Club Triumph Donnington Track day

Congratulations to Club Triumph, Fred, and all those involved in Saturdays track day at Donnington Park, fantastic! I enjoyed every minute, and 6003VC was given a right royal caning by both myself and Brumie Dave, even Karl Dandridge managed a few laps in the old girl. The format (open pit lane, in effect have as many goes as you like!) worked really well, with only the odd delay whilst the marshals removed dead TVR, XJS, Honda hothatchything, and MK1 PI's! On the whole the driving standards were pretty good, the odd spin granted, but nothing you couldn't drive around. 6003 seemed to revel in the wet, and didn't put a foot wrong all day (well not with me driving anyway!). I even managed to overtake the Porsce Carrera 2 a couple of times, OK so they were only budding racing drivers under tuition, but I was in a 40 something year old Vitesse. Perhaps Tim should have told them to stop fannying around! Anyway absolutely brilliant, can't wait for the next one, see you there?

Bargains to be had!

As ever we are always struggling for space here. As I'm sure you are aware, the more storage space you are given the more stuff you seem to be able to cram into it, but eventually something has to give. That time is now, time for a very early spring clean, and we are using our ebay shop to do it. Initially we are sorting through the bulkier (because it takes up more space!) secondhand panelwork. Stuff like Dolomite doors, bootlids and bonnets, I don't know where they came from I'm sure? All good stuff, but it has to go, so we are putting no reserve's on anything, and very reasonable 'buy it now' prices. Could be your last chance to get some real bargains. Other models are being catered for as well, so it's worth taking a look whatever your Triumph. Don't wait for the next time, there might not be one! One more thing, keep looking because we shall be adding stuff to the shop as we find it over the next few days.



http://www.canleyclassics.com/ebay

70X Le Mans forged pistons aplenty!

As will probably already know we have been gathering parts to restore the Macau Spitfire back to 1965 70X running gear specification. We have had one or two lucky breaks including returning it's original aluminum 8 port head to the UK with the help of the guy who took it off in the first place, the great Kas Kastner. Other engine parts came back with the head including the Weber inlet manifolds (the original 45 DCOE Webers still being fitted to the 6cyl Kastner engine up to recently still fitted in the Macau [with the addition of a third carb obviously!]). Up until this week the only parts we were going to struggle with were the unique forged Alcan 70X 1200 pistons, well not any more! Since returning back home from our jaunt around the Caribbean I have found time to start chasing down leads on all sorts of bits and pieces we are going to need for several of our cars in the restoration que (including one or two whole cars maybe?). One of these leads bore fruit, and vitually on our doorstep, several sets of original Alcan 70X pistons! It's amazing what's still floating around Coventry if you know where to look.
Only early last year we collected what we thought was the last of the Cox/Clarke, Gold Seal Spitfire racing parts cache when our good freind Peter Clarke finally retired and cleared out one of his lock ups in Coventry before moving to deepest Wales. How wrong I was! Imagine the excitement when I got the call in August last year from Peter up in the area again clearing out yet another lock up of mostly TR stuff prior to heading off to the Malvern TR International. It went like this, 'Boy (Peter calls everyone boy?) get yourself and a van down to Allesley village (a stones throw from the former Canley Triumph plant) in 15 minutes, I might have something here to interest you!' Well he most deffinately did have something to interest me, and a few quid lighter, we struggled back to Canley Classics not quite believing our good fortune. A little more research is required on exactly what we have before we go public, but lets just say it requires careful analaysis of the fates of the various 'works' Spitfire racers!

World Cup Rally / Roy Fidler / Paper pants!

I had a long and interesting (and very amusing!) telephone converstation with Roy Fidler (ex works Triumph rally driver) the other day on the subject of the 1970 World Cup Rally (London to Mexico). The reason for my call had initially been to further investigate one of the lesser known Triumph's involved in that rally, entry number 1, a works built but privately entered 2.5PI, which Roy had been one of the crew members in. Roy was a fountain of knowlege and a great help. Just the day before he had been staring at a picture in his office of this very car before the start of the rally at Wembley and wondering about its fate, spooky or what? I was able to put his mind to rest about the current location of his World Cup drive as its been safely ensconsed in our workshop under a cover for the past 12 months or so.
The conversation eventually got around to underpants (as it does), or more correctly the provision of underwear for the worlds longest and most ardous rally. Worrying about the provision of washing facilities, and/or the weight penalty of carrying sufficient undergarments for the three crew for the duration of the rally, the cars owner/sponsor provided disposable paper pants for the crew! Oh dear, sounds a bit sore to me, its probably a good thing that they only got as far as the South of France!

