Happy Christmas!

To all you lovely Triumph owners out there have a fantastic Christmas and New Year holiday. Bring on 2007 and another superb 12 months of Triumph driving!

So near and yet so far

There's no way I'm going to make that 10 o'clock MOT appointment this morning for the pimped Herald. I suppose it was a little ambitious to expect to be able to build a stripped out rolling shell car back up in 5 working days! In the end it wasn't even 5 full days as I had to drop onto to customer stuff once or twice. Still I had a bloody good crack at it, and it isn't that far off now. The rear valances never materialised so I couldn't put the petrol tank in or fit the exhaust (the Range Rover Sport tailpipe emerges from a cutout in the back valance). Rich has promised them (the valances) for this morning but it gives me precious little time to fit them. The engine and box went back in last night after a diaphragm clutch conversion from the original coil spring one. Although it all looked new (or new when it was fitted 20 odd years ago!) there was no way I was going to risk using 20 plus year old coil spring clutch stuff. So a flywheel, one of our 'Coventry Classic Clutches' and the appropriate bearing carrier arm were substituted. The aluminium sprayed Spitfire MKII tubular manifold went on a treat, as did the twin HS2 SU's. Whist I was tiding up the engine with a new set of core plugs I thought a full set of Canley alloy lightweight engine components might not go amiss. We now have a alloy dizzy pedestal, an alloy alternator mounting block, a lightweight 'competition' alternator, and a polished alloy rocker cover finishes the effect. All of this on a 948 Herald engine?

Pressure is off.

Some of the pressure to get the 948 totally finished by the end of this week has been lifted. The car is being done for our eldest daughter who was due to take her driving test yesterday at 3.30. Due to the foggy weather conditions her test was cancelled, the only day this year locally any tests have had to be cancelled due to weather conditions apparently. She is gutted!
Even though I knew this mid afternoon I pressed on yesterday working into the early evening as I was on a bit of a roll and enjoying putting the thing back together. Things didn't start to well yesterday as I had to do some customer stuff first including making some brake pipe kits, putting an overdrive conversion kit together, and some other odds and sods. After lunch I cracked on with the Herald and made excellent progress, that Friday MOT appointment might still be on!

Blinging the Pimp!

No time for much of a Blog as it's all out on the Herald 948 fresh back from the painters on Saturday afternoon. Deadlines don't you just love em! MOT is booked for Friday morning so it's nose to the grindstone time. It went to the painters as a rolling shell devoid of all it's bolt on panels some of which have yet to return (hurry up Rich!). Decided on Monday to make this another one of our Caterham front suspension conversion (trunnionless vertical link) development cars the previous development 13/60 estate having now moved on to a new owner (less the suspension). So all the existing front suspension and drum brakes was ripped off in preperation for the new stuff, this car is going backwards! Even the office staff are lending a hand and I am currently sitting in the office surrounded by Alpine Mauve trim that they cleaned up nicely yesterday afternoon.

Two Blogs in one day

Just got back from Rich the painters (02476 686060). I popped into catch up on progress on Ash's blinged 948 Earld. All I can say is wow, what a fantastic job. The pearlescent paint effect is out of this world specially with the duo tone Alpine Mauve/Spa white colours. As you approach the car the white changes to a metalic purple, and the Mauve visa versa. The pictures do the paintwork no justice at all, it needs to be seen in the flesh. Best of all is the finish, it wasn't the straightest Herald in the world after some 'enthustiastic' welding by one of our number (ex), but now it's as straight as a die. Fair play Rich and Andy you can do all our paintwork from now on!

