lurking in the background is Alex Chandler's 2000 mk1, a car that is coming on leaps and bounds, keep going Alex!

The snap below shows Carl Shakespeare's superb Dolly Sprint, this car also completed the last RBRR and is another example of a well executed rebuild where the owner is not scared to get out and use the car. I must get Carl to take me out for a spin in her sometime.

Right time to discuss the GT6, as mentioned previously the car did not get to Brands Hatch for the MGoT track evening as one of the driveshafts popped out. Well I stripped the rear suspension down on Thursday evening and have now got both suspension units ready to put back into the car after fitting longer shafts to the CV pots. Getting the old shafts out of the inboard pots was a bas*ard, ending up have to use some angle iron as a drift. Anyrate they are all back together and ready to go back in, one unit is in situ being held in with drifts at present as the picture testifys! Excuse the mess, but I slung everything back in under the car after finishing this evening. As can be seen my garage is a precast concrete type, this is hastening the departure from the world of the old car. In the 1.5 years I have left her in there she has taken on some serious rust owing to the way that concrete sweats. Once I have managed to save up some money I'd love to build a timber framed garage, however this could be some time as any spare dough seems to go back into the cars! I hope to have the car back on the road tomorrow night and will road test her on Sunday morning, cannot wait! Oh yes its the CT Autosolo a week on Sunday-fantastic!

At present I feel I have not done myself justice as my cars seem to be unreliable at present, the main reasons being complacency, lack of time and apathy! Spread too thin, umm!

Right too bed and then get up and meet some old friends for breakfast at a cafe, the three guys being friends of mine who I have known for 27 years and all having owned Triumphs at some point-TR6, Vitesse, 2.5Pi estate and Heralds. Might take the 2.5?