It was never gonna turn out bad, and it did'nt!

Sitting here at the PC when I should be out in the garage, however it’s a tadge parky for any spanner action!

Having got the GT6 back from Dave Picton’s establishment I am overjoyed by the work that he and his team have done. However this has had one major downside, the engine bay now looks crap! With this in mind I have stripped out the engine bay valances down all the wiring and cleaned the cables with whites spirits and will bind them using expandable braided sleeving. At present a lot of the bullet connectors for that connect the bonnet wiring are those awful insulated blue bullets, once I can afford the proper crimping tool, I will replace those with the correct OE bullet connectors.

For many years the car has had alloy engine bay valances, these are now in an awful state, so I will clean these down and paint to attempt to make them more presentable. On the subject of engine bay valances, I see that a chap on e-bay sells new units that look to be very good. Two types are available, one set with louvres and one set without, both sets look very jazzy and at £60 a set not a bad price! One or two GT6 owning friends think I should not fit the valances as they deflect the heat from the engine and radiator into the gearbox tunnel and then of course into the cockpit, I can see the logic of this argument, but the majority of the heat that enters comes from the exhaust so I will continue to use the valances as they do keep the engine bay cleaner.

I have now stripped down the front suspension units that I bought from Dave down, I will be taking these to my brother in laws powder coating establishment next weekend to get them painted. Hit a snag though as the OS lower wishbone is not useable, but as usual the CT jungle drums have resolved that problem and Clive Senior will let me have one, ta, Clive! Once back from being painted, they will be polybushed and put onto the car. The turrets I have will look good when painted, of course, the snag when fitting the OS turret is that the steering column has to be dismantled, still a good time to check over the steering system.

Once this has been done, I will turn my attention to the bulkhead area around the master cylinders, battery etc. This whole area looks very shabby and needs some serious attention from the spray can. So it’ll be out with the wire brush and get stuck in cleaning and then paint it, thinking about satin black or maybe grey. On the CT forum, I see lots of people rave about Por paint, I am not so sure and will probably go for rattle cans! Richard Brake has just told me that Halfords mix up Triumph colours, blimey!

Then, it is time to get stuck into the interior of the car. A layer of sound insulation needs to be fitted under the carpet and then I need to clean up the luggage bay side trim panels and fit them. Unfortunately the luggage boards were damaged in the accident, I have a new OS board for the petrol tank side so will cut and fit a 8mm mdf board over the spare wheel. These will be bolted to the long bridging bracket that fits between the wheelarches. Once done, I will re-fit the roll over bar.

The drive back from Dave’s place at Waltham Cross, was very instructive. I still have the rear end vibration, so I will have to tear down the rear suspension and get that looked at before June as I desperately want to take the car to Scotland for the IAE. However the car drove straightly and seemed so solid, this all bodes well for some fast road action!

One of the snags of driving the car back from Waltham Cross was that I spent a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror with the dread that some plum was going to hit the car up the arse again, gawd, I was nervous! The rear of the car has been hit twice in the last 3 years and I half expect to be going through the whole accident process again!

I have attached two photos that show the car as she now looks. I must admit that at present I am in two minds about the bumperless look that I opted for, I think it makes the car look like a mk1. However it will cost a fair bit to change back to the original look, this cost would include the new bumper, from what I have seen these are dead pricey, £200? Of course, one attribute to the lack of bumper is that I have got rid of some front end weight, little less understeer? I do like the stick on number plate and this will stay, of course this means no front bonnet badge, but hey, more weight saving!

Once this chunk of work has been done I will then just use the car!

Overall I am really pleased with the outcome of the accident shenanigans. I must use this space to publicly thank Dave Picton, he guided me though the repair process and I think has done a great job on the car. Of course, one could say that Dave (hopefully) made some money out of the job, but it was a risky job as the car was very badly damaged. As we both discussed, the car is well known within CT circles and does seem to have a degree of notoriety, therefore anything other than a great job will be sniffed at by some of the experts within the Club. One or two who have seen her think she looks better than ever and I must agree, check out the gaps! Therefore, I would not hesitate in recommending Dave and his business.

All I need now is some good weather to enable me to go out into the garage and get stuck in!