Nostalgia

I have been imbibing in a heavy dose of nostalgia this past week. It all started last Sunday when a leak in the roof of one of the garages at home threatened to ruin my 'precious' pile of classic car magazines, and the various Triumph club magazines I had gathered over the years. I had long since given up collecting this sort of stuff, indeed most of what I receive in the way of 'temporary' reading matter these days comes straight to work after I have read it to be re-cycled as packing material via the shredder. This pile of stuff then that had so far evaded this treatment dated from the 80's, and had sat in various forgotten corners since then. The first shock I got was just how many Triumph club's I had been a member of in my time, I counted six. The next shock was realising just just how many of those magazines titles I had bought over the years were now defunct. Anyway having decided that this would have to be the last time I moved this pile I loaded up the 13/60 estate and brought them into work for the dreaded shredder treatment.
The next bit of nostalgia came over me yesterday as it dawned on me that next year would be the 20th anniversary of our 'official' start up. Although by no means the start of my Triumph restoration career as I had already rebuilt/restored a TR5, a couple of Stag's, a Vitesse MKII saloon, a TR6, a 2.5 PI estate, and a Spitfire 1500 by the time we opened the doors as Canley Classics in 1987. Indeed that chassis off job on the TR5 was undertaken a full 10 years previously and I still have it to boot! So that's two anniversaries to celebrate, 30 years since my first Triumph restoration, and 20 years of Canley Classics.
Flicking through a few of those club magazines this morning from the 80's (probably for the first time in 20 odd years, so why did I keep them?) brought to light just how many traders had come and gone in that time. I have a late 80's TSSC Courier in front of me and at a conservative estimate 80% of the traders advertising in there no longer exist. Some names from the past that have come and gone include, British Sports Car Centre, Triumph Scene, Classicar Automotive, John Hills, Swindon Classics, Andy Rose Triumph, STS Triumph spares, Spits and Pieces, Cardinal Triumph, Six Spares, Central Spitfires, Cambridge Triumph Spares, and I can think of another half a dozen who aren't with us anymore. Famous names from the past (at least if you are into your Triumphs) who are no longer with us, it goes to prove just how difficult this business can be.
All of this makes me even more proud that we are still here, and more to the point still doing what I love. Yesterday I finished off paneling up a Stag in the workshop in for some insurance work, great wouldn't have it any other way. Even better today I start on a minor body restoration on a TR6, and tomorrow I shall be putting a Herald 948 back together after it's paint job, nirvana!

You little bleeder!

Had a break from Jason's 2.5 engine rebuild.I decided this morning that it needed all the valves renewing as they were quite worn on the stems and some of them had started to mushroom over on the top. The exhausts had needed changing anyway as they were the wrong spec for unleaded, but I thought we might have got away with the inlets. Sods law dictates that after making the decision to renew we were out of stock of a full set of six, being a couple short meant ordering some in, should be here tomorrow.
Meantime that arch turned up for the Stag insurance job we are doing so I have cracked on with that today with only one mishap. Ignoring all my own advice I picked up a new wing to trial fit it with some worn out gloves and guess what? A nasty cut that has so far refused to stop bleeding despite two plasters, and two latex gloves. Iv'e just come in to find the super glue to see if that will do it as the blood has started to seep out of the gloves.

All change

The workshop continues to buck the usual pre Christmas trend and remains as busy as ever. Usually this time of year we have settled back to a couple of long term projects, this year however the nice regular mechanical, servicing, and insurance work seems to keep piling in. It was all change on Saturday with a couple of customers Spitfire 1500's being collected, both having received mechanical attention and MOT work. One of the cars now holds the distinction of having the noisiest diff I have ever heard, it of course was swapped for a reconditioned unit. In total three Spitfire 1500's were collected last week so the vista in the workshop should now look a little less Spitfire'ish! It's funny how we seem to have run of different models all at the same time, one week it might be Vitesse convertibles, the next GT6 MKIII's. Work on the Stag in for an insurance job on its front end has stalled pending receipt of a wheelarch bowl from a supplier, so far we have used 4 different suppliers/manufacturers for parts for this one insurance job! That arch has been promised for tomorrow so we should hopefully have it panelled up and ready for paint towards the end of the week, it would be nice to have it completed and away before the Christmas holidays. Today I was supposed to be sorting the clutch out on a TR5 but it's arrival has been postponed to later in the week so I shall be cracking on with Mr Jason Chinn's 2.5 motor rebuild instead.