6003 VC Back home!

Our Vitesse finally turned up on Saturday courtesy of the AA three weeks to the day after Dave Walker and myself had to abandon it in Italy. Considering we broke a halfshaft in one of the most inaccessable places in Europe, the St Barnardo Pass, at its highest point, on one of its sharpest hairpins, our car has survived remarkably unscathed! Thanks AA, I thouroughly recommend your European breakdown cover! We had been participating in Club Triumphs marvelous 10 Countries event, and despite our little 'off', both Dave and myself had a fantastic time, and can't wait for the next Club Triumph driving event. We completed the 10CR in a Seat Toledo courtesy again of the AA, our fellow 10CR'ers thought that it was splendid that we had gone to all the time and trouble to secure a Triumph badged back up vehicle, but it was pure co-incidence!
Once again I would like to thank Club Triumph and the organsisers of the 10CR for a wonderful event, pencil me in for the next one.

10CR Madness!

Yes I'm here on a Sunday! I have broken my cardinal rule of no Sunday working (I'm not religious or anything it's just that everyone deserves one day off a week!). It's all in a good cause though, I'm here (with a couple of helpers, thanks Dave, Andy) frantically trying to nail together a couple of Vitesse's for Thursdays Club Triumph 10 Countries. Finally got my engine back together yesterday after many upsets, including having to strip 5 engines to find a suitable/undamaged block. Thought I was cooking on gas on Friday, up to the point where I tried to get the last piston into the bore and it wouldn't have it (why is it always the last one?). After much head scratching it turns out that one of the oil scraper rings (the ones that go either side of the expander ring) was stightly over size and the ends were overlapping when compressed into the bore! I had never seen this before, specially on a +60 bore, whats bigger than a +60! Anyway a little work on the grinder and all was well. I'm trying a Tony Lyndsey-Dean R3 cam, in replacment for the cam previously installed by John Wooley which had terminal flat lobes, is's a wonder the car went as well as it did! The engine complete with all ancilleries is sat on the workshop floor waiting for instalation this morning, then I can sling in the gearbox/overdrive that I stripped and checked a week or two ago.



How's the other Vitesse coming on? Well if I say that I have yet to prep and spray the roof, bootlid, and bonnet, then you can see that we have a very busy few days ahead of us!

Club Triumph 10CR

Hello to all you fellow entrants in this years 10CR, Club Triumphs bianual blast around Europe in three days, we must all be mad! I'm currently up to my usual tricks burning the midnight trying to throw together a car just a couple of weeks before the kick off! To late now to worry, ferry is booked, shorts are washed and ready, here we come! Well done to Club Triumph, even the pre match buzz before the kick off is exciting enough, but if you are yet to experiance driving 2,500 miles through 10 Countries in a long weekend, then prepare for an assault on the sences. Don't know what I am looking forward to the most, swanning around on the French Riveara (Nice & Monte Carlo), or those endless hairpins in the mountains, or blasting around the Nurumburg Ring, I'm feeling tired just thinking about it!

Late one!

It's 6.30 in the evening here at Canleys, the day shift have long gone and I'm sat here trying to think of some content for another one of our on-line newsletters. To be honest it's a bit of a relief to be sat here at the computor for a change after a hot and sweaty day stripping 4 cyl engines and later on this afternoon Type 14 Girling calipers. Didn't start the day well as the first two 1300's I stripped were thrusted, never mind only another 1,000 or so 4 cylinders in stock to go at! I suppose we should be putting thrusted blocks to one side for the future when we might have to repair them, but with a pile of blocks that resembles the north face of the Eiger to go at it shouldn't be a problem for a decade or two! Besides which if I get my way you will all be buying aluminum blocks and cylinder heads off us long before that.

Another picture of the Triumph Museum extension progress follows showing all of the internal walls completed. Total size of the extension I measure at about 800 sq ft or enough to get 6 cars in comfortably with plenty of space to walk around.There wont be any more progress reports for a couple of weeks as our builders have now gone off on their summer holidays!

Bloody Heralds!

Had to pop out this morning to do some delivering up to our friends TD Fitchetts. My preferred mode of transport our Chicane is currently being put back together after its recent re-paint. Still I might have struggled with getting today's delivery in the Chicane even with its back seats removed as it consisted of some large panelwork including Herald/Vitesse rear wings! A quick look around the car park revealed the ideal candidate, a Herald 13/60 Estate we currently have for sale, should get everything in the back of one of those!