Here are a couple of pics of the Spittie!

Blimey, its all getting a tadge exciting!

Just spent two days over with Dave Picton working on the GT6, amazed at how little we managed to do!

Anyway, thought it might be an idea to record the various conditions of the 3 cars:

GT6 MK2
Well its mostly painted, the exterior side of the new bonnet gets done tomorrow morning. Dave and Corry (Dave's painter) have had to do a lot of shaping and bashing to get the new bonnet into the correct shape. In primer, it does look superb and once painted will look very nice. The body tub looks superb, the paint finish that they have acheived looks very nice. Dave built up two new doors and fitted new exterior sills, by doing this he has acheived very nice gaps around the crucial door/sill area, this aspect of the car has always been disappointing. Shockingly Dave found that the previous company to have done sill work to the car did'nt bother completely welding up the various panels around the A post part of the cars structure. I am furious about this, a nasty side impact would have meant the car would have folded up and meant damage to me around the leg area, nice eh! I will not state who did the work as that could be libellous, however the guy who did the work used to be a friend of mine!
Most of the car is now back together, just needing the rear indicators, sunroof, door weatherstrips, door cards, number plates and the front lights fitted. Dave will also 'waxoyl' the car before I take her home. I have just laid the carpets into the car and fitted the seats over these at pres. as I wish to lay some sound insulation material into the car.
The car looks superb just sitting on axle stands at Dave's premises, the royal blue paint looks nice and deep and has polished up very well. The small amounts of chrome on the car look really good, I reckon it will look better than at any other point that I have owned her in the last 28 years!

When home I intend to strip down the front and rear suspension. I have just bought some GT6 front suspension units from Dave. These will be cleaned and powder coated, polybushed and installed. I will also take apart the rear suspension and re-bush that set up. As the CV shafts were one of the first Canley Classics units I will take these up to Dave Pearson (So many Daves in the Triumph world) and get those examined.

Spitfire mk2
I am slowly (Umm, that's a total understatement, 'shockingly slowly' is more apt) working through the new engine installation. I just need to bolt on all the ancillaries and source a few parts: bigger rad, pacet electric fan, water pump, air filter system. Also on for fitting 480lb front springs, need to get the car to handle better!

2.5Pi mk1 (SU)
This old cars just keeps going, however will need some localised repair welding works for the next MOT. Also the overdrive is playing up, I have a spare solenoid to try first, so will fit this after that? Still love driving the old car, getting on for 8 years of ownership now, ownership of the car been a total gas!

I should post some pics of the cars, will do when I remember to charge up the batteries for the camera!

Finally, the Focus ST has now done 127,000 miles, still going strong!

Another one nearly gone!

Been thinking about this year and all in all its not been a bad year.

Obviously the biggest disaster was the smash up of the GT6. Dave Picton is now finishing the car, and is making a great job of her, it will definitely be better. I hope to see the car on the 28th.

Probably the worse moment was seeing all the CT crews start off for the 10CR, the first one I have missed and from what I have observed, the best one. Finance issues (GT6 repair money) meaning that I could not afford to go. Talking with Dave Kent who is my 10CR co-driver we will def. be on the next one.

The Little Spitfire goes from strength to strength and once I have the new engine running I look forward to driving that car, should be a giggle.

My Triumph plans for 2012 obviously include the RBRR. I will also take part in the HCR, hopefully with Doug and Katie again, I had a great time last time with them-laughing is so good for you! Then up to Scotland for the IAE, I hope to take the GT6 and really give it a go to win. Mike and Matt Helm have won the last two, time for a change! I will also take part in the CT Autosolo mini series using the Spittie. No money for a LSD this year, but I will look at other ways of making the car competitive-lightness? Of course as many have realised, honing one's driving always helps!!!

So far this Xmas the best thing was watching TOTP2 on BBC2 the other night. Simple reason for this was watching the retrieved footage of David Bowie performing 'The Jean Genie', a wonderment considering the tepid footage that TOTP has provided over the years. There has been a lot of interest in this Bowie performance on the news and within the press. What was really marked about the TOTP programme was how rubbish all the so called current music of today looked in comparison to Bowie (Mark Radcliffe who was doing the voice over, stated that the footage had 'Raw Power'- spot on Mark and a nice Iggy Pop link), the most derisible being the Maria Carey/Justin Beiber film they showed, excrement or what-Maria is so sexy-er yes she is if you are into synthetic baby dolls who look like they have had a bit of surgery. Talking of so called 'Singers', here's one who was talented-Amy Winehouse was shown from 2006 dueting with Paul Weller, total class and very sexy-Amy that is!