Pimp progress

Ash's (pimped!) Earld as of last Saturday (pictures courtesy of Jason's mobile). All hand flatted and ready for top coat. It may well be painted by now but I just haven't had time to get out and have a look.

Pimped 948 progress.

The 'Pimp my Ride' 948 saloon has taken another step forward with the application of some paint. Most of the shut's are now painted in colour, and the rest of the car is in high build primer with guide coats applied to help in the final prep. Some surprising ding's and dent's were found when the car was bare metalled, they had obviously been well repaired in the cars earlier life as they hadn't been apparent pre restoration. I'll have to ask the previous owner John Kipping if he was responsible!

Auction fever!

I had a day off yesterday, shock, horror! I have been on the trail of the one off Triumph prototype the Zest for some years now. It had been on sale in Classic car specialists Sherwood Classics in Nottingham (where else!) for approaching 5 years with a price tag of about £22,000. I had been up to give the car the once over about 2 or 3 years ago. The car is in fantastic condition allthough it has been customised by it's previous owner with some pretty tacky non original aditions, allthough fortunately nothing that couldn't be put right with a little work. I entered into a little preliminary negotiation and the price quickly fell to £20K, ahh I thought that was easy leave it a couple of months and it's a £17-18K car for cash after some serious haggling. Anyway that couple of months came and went and in the meantine we bought the Spitfire ADU 4B and that blew the car budget for a couple of years! Zoom forward to yesterday, I had found out that the vendor had given up on selling through a showroom and entered it in H & H Classics Auctions http://www.classic-auctions.com/ sale at Buxton in Derbyshire. Permissions were sort from her indoors and off we went to do the deed, or so we thought! The catalogue estimate for the car was £17-20K, right on the nail for what I originally thought it was worth. Only problem was there was a 10% sellers premium, plus VAT, no problem I thought serious buyers will have seen it's previous sale price (nearly five years at about £20K!) and factor that in. We got to the sale room as lot number one went through (the Zest was lot 61), allthough the room was full of punters most lots were struggling, and very few made reserve, allthough a lot were selling a little later at their preliminary bids, some real bargains were being had, how about a decent BMW 633 Coupe for £800! Things were looking good! All to soon it became the Zest's turn to go under the hammer, at first any potential punters showed little interest in raising their hands so the auctioneer started the things rolling with £12K to which someone to my right flicked his hand in the air, I quickly made the auctioneer aware of my interest and got the second bid in on £13K. The guy on the right nodded and it was now £14K, I have always found it best to bid confidently and quickly it shows you mean business so I nodded again and we were at £15K. Only trouble was my rival had the same atitude and he countered so we were now at £16K! My pre auction limit had been £17 1/2 K which would have brought the end price (with commission, and VAT) out to what I could have bought it for easily for when it had been at Sherwood Classics. Only trouble was the bids were going in £1K increments, so I nodded again knowing that this would be my last bid at £17K. Then it went quite, just for a minute or so I thought it was mine, OK it was more than I had wanted to pay but hey ho. It seems my rival had backed out, but then a new bidder came forward, and someone on the phone, and very quickly the car shot up to £21,000 plus commission, and VAT, which I make a grand total of £23467.50, bonkers! So that's nearly a couple of grand more than the car had been advertised for the previous 5 odd years pre negotiation which would have easily made it at least £4K more expensive, so that's why they call it auction fever! No time to sit around licking our wounds or watching any further lots go through as our car park ticket had run out 10 minutes previously and a fine would have really topped the day off nicely. Just time to exchange pleasantries with noted classic car journo Malcom Mckay on the way out (he had thought the car was going to make about £13K pre auction!)and off we went back into the fog and rain back accross the moors. Oh well at least the car fund is growing nicely!

Nice work if you can get it!

I was 'forced' by the owner of this rather nice TR3 to take it home over the weekend to check out a suspected overheating problem, go on then twist my arm! The workshop is currently fit to burst with a nice original Spit 1500 in for some re-commissioning/MOT work, a Spit MKII in for much the same, a TR6 in for long term bodywork, and a Stag in for some diff work, and a check over.