Herald 13/60 Estate - Currently For Sale

The misses has used it locally off and on, no problems at all, starts on the button, nice to drive. Anyway we load up and set off up the M6/M54, lovely, apart from the shock of motorway speeds and no overdrive, it's been a while since I ventured out in a Herald with no overdrive! Drop off the delivery at Fitchetts and start back for Coventry via my favourite roadside batch bar just on the outskirts of Telford, don't tell the wife! Jump back onto the M54 and then it starts! Ignition warning light comes on and temperature starts to rise, oh bugger. Pull up on the hard shouder expecting to see no trace of a fan belt, but no its still there, just no trace of any adjusting arm bolt! Of course theres no tools in the car and nothing to hand to sort it. A quick ferckle in the grass and I find a suitable rock to jam between the alternator and block and away we go again all smug like at my Heath Robinson repair, or at least I was for two miles or so! Same thing again, rock had fell out, slack fan belt, find another rock, and the same thing happened over and over again, I must admit to feeling a little vunerable on the hard shoulder of the M6 every time I stopped (must have been 4 or 5 times). Anyway got back OK, fixed the alternator adjuster, one less problem for any future owner to come across!

Its 7.45 in the evening and I have just wondered out to the workshop to take this picture of Karl putting the finishing touches to his race car for next weekends Mallory race, we don't call him last minute Dandridge for nothing!
Sorry for the dark pictute, but the 'works' digital is on its last legs and the flash has just packed up. Hang on what's that revving up in the background, the beast stirs, he must be about finished, good that means I can have the workshop back!

Busy workshop!

What's happening in the workshop this past couple of weeks? Number one priority has been Andy Roberts, Del Lines (Atlantic Garages) Stag V8 saloon, a long term resident here at Canley Classics. We are making every effort to change that situation! A complete rebuild after many years of inactivity should see this V8 purring again in very short order. We are currently refitting the suspension with help from a certain Mr Witor and some of his goodies, it will be nice to get 'Janey' (Andys nickname for the car) rolling on her own wheels again.
I have been naughty and shoehorned another of my own cars into the schedule, but it deserves it, after all it is the hardest working Triumph in the fleet. I'm talking of course about our Chicane, the miracle Triumph that never goes rusty or wears out, but needs a complete paint job every 4/5 years of 100,000 miles (whichever comes first!). It's now past 300,000 miles and still going strong, no real problems to report, ever! Have you ever pondered just how many miles a standard engine will last on the cheapest nastiest unleaded petrol, then look no further. The only signs of extreem mileage and abuse is the odd wiff of smoke from the exhaust when you really cane the thing, but the crank dosn't knock on start up, it returns fabulous petrol consumption figures, and I would quite happily jump in it and drive to Moscow and back and know that it wouldn't let me down.
Other workshop space is being taken up by Karl, who is busy preparing his race GT6 for the TR Register race at Mallory next weekend.
Oh and we have a nice local TR5 in for work to eliminate various drivetrain knocks.

Weather Report

It must be the start of the outdoor classic car show season, what with the showers, wind and other nasties that passes for early summer weather! Close to this time last year I remember the countdown to Leatherhead being exactly the same, we persisted and went anyway only to sit next to the gate on arrival and watch the marshals turn people away, how demoralising. Good luck if you are giving it a go this year, I hope there's a break in the weather. We aren't going by the way, I'm suffering from the longest cold Iv'e ever had that saw me confined to bed most of the bank holiday weekend, so the thought of sitting under a leaky tarp on a windy showground dosn't appeal at the moment!
Not sure about Gaydon this year either, it seems to have been watered down from the usual all Triumph show to a all makes general classic car show. How the mighty fall! Gone from one of the biggest Triumph shows in the calender to a sad addition to a all makes show, including motorbikes, lorries, etc, in under 5 years. Mind you as a trader it became obvious something had to give a few years back as numbers visting the show dwindled alarmingly from the 'glory days' of the 75th aniversary when the car park's overflowed.
We did the most shows ever last year and the only one that seems to buck the trend of dwindling numbers is the TR Register International at Malvern. Malvern showgound is massive and to see it crammed full of TR's, and it has to be said a good proportion of other Triumphs, is something to savour. What with sharing the weekend with the Triumph World picnic, and regular participation from other Triumph clubs (I noticed the 2000 Register were there in numbers), its a great place to see a wide range of Triumphs.
Now if only I could shake this cold I might get a little more enthusiastic about booking a few shows for us, but then again Iv'e just looked out of the window and been reminded about the miserable weather again.

20 Counties

Are you ready? Only a few days now for your final preperations, and those last minute adjustments. Finally got the breakfast situation sorted last week, and those that have pre-booked can look forward to a traditional fry up at The Manor Pub in Fillongley village only a stones throw from the Canley premises.

