World Cup PI's Triumph's finest hour?

There seems to be a deal of excitment around at the moment about the PI World Cup Rally cars. Interest seems to pop to the surface every few years or so only to quitely dissappear again. For someone like myself who has carefully researched and harboured more than a passing desire for them for over 30 years I find this Johnny come lately interest good for the cause. An injection of new blood every so often keeps the legend alive, at times it seems it has been the preserve of a few die hards in the 2000 Register to keep the interest from waining . You may have seen elsewhere the photo evidence of my recent visit to see XJB 304H in the flesh after being hidden away for a few decades. On this occassion I dragged along one of these 'new blood' World Cuppers, Jason Chinn. Jason fortunately remembered to bring along his camera to capture the moment, my digital has unfortunately finally bowed to the pressure of helping to put this website together and finally thrown in the towel! Seeing 304 in the flesh means that I have now carefully examined every extent World Cup Car (including WRX 902H, the test car thats here in our workshop), including the only surviving privately entered car. The only car that has so far eluded me is XJB 302H the Paddy Hopkirk car that came 4th in the World Cup, although I have many recent pictures, I have yet to see it close up (soon to be sorted!) . I have to say that when it comes to sorting out future originality issues between the survivors, that this is one particular minefield that is going to take some careful investigation, I have my opinions! The sadest fact surrounding all of this World Cup PI mania is that the most successful of them all XJB 305H in which Brian Culcheth brilliantly fought his way to second place overall in the worlds hardest rally (only denied the number one slot by Ford cheating!) was scrapped on the instruction of Heritage. So the legend go's it was supposed to be being restored by the BL Swindon apprentices, while in fact it lay unloved in a car park gradually being picked over for goodies by everyone and their dog. Every now and again a snippet of news comes our way to refute 305's final demise, we have heard lately that 305 is substantially alive and well, we shall see!
In conclusion one of the largest gaps in the Canley 'Triumph Museum' presantly is one of these gallant flag flyers for Triumph in the 1970's, hmm we need to sort that out!

Trouble at Mill

Sad to hear about John Muggleton resigning from his management position at the TSSC. Nice guy, always approachable, keen, knowlegable, and most importantly a genuine Triumph driving enthusiast. Rare thing that nowadays, a Triumph owner that actually drives them, but rarer still amongst the larger classics car club higher up's. John led a deal of credibility to the 'enthustiast' element of classic car club management. His replacement, if any, will have to be carefully thought about if the TSSC is not to be seen to be slipping more towards the 'business' of classic car clubing. Good luck John in whatever it is you decide to do in the future, keep driving those Triumph's mate.

Couldn't think of anything else to photo, so I just took a quick shot of the car park on a Saturday afternoon, more Triumphs than a winters local TSSC meeting, and we shut shop 4 hours ago!

Good start to the year!

What did you think to Stonleigh? Can't complain about the trading bit, we were very busy all day, to the point that I never got the chance to get away from our stand once! It's a bit of a disappointment as I would have loved to have had walk around and see whats new, but that's 2 years running Iv'e not managed it, good job I have a strong bladder! Sorry to hear about Chic Doig having his days takings stolen, what a shock. All the effort involved in coming all that way only to have their till stolen, I hope the toe rags responsible get caught.

I have had an interesting week, I have finally got to see in the flesh two of my dream cars. The new owner of XJB 304H (World Cup PI)had invited me down for a look, he's a lucky guy as he also owns Brian Cultcheths Safari PI, a car he bought directly from Abingdon many years ago. What a car 304 is, still fitted out with its aluminum panelwork, and 'works' mechanicals.

The other car I got to see in the flesh this week was WRX 902H, the World Cup test car PI, and latterly the Scottish rally winning car. We collected it from the shot blasters in Coventry and trailored it back to the Canley workshops for some major bodywork. Hmm 'works' PI's in abundance, nirvana, take me now, I've died and gone to heaven!

Oh, just a quick reminder, don't forget that we are now offering a free entry into our 'Cars for Sale' part of our website for existing customers. A brief description and 2 or 3 decent electronic piccys sent to us via e-mail and your car is included. we have had an amazing success rate so far, with most customers cars selling within a matter of days. We are now also extending this service (again to existing Canley customers) to a free parts for sale area (ie its going to cost you nothing, not that the parts have to be free!) on the website, as long as your parts aren't direct competition for our own then you are welcome to include them. Please include your customer account number or postcode in your mail so that we can check your account history, that's all it takes, free, buckshee, no cash required, what will we think of next!

Picture - WRX back from the blasters!