Pimp my ride 948 UK stylee

With no help whatsoever from Westwood and his crew progress on the blinged 948 Herald creeps slowly forward. I had to pop down to my mate Rich's unit in Coventry the other day to do a little last minute bodywork before they got into serious prep for the paint. Previously we had dollied the front arch lips back to allow for the 15" wheels and wide low profiles but completely forgot to do the same at the back. Fortunately Rich noticed before any serious painting had happened so I went down to 'persuade' the arch's out a tad. I didn't bother taking any piccy's as the project is still at that un-photogenic stage whereby the car is bare metalled, and Rich's unit is in a mess whilst they build a 50 foot long by 25 foot tall paint booth, it's a monster! The paint we have settled on for the 948 is 'interesting', originally the car was two tone Alpine Mauve over Spa White. It's still going to be those colours, sort off! The Alpine Mauve is going over a white base coat, and the Spa White is going over a red base with a flip in it. This paint job is costing more than I have ever paid for any Herald!

I have piles!

I was thinking it was time to do something about my piles. As much as I keep picking at them they never seem to get any smaller? I asked Jason to help yesterday but initially he turned his nose up. He eventually succumbed, slipped on his latex gloves and got stuck in! Having had the luxury of a pile of roughly 800 odd engines has major benefits, but also a downside. When I have been picking at the front of it for the last 5 years for the useful stuff to recondition, it has left the not so useful stuff right at the front and in the way. We must have more FWD 1300/1500 core than there are cars left on the road, and big crank, narrow block 1300 stuff (MKIV Spit/13/60 Herald) who is ever going to want that in any numbers again? Anyway time has come to peel back that first layer of the pile, chuck out the dross, and reveal some useful stuff again. Looks like a visit to the scrapyard coming up, what with the price of scrap as it is at the moment it might be very worthwhile!

I never thought it would happen?

Finally managed to palm the 13/60 Estate off on to an unsuspecting mug punter, sorry my mate Richard! Our (Estate and I) relationship has been a little up and down over this past two years, we have had good times and bad, see link here

It's proven to be an extremely practical and useful little car, and will need to be replaced with something similar sharpish. It's time to put more effort now into reserecting one of the Kipping Couriers, or two, economies of scale and all that.
Richard's just started a commercial paint shop up in Coventry with his mate, and will be using the Estate for much the same purpose as we did, local fetching and carrying in and around Coventry.
I shall miss my early morning blasts into work in the Estate through the empty Warwickshire roads. What am I saying? No I won't! I'm currently using the wife's Stag, it's lovely!

All ready for the RBRR

Sorry for the lack of news recently, Iv'e had my head down getting the Stag ready for the CT RBRR. All done now bar the polishing, and still a couple of days to go, how did that happen?

Wot no pistons?

Well that's it I can't bolt anything back to the Stag motor until some pistons turn up. I had to drop back on to a TR5 spec customer engine I'm building in the meantime, same story with that now though as I'm now waiting for pistons for that as well (different supplier). If the pistons aren't here in the morning I could crack on with a couple of customer 1500's if I had more bench space, but a Stag V8, and a 2.5 lump take up most of my available space.
We have had the pleasure (oh missus!) of a very nice young man/customer turned apprentice, helping here whilst on holiday from college. I showed him how to strip calipers this morning and left him to it. He did a excellent job for a young un, restores your faith in the next generation.

Probing orifices!

Well Charlie (our preffered machine shop man) pulled out all the stops and managed to get the Stag block back to me all nicely bored to +20, and decked, before swanning off on another foreign holiday. Although it had been through Charlies steam cleaning chemical bath I still spent a happy afternoon with our steam cleaner probing every orifice and satisfying myself that it was squeaky clean. I then left it to cook in front of the heater before giving it a quick coat of black paint and some new core plugs, and very nice it looks to. I'm just off now to fit the crank. If the pistons turn up on Monday (from Rimmers)then i shall be cooking on gas, I love a plan when it all comes together.

More Stag stuff!