For a map showing the pub, go to the link below -

http://uk.multimap.com/p/browse.cgi?pc=CV78ET&scale=25000

Got to have a bit of a tidy up of the Canley car park before you all arrive as we have collected a few more project cars that are encroaching into space we will need Saturday! Could I make one request? Please be aware that we do have neighbours, so could you arrive and depart the site as quietly as possible as it is out of hours especially on your return in the morning, no reving Kevins!

That's it, see you Saturday evening, and good luck to all the teams entered.

The good old days!

This week amongst other things I have been building a chassis for a MK11 Vitesse, we brought the bare centre section back from the blasters yesterday ready to go on the assembly jig. Nothing unusual in that I hear you say? Well 6/7 years ago or more, in the last days of the JK empire, no it wasn't. Back in those days it wasn't unusual for me to do at least 2 or 3 chassis a month for John, indeed we were doing that many back then that we used to mark them with our own unique system and maintain a log of what was what. This output went on throughout the 90's seemingly unabated, our production log is not to hand but I remember passing the 200 mark. As the new Millenium has progressed this output has dropped to a trickle, symtomatic I fear of the tail off in the restoration of 'our' cars. This is confirmed in an alarming decrease in the sale of panelwork for all models over the same period, noticed not only by us but by others we speak to in the trade. Can it be that all the cars that are going to be restored are done? Or is it a reluctance of a new generation of classic car enthusiasts to get their hands dirty? Some say its because far to many restorable cars have been broken for spares. What do you think?

Club Triumph RBRR dinner/presentation night

Thanks to everyone involved in Saturday nights Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run dinner and finishers award presentation do! Although I have been participating in the Round Britain for over 10 years (not the same Round Britain you understand, but a few of them!), this is the first time I had dragged my arse down to the smoke for the presentation evening. It was well worth the trip, the wife and I had a great evening amongst like minded genuine Triumph driving enthusiasts. You (RBBR participants) should all be very proud of yourselves, not only for the wonderful total raised for the nominated charity (over £47,000 for Children With Leukemia), but also for the great way in which you did it, with good humour, enthusiasm in abundance, and the comarardere that can only come from within Club Triumph. Well done to Tim Bancroft and his small dedicated army of helpers for organising another 'Triumph' in the Triumph calender, yet another can't miss CT event. What with the 10 Countries Run and the new 20 Counties Run (OK not new but resurected from a CT event last run in the 1960's) its all becoming a bit of a blur! Top marks guys, this is what it's all about, fantastic Triumph driving events that fly in the face of the usual staid Club Internationals/Nationals/Concours events that long ago turned into much of a muchness. Perhaps 30 odd years of visiting various Triumph shows has finally done it for me, one line up of infrequently used, pampered garage queens, is starting to to look very much like the last lot I saw (perhaps they are the same car's over and over again?). I would much rather see a well used (but still loved) Triumph being hammered over the Cromarty Firth bridge as the sun comes up on day two of the RBRR, I think I just detected a shiver run up my back! Or better still getting into Gordano services early on the second morning of the RBRR and listening for the charaismatic wail of the PI's breaking the rare pre dawn silence of the M5 as they approach at speed.
Excuse me now I must go off and find that 20 Counties Run entry form, see you there?

Picture Courtesy of Club Triumph

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!

Going to Stoneleigh?

Er, has it really been that long since my last Blog (Happy Christmas!) oop's, naughty boy, must try harder! Anyway a belated happy new year to you all, only a month late. What's my excuse this time I hear you ask? Well it's like this see, it's not like I slope off every night after the day shift finish's, I have been working longer hours than usual this past month. So what's taking up my valuable Triumph driving time? Quite simply I am sitting here for hour after labourious hour number crunching for the new catalogue. Imagine checking every single part number on our system sometimes two or three times and then adjusting descriptions, checking supply, stock holding, etc. The initial fruits of these labours can be viewed on our new on-line catalogue, currently sitting alongside our old scanned in John Kipping catalogue for the time being. When we are completely satisfied that any bugs are ironed out we will finally pull the old JK catalogue off the site, and what a fantastic effort by John it proved to be lasting a full 10 years without major modification (is this a record in the classic car market?). Not long after we are fully live with our new offering we will be commiting to a print run of a paper version, and it will be a whopper as its already over 200 pages and growing!

Any way back to the Stoneleigh Triumph show this Sunday, are you going? You should, it proved to be one of the highlights of the show season last year, and was a cracking start to the season. Need anything bringing along, save on P&P, but order early, Friday may be to late as by then be will be packing the truck. Come along and say hello anyway, its always nice to put names to faces. As an added bonus this year we will be bringing along ADU 4B Leman Spitfire for its first UK show ever, and one of the very few times you will be able to see it in the flesh this year. See you there!