We could really do with some new product from Mr Bowie at present! Want some good music from 2011??-PJ Harvey's record 'Let England Shake', The Horrors 'Skying' (How good is that, all a bit shocking an English band (other than Radiohead), that actually has some 'space' within the music) and Magazine's 'No thyself'.

Biggest downer of the year, simple, the so called 'Riots'. That was'nt rioting, that was just violence and shoplifting, shame on those who took part. I hope that the people who did this act look at what is happening in places like Egypt and feel ashamed when they see what is like to be really downtrodden.

Also, how nice to see the Murdoch empire getting some severe grief at present, after years of The Sun and 'giving the people what they want', its brilliant to see how corrupt an organisation it seems-take them down! Does anyone miss 'The News of the World'?

So 2011, yeah not that bad!

Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run and all that! Part One

On the eve of the RBRR announcement within the November edition of Club Triumph's bi-monthly magazine 'Club Torque' I thought it would be good to describe my antics on the 7no RBRR events that I have taken part in since 1998.

To say that the RBRR has been life changing is an understatement, through taking part I have met some of the nicest and most interesting people, many have gone on to become very good friends. Since 2004 I have been the main organiser of the event, a role that I feel honoured to undertake for Club Triumph. When entering in 2000 I mentioned to Derek Pollock, for years the main man behind the event that if he needed help I would be pleased to help, from this it was decided that I would help out in 2002 with a view to taking on the main role in 2004. Blimey, from this small acorn I become Club Triumph's Secretary in 2005, another role that I feel honoured to do. Now, I can say that CT and the RBRR have dominated my private life!

We expect the magazine which will contain the Announcement, Entry Form and event description to dropping through doorsteps this weekend. By writing about my experiences I hope to encourage some reading this to attempt an event that I consider to be the best on offer to Triumph car owners throughout the world.

1998
I entered this my first RBRR at a late stage, the RBRR was not so popular in those days and one could enter right up to 2 weeks before the start. I managed to rope my good mate Diz Stoner in as a co-driver and started planning for the event, the first part being to attend the Drivers Meeting at The Plough pub in Crews Hill. This was an eye opener, especially getting to meet some of the regular RBRR entrants, many seeming to be very friendly one or two seeming to be a bit weird (this has not changed!!!!).
Come the event I had done a fair amount of preparation work to my GT6, the only concern being that the temperature gauge seemed to read that the car was running very hot, this proving to be bogus. Getting to the start was fun as the bottom hose started to weep (good prep eh!), luckily Six Spares (I wonder how Bill Livingstone is these days) used to be around then so a quick diversion was made to Twickenham to buy a set of hoses and then onto the start. On arrival the Car Park and Signing-In office all looked to be fun, a heady mix of good cheer and panic, something that is on show at every RBRR.
Leaving The Plough we got into the swing of the event and soon reached Blyth Services, driving into the services to be met with most of the entry already there, many cars did seem to have their bonnets up, a few up in the air with legs dangling out on the tarmac surface!
We signed in and got going both agreeing that the set speed limit should be 70mph, no need to speed as the event was a 'Reliability Run'. In life one has a few moments that can change the course of how its all going and I encountered one of those just as we went past the cooling towers beside the A1 at I think Wetherby. In the rear view mirror I became aware of the some yellow headlights with many a set of dim Lucas headlights tailing behind. This being a yellow a TR3A driven by Andy Flexney, he was being pursued by 5 or 6 big Saloons all doing speeds considerably higher that our paltry 70mph. This was a wonderful sight and sound, the exhausts of the cars echoing that marvellous noise that old cars especially six cylinder cars make at about 4000rpm, to say that I was entranced is an understatement and to show that a GT6 could match this speed we joined in, bloody good fun! Diz reminded me that the event was a Reliability Run and if we were not careful we would have problems, so I backed off at Scotch Corner.
The rest of the event was great fun, the car going well and no real issues apart from the need to replenish the oil every so often, I had rebuilt the engine back in 1991 and she was starting to use oil.
I recently read on the CT forum some advice given by Darren Sharp in that one should be careful in who they choose to be a Co-Driver, my 1998 experiences underline that fact. Diz is one of my best mates, we have been friends since 1983, he has owned two Triumph cars, a mk3 GT6 and a TR6, yet we fell out on the event. At a RBRR control we went our seperate ways for 15mins to reduce the tension that had been building for sometime and all was good after that, but it just goes to show how one should be careful about the choice of co-driver, probably the most important part of the planning before the event. Diz admitted after the event that he had not enjoyed the experience and would not attempt the RBRR again, he remains to this day one of my best friends and a real buddy, however the RBRR did test our friendship. I think this also cured him of a like for old cars, since then he seems to have bought moderns!
By the far the best aspects of the event were the scenery, the roads that we used and the biggest factor the camaderie amongst all crews, fantastic stuff!
So the 1998 RBRR was a real eye opener and considering the fact that before the event I was only going to do one RBRR I realised that I was hooked!. As soon as the event was over I was ready for the next one in 2000, the only downer being the 2 year interval!