Whilst the blocks away being bored and decked I have been busying myself with one or two little jobs I had been putting off for some time (try 12 years!). Firstly I went around the car changing any of the indicator/sidelight lenses that weren't perfect. I had spent the last 12 years tracking down genuine OE lenses to replace any faded, or otherwise below par examples. Next on the list was fitting that tow bar I had powder coated nearly 15 years ago. This car has to work for a living post the RBRR, and a tow bar is compulsary on all our larger Triumph's. Amongst the other stuff I found in the boot requiring fitting was all the add on's to the fancy alarm system I had fitted back in 94. These add on's include central locking, and automatic window closers all activated from the key fob button. This requires servos to be connected up to the rods in the doors that operate the door locks, try finding space in a Stag door for anything! All this gubbins is interfaced with the alarm with a further two black boxs that have to be wired directly to the alarm/siren. I know it's not like me to be adding weight to our Triumph's, after all we are known as the lightweight aluminium specialists, but the Stag is a different sort of beast.
It had been some time since I had driven a Triumph engined V8 Stag, allthough I regularly drive Rover V8 engined Triumph's, including our own factory saloon prototype, but the chance came recently to reacquaint myself with Triumphs effort. Our friend Mr Chambers (ex-Kipping employee of old) turned up in his Jarva Green example I had helped him find many years ago. Anyway I wrestled the keys off of him and took it for a thrashing, WOW, fantastic, what a great engine! The Rover, and Triumph engines are like chalk and cheese, totally different beasts. What a revelation the Triumph V8 is after being used to the old slugger Rover effort. The Stag engine spins like a top all the way up to the red line at 6,500 rpm, and pulls strong all the way, where as the Rover throws in the towel at 5,000 rpm. I was particularly impressed with it's mid range punch, floor it anywhere between 50-70mph and the thing took off like a scalded cat. I seem to remember back from my real anorak days reading the performance figures that used to be published weekly in the Motor magazine of all cars available on the British market that this was the area where the Stag truely excelled. All cars used to be left in the Stags wake when it came to the crucial overtaking manoeuvre, Astons, Ferrari's, Porches, the lot! I seem to recall that there was only a couple of cars back then that were any faster, and not by much.

CT RBRR preperation begins!

Whipped the motor out of the CC 2006 CT RBRR entry Stag yesterday. Our Stag has been slumbering for 12 years awaiting the call to arms. Needing a re-bore and a set of pistons, (and the time to do it!)has meant it hasn't turned a wheel since 1994, and the previous tax disc before that was 1982, not a regular use Triumph in our fleet I have to admit. I'll finish off stripping the engine down to a bare block today and we can get it off to Charlies for a re-bore this afternoon.

Near death experience caused by wedgie!

I wonder what that would have looked like on the insurance/coroners report? There I was on this bright and beautiful sunny morning minding my own business on the way in to work in the Herald when it all went Pete Tongue. As I hammered past Seeswood Pool (local 'beauty' spot) at a respectable 70 odd mph, with not another vehicle in sight, I felt the need to adjust my undercarriage (sorry about this but it is a crucial bit of the story). As I raised myself up the seat putting pressure on the backrest the front seat fixings decided to pull through the floor. I ended up in a reclining position with my head resting on the back seat. How I maintained any sort of control I will never know. When I got back up I was on the wrong side of the road still doing 70. I managed to wobble the rest of the way to work only nearly coming a cropper again as I pulled away sharpish from Fillongley crossroads in an attempt to beat the local milk float accross the junction. In all this excitement I plain forgot about my trolley misalignment, priorities I suppose.

Workshop comings and goings.

