I hate electronic ignition!

MKIII V8 shares car park with famous Spitfire.

We taxed the V8 for 6 months (the only car we own that we have to pay the rent on!) during the 'summer' and used it on and off up until the end of November. Nothing much to report on this year regarding work on the car as it went straight through the MOT after a rear wheel cylinder change, and was subsequently 100% reliable (or 110% as they say on X factor).

That was up until the week before I was due to bring it back into work and put it to bed for the winter. Pulling off the drive at home it suddenly died, and refused to start. I've isolated it to the ignition module in the distributor which I had problems with a couple of years ago. My experience with electronic ignitions of all types is not a happy one, they have proven to be one of the most unreliable areas of my Triumph driving history over the years. The V8 is the last car we own that still relies on the devils work to get a spark to the cylinders. I might investigate swapping the distributor for an earlier points & condenser P6 unit in an effort to improve reliability in the future. Meanwhile it sits in the garage at home in disgrace waiting for me to fix it which might take a while as I don't work on cars at home, ever!
cc

New pictures!

I am indebted to Ted Taylor for sending me a raft of new (new to me) pictures of BYE at the start of, and during the 1970 World Cup Rally.

Thanks Ted, that's all I needed to raise the enthusiasm levels and dust off the welding gear!

Everyday Atlas

Courier and Atlas towards the end of the summer (remember that?).

Since I put the oldest (roadworthy) Herald to bed in September I have gone back to using the Atlas as my everyday transport. All well and good for the first couple of months, but just recently the cold damp mornings are beginning to take there toll on my enthusiasm. Jumping into an ice box at 6am every morning and then suffering the hurricane force drafts, the terminally leaky windscreen seal, and a heater that's about as much use as a fart in a colander is getting me down. Don't get me wrong I still love my Atlas, but me thinks I need something more civilised back on the road during winters worst. Come back the Chicane all is forgiven!

Stafford 2009

TSSC Stafford 50th Aniversary of the Herald 2009

We thought it might be a good idea to get the oldest Herald (on the road!) up and running for this years TSSC Stafford 50 th anniversary of the launch of the Herald event.

Born on the 19th March 1959 and bearing chassis number 11 there can't be many cars earlier than this.

Bearing in mind it hadn't been on the road since the 1980's it needed very little in the way of recommissioning. A complete brake overall, a drivers footwell, clutch hydraulics, and it flew through an MOT. Our aim is to preserve where ever possible, not to simply 'restore' and loose all original reference points. To many cars have had all originality 'restored' out of them, bearing little evidence of how they left Triumph's gates when new.

The drive up to Stafford proved uneventful bar a headlight cowl flying off. Once retrieved from the side of the road we were surprised to find no damage to it what so ever which was a relief bearing in mind how rare long peak cowls are getting.

Since Stafford I continued to drive the 948 every day until the end of the summer, and what a great little car it is to drive to. One of the nicest 948's I've ever had the pleasure of driving (and I've driven a few!), they made these early cars real good.

Atlas gets the 'works'

I always thought the Atlas looked a little plain and seeing as it's painted in it's original powder blue 'works' rally colour I thought it might look nice in some 'works' sign writing. Some kind soul forwarded me a picture of a van in period with something suitable on the side which we forwarded to the people doing the job for us, I think they did a good job of replicating it.

New Pictures of 6003VC

Yet more trawling through the pile of old classic car magazines brought in from home for shredding revealed the following pictures of 6003 VC's past exploits. Found in the February 1990 edition of Thoroughbred & Classic Car they show 6003 VC going on to to win overall the Historic Car Register's Weston Park event on the RAC stage. As this entry, and result is new to me I shall have to add it to the car's other battle honours further down this page (when I've worked out how to do it!).
That pile of old magazines is finally getting smaller, I'm on my third boot full in the Chicane, and you can get quite a few magazines in a Chicane boot I will tell you!

Gold Seal Spitfire

Browsing through the remnants of my once extensive magazine collection (I have been shredding them!) in the garage at home the other day I found the following from the March 1986 edition of Classic & Sportscar. This confirms my recent correspondence with Julius Thurgood that the car had passed through his hands in the mid eighties.
Coincidently I had a gentleman telephone me last week who had owned the car in the early 70's after it's Gold Seal career ended. More info to follow as and when we get it including some promised new pictures!