1998 Control list
Blyth Services, A1
Bishops Garage, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
BP Garage, Perth
Thrumster Garage
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Macrae and Dick Garage, Inverness
Morrisons Garage, Stirling
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
Honda Garage, Dorchester
Fleet Services,M3

Total Mileage 1920.


2000
As soon as the 2000 form came out I got my entry in fearing that an event that was so good would be quickly oversubscribed, strangely to my way of thinking not the case!
Once again, I was using the GT6 (At this point I only owned one road going Triumph) and for this one I had roped in another old friend Richard Arthers, another of my old mates who had Triumph experience having owned a mk1 Vitesse and a mk2 saloon.
The Drivers Meeting was attended and apart from a few Control changes and that the we were going to Wales, the event looked similar. By going to Wales, M5 use was reduced, for sure the worse part of the 1998 event.
Yet again, the start atmosphere was superb, in fact the whole event was brilliant and I found it much easier than the 1998 run, obviously down to the fact that I knew what to expect and we had prepared to a better standard.
Mechanically the only bad aspect of the RBRR was that we lost overdrive, later found to be a worn out inhibitor switch. The event was again dominated by big saloons dashing past quaking the GT6 in their wake, again impressive. We had pulled over in a lay-by on the Forest of Dean section, but found sleep was impossible as it seemed that most of the Triumphs were being knocked down a gear to increase the noise and wake us up, this is obviously not the case, but it felt so at the time! It must be pointed out that a good 15 min kip does wonders when the old eyes are shutting!
Best parts of the event were definately seeing 60 or so Triumph cars being used, the roads being dominated by the cars. I cannot describe how good this is to see, usually the only time one sees lots of them together is parked in a field, simply put, cars are meant to be used!

Controls
Blyth Services A1
Bishops Garage, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
BP Garage, Perth
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge
Morrison's Garage, Stirling
Oswestry Services, A5
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
Dartmoor Lodge, Ashburton
Fleet Services, M3

Total mileage 1906.


2002
For this my 3rd RBRR I teamed up again with my old mate Richard, as previously done using the GT6. The whole event was once again superb, the car went very well and apart from the addtion of some fluids nothing was done to her. The driving was as usual spirited,especially in Scotland and Wales. Entry was larger than previous years, it seemed that many were starting to realise what a top event the RBRR is for Triumph cars.
Once again the event went through a nice section of Wales, using the glorious A466 from Monmouth to Chepstow.
Mention should be made of possibly two of the UKs best roads that has featured in nearly all the RBRRs, these are the B871 and the A836. Long sections of these are single tracked and one can see for some distance making it possible for one to get a good lick of speed up, its like driving a rally stage!!!! The drive along this road was memorable as I was harried by James Elliott and co. of Classic and Sportscar in his mk1 Pi, they made mincemeat of us.
Richard did a great job driving the GT6, in fact he drove more than me, I really enjoy being driven in my cars by someone who knows what they are doing. The GT6 really is a great car for the RBRR, its small and compact yet has gearing that makes long distance driving a piece of cake. Richard was at this time a really good driver and within the first 500 miles was handling the car with aplomb. One of the overlooked aspects of the RBRR is that one really does get so in tune with the car, its ironic that maybe some of the roads at the end are not as good was those encountered in Scotland, just as one can really drive the car the road quality peters out!

The 2002 event was entered by Martin Randle using his white TR7 after completing the event in 2000 in his mk1 Vitesse. He came to the conclusion that it was sad that we had to wait for 2 years for the next RBRR so came up with the basis of an event that morphed into the 10 Countries Run.

Controls
Same as 2000


Total mileage less at 1899?


2004

Umm, a new co driver as Richard by this time had buggered off to Australia, so I managed to press gang a mate from work called Howard Riddell. Howard grew up driving Minis and Morris Minors so I felt he would be cool behind the wheel of the GT6. This he was, however as being a bit larger than me at 6ft 1in tall he did struggle, GT6s are really made for those of 5ft 8in and weighing 11 stone! Yet again the big saloon was dominating the event, however my GT6 seemed ok and it seemed that a number of other GT6 owners had decided to join the fray!
This was my first RBRR as the main man and boy did it seem different, the whole event being a bit nerve wracking. I can't really remember any of the driving other than the GT6 did very well. We had a number of new controls at Avon Heathh Country Park in Dorset and the race circuit at Goodwood. To get to Goodwood we used the old A30 from Salisbury to Stockbridge and beyond before dropping down to Winchester and taking the A272 towards Petersfield and the B2141 to Lavant. These roads were great and gave a last thrill before the end something I felt missing from the RBRR. However of course we then had to endure more of the M25, still a traffic jam is a great place to get some kip!
At this time I had bought the 2.5 so was well aware how cool and suitable for the RBRR that car would be, still can a saloon keep up with a well driven GT6, umm, the answer is probably yes!


Controls
Blythe Services, A1
Bishops Garage, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
Inveralmond Services, Perth
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge
Morrison's Garage, Stirling
Oswestry Services, A5
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
Dartmoor Lodge, Ashburton
Avon Heath Country Park, Ferndown
Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit

Total mileage 1931

2006

Blimey I think I was starting to get the hang of this event. Basically get some sleep before the event and use a car that has been well used before, in the words of many a fool, simple stuff! Er no, the GT6 did not behave very well. the rocker gear was showing alot of wear and needed constant adjustment during the event, as the engine was always warm it was a bugger of a job, but hey hey we finished!
I'd roped my younger sister Judy in as my co driver, however as she had young kids at this point she was not sleeping that well and seemed to spend the whole event asleep! Judy being a respectful type was very concerned about how she drove the car, I told her not to worry she could rag the arse of the thing, she did not need a second invite! My main memory of the event was seeing Dave Langrick chatting her up at one of the stops: David, she is a married woman!!!
Yet again the RBRR proved to be a top event and Judy told me weeks later that she thoroughly enjoyed the event, this was marvellous as my family had started to worry about my urge to undertake the RBRR every two years, at last a family ally!
By this time we had started to use the Pimperne stop that was run by the Southern group of the Club and jeez did they do us proud, the cakes were superb. In fact, looking at a few of the CT regulars I am now worried about this as many seem to have carried on eating the cakes and are starting to show the results of this activity!
The biggest shame about the 2006 event was that we could not use Bishops Garage in Corbridge, the event had out grown this atmospheric place, a real pity. To make up for this we managed to get the owner of the pub next door to Bishops to use his car park. This was fine apart from the fact that the owner was celebrating his Birthday on the Fridaynight of the run, something he forgot to tell me and decided to go out on the drink, by the time we all rocked up he was shall we say inebriated, not a help! Anyway no one seemed to notice, however yet again we did block the whole road up again!!!
All in all a good event and some valuable lessons were learnt about organising an event such as the RBRR.


2006 Controls
Blyth Services A1
The Angel Inn, Corbridge
Edinburgh Airport
Seaview Hotel, John O'Groats
Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge
Morrison's Garage. Stirling
Lancaster Services, M6
Gledrid Services,Chirk, near Oswestry
Gordano Services, M5
Lands End Hotel, Lands End
The Dartmoor Lodge, Ashburton
Pimperne Village Hall, Pimperne, near Blandford Forum
Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit

Total Mileage 1965

Part two in a day or so.

Sometime since I last blogged, so as sitting at home recovering from a minor operation I thought I'd better type something!

The GT6 is at Dave Picton's establishment being repaired following the June incident. My word this whole episode has been an eye opener, no more driving of the old cars unless covered by an agreed value policy! Dave Picton was very helpful and helped to get my insurers to agree to a higher value than originally offered, however the salvage percentage of 30% was a bit strong.

Anyway enough of the boring stuff, the car has been nearly fully rebuilt, as well as the rear panels and wings and new bonnet the car has now received rebuilt doors and new outer sills in an attempt to tidy up the poor gaps that existed at the door/sill area of the car. I cannot state who did the previous work on the car in 2005 as the work they did was at the best poor, at the worse dangerous, some of the A panel works not actually being welded together!!! Dave has made this all good and the car will look better than before, probably ride better as well!!!

The car will feature a new bonnet from Fitchetts, after talks with Dave I decided it would be nice to do a similar mod that he has done to his mk2, that being changing the hinge design to attempt to make the car look sleeker. This will result in the car not having a front bumper, in my opinion this will make the car look better balanced as I took off the rear bumpers fitted to the car in 1984!

When I have the car back I intend to fully rebuild the front suspension, this will include refurbishing the suspension turrets and wishbones. I last did this in 1989 (!) and must admit I have been surprised how well the wishbone bushes have lasted, I used Triumph Tune Shore 90 rubber bushes, when I last looked they seemed fine. I will replace those with Superflex items.

Then its time to tear down the rear suspension, and clean that all up and maybe look to improve the interior of the car, fit a decent carpet set etc.

For the recent CT Historic Autosolo at Bovingdon I was forced to use the 2.5 and she did me proud. I won the Triumph saloon Class C, beating Steve Radley in his similar car. I was doing very well up until lunchtime, however the afternoon tests seemed a bit more intricate. Steve would have beaten me had we done a 5th and 6th Test.

I have just fitted a new head to that car, Roy Burrell cleaning up a 2500S head that I bought years ago from Andy Pearce, his porting work looks excellent. I made a mistake and supplied him with the wrong info concerning the compression ratio, so I will have to take the head off the car and get him to skim it a bit more to acheive the correct ratio of 9.5:1. However with this head in its incorrect staet the car does feel livelier, what a car it is!

I used her for the recent Oxford MC Autosolo at a Silverstone car park, however I did not do that well, coming 6th out of 7 in the Historic class. Andy Martin winning in his Vitesse, Joe Welling in his rapidly improving Spitfire 1500 coming 2nd. I think it is fair to say that the Triumphs did well impressing many of the other competitors. I did encounter a problem with the servo as the seal for the vacum pipe failed, this was remedied on the day using insulation tape. As the car is fitted with a Lockheed type 8 remote servo I fear that sourcing a seal will not be easy.

The only recent snag being that I have had to change the starter motor, this being made very difficult by the 631 exhaust manifold on the car, in fact it was a pig of a job! Next up for the car is sorting out some of the corrosion that is starting to come through and also fit the door furniture that I lazily have not fitted since the bodywork was done in 2007!!!! Next years plans are simple, use her and take part in the RBRR in the car, if ever a car was made for the RBRR it is this one, its 27mph/1000 4th gear in overdrive making the event seem relatively easy!

I am presently fitting the revvy 1300 engine and gearbox into the Spitfire, the old engine and box have gone to Dave Picton as part payment for the GT6 works. I am not a fan of the 1500 engines and hope that the 1300 engine will be more suited to the intended use of the car. Talking of the cars intended use, this years plans have been scuppered by the GT6 accident. So next year will be hopefully busier and I will get to use her in a number of Autosolos. One event I will enter is a HERO event called the Throckmorton Challenge, this being an single venue event featuring a number of tests, 19no I think and 3 or 4 regularities. This will mean that I will need to purchase a Brantz Tripmeter, the International Pro 2 's' pro looking to be the one to buy. Talking to fellow CT member Alan Petit who is an experienced Historic Rally man this event looks like it could be fun, be good to enter a Triumph team!

On the hope that the economic situation in the UK may one day improve I would also like to use the Spittie for some sprint events in the next couple of years. As with everything in life, money is the governing factor!

In early September I attended the start of the CT 10CR at The Plough, some of the cars taking part looked superb and everyone taking part looked to be full of beans and excited! To say I was upset not to be taking part would be understatement, that event being the first major CT event that I have missed in 13 years. Ellis Stokes and his team seemed to have organised and found the perfect scope for this overseas event that offered both challenging driving and a nice bit of social fun. I will be on the event in 2013. Talking of Ellis, I see that he has seen the light and bought a semi complete mk1 saloon that will take the running gear of his 2500TC ('The Red Bus' as christened by Andy Pearce), that poor car at the end of its use.

Looking around at the Triumph culture in the UK, I see that TR5s are still commanding high prices. One for sale at present that has been sympathetically modified by a northern TR expert is on the market for £35,000, blimey!!! Reckon having 3 useable Triumph cars like mine is a better bet, at todays prices I think I would make £18- 20K for them? Also, it looks like GT6s are being hyped up in price, the front of 'Classics' magazine having a nice mk3 on its cover and stating within the mag. that values are going up to over £8,000 for a decent example. Blimey, where will it all end, probably when oil runs out, in fact will all cars devalue overnight?

On that sombre thought, I'll bugger off!

27 years!

Well, what can I say. My GT6 is presently a shorter vehicle than it was. Last Sunday on the way to drop Herald parts off at Richard Brakes house, whilst in traffic light queue in Brookwood, Surrey I was hit at I think about 30mph by a young girl in her 2 year old Fiesta. This pushed me into a BMW 3 series. The resulting carnage being a very badly damaged rump, damaged wings, bent boot floor and a mangled bonnet. No panel at the rear end is salvagable. The picture of the bonnet does'nt show the damage very well, both the inner arches are damaged and the NS inner arch has sprung away from the bonnet and the whole top panle has dents. Both wings are kinked and the door gaps have closed up. Luckily the roof line is ok, damage there would almost certainly make the accident unrepairable. After the accident all I could say was '27 Years'!

The irony of this accident being that I was thinking that the little car seemed at its best since I bought the car in late 1983 just moments before it happened.

To say I am gutted is an understatement, this week has been particulary trying. I have done so much in the little car, been all over Europe in her and driven roads all over the UK, the car is such an integral part of my life. A few friends have stated that they consider the car to be a proper Club Triumph car, a massive compliment and a statement I cherish, to show this point, no GT6 has done more RBRRs: 6no.

I had the car taken home after the prang and she is currently sitting in the garage looking awful. Dave Picton of Picton Sportscars is popping over later today to have a look at her and will then provide a quotation to fix the little car.

I must thank so many who have contacted me with kind words, so thanks to James, Dave, Dave, Jason, Craig, Alex, Dale, Ellis, Tom and Dave. Also, James Cooper, Richard and Hilary Brake who came out to make sure I was ok, all within minutes of the accident. They really helped and were very kind.

Obviously my concerns are that I can get her fixed. I must admit when fixed (?) I will be very wary of driving her, this whole experience has really brought it home to me how much I value the car and how much I would hate a 'total loss' situation. Many people have said, well its only a car! Er, no it is'nt, it's far more important to me than that. I imagine many reading this will understand that point of view.

I hope that many reading this do not think I am attempting to glorify the prang in some ghoulish manner, its just that many have requested information. This blog is mainly about my Triumph motoring, this is obviously a low point.

Here comes the weekend!

Umm, the last posting states 04/05/11, I overwrote a posting I had as a draft but decided was rubbish so wrote a new blurb. Therefore it should read 29/05/11.

Found this bit of Martin Randle (my co-driver for last year) and me in the GT6 from last year's event, car sounds good eh! (I think Mike Charlton filmed this footage-thanks Mike).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OCQep4L8Ws

Right oh, Scotland here we come!