The workshop continues to be busy as ever as work ramps up from customers old and new. One leaving us this week was a Vitesse MKII convertible bought sight unseen by it's new owner locally from the wife of the cars original owner. The new owner lives in Aberdeen so it was somewhat of a leap of faith to buy this one. Trailored straight to our door a couple of weeks ago Jason has been through the car with a fine tooth comb after it's 7 year lay-up. Needing a fair bit doing in the braking department, and a partially siezed engine, this one was fundamentaly sound however and finally went through it's MOT last week. Anyway it's gone now, and all the way back to Scotland on it's first real journey in 7 years! Still have the same guys 13/60 convertible here, nice low mileage, original car, in for service and MOT. Look out for this one as it might be up for sale after we have finished with it.
The workshop is crying out for a makeover but it's been just to busy with customers cars to think about it recently. A lick of paint, a re-wire, and maybe another ramp, is needed sometime over the winter, we will see.

MK1 PI's and that sort of thing!

Busy CC car park with two MK1 PI's in attendance! Tony Luxton's battle scarred example (the ex Chatters RON), and Colin Caines super white example nearing the end of a comprehensive resto.

Rally cars.

Got to swap motors with Andy Martin last night on the way down to the Manor pub in Fillongley. Not really a fair swap, I drove his Monte Vitesse 6002 VC, and he drove my 'living on the edge' 13/60 estate. He said he liked it! Over a glass of 'pop' we discussed one of Andy's other passion's his World Cup Rally test car, and Scottish Rally winning 2.5 PI WRX 902H. Andy had just aquired the last of the considerable history file for WRX from previous owner Tom Seal. As we sat digesting this treasure trove one picture stuck out as being a little differant. It showed the 2.5PI's lined up under assembly in the Abingdon workshops. One car in particular stuck out as having a completely differant fuel tank spec to the others, then the penny dropped, it's our car, car No1 the privately entered but factory built car. At last a picture confirming that it the majority of the build was done by Abingdon themselves, and a very important picture that will help considerably towards the car's restoration.

Projects

As trade settles down to manageble level after a cracking start to the season (runs through February to November), it's time to look forward to getting back to some long term projects in the workshop. If Jason grants me enough space amongst the customers cars in there, then it's only down to deciding which to pick from amongst the queue of likely candidates. First off we have to pull the engine out of our RBBR entry Stag last used and driven over 10 years ago, dosn't time fly! Needing only a bore and a set of pistons when it came off the road it's sure to need a bit more doing now. It will be interesting to see how our cars are standing up to long term storage in the museum, the Stag was a beauty when it went in there?
Next my Chicane needs less than a couple of days spent on it replacing some of the trim left off after it's last respray, and other odd's an sod's. I'm missing the Chicane, it's been over a year since I last drove it, and after nearly 300,000 miles it was/is the most reliable Triumph Iv'e ever owned, touch's a very large piece of wood!
I keep looking at the Macau and thinking it's about time that got sorted. After spending the last 4 or 5 years scouring the World successfully for all it's original 70X engine components from 1965, it's about time I put it all together again.
I would love to do the Gold Seal plastic Spitfire, I have tracked down enough spare 70X engine bits to build a motor for that as well. Only trouble is this Spitfire's restoration is a bit more complicated than an engine rebuild. Famous for running at the Maggelo (spelling?) circuit in the late 60's this is an exciting car as the other Gold Seal car was smashed to pieces during the same race.
One other Spitfire that's restoration has been on-going over the early part of this year (all be it slowly) is the Le Mans car we have aquired as a pile of bits from one of the ex-factory race guys. Difficult to hang an identity on it now due to the way the last few cars were used/crashed/disposed of, research is on-going. This car need's many years of careful work having been crashed very heavily in it's early career, and having spent the remaining 40 odd years in a disassembled state in various less than sympathetic storage.
The other monster restoration on the horizon is our World Cup rally 2.5PI, I'd love to do that, but there isn't enough hours in the day, week, month, year!

Le Mans Spifire owners club meeting tonight!

Not quite but it is the monthly Club Triumph meeting (any Triumph owner welcome) at the Weavers Inn at Fillongley from 7.30 onwards. We are hoping to be joined by the the other Le Mans Spitfire owner Herve Lequipe tonight who's over buying some alloy panels for ADU 3B from us. Along with John Baptiste Herve has been restoring 3B for some years, come along and ask to see progress on his lap-top. Also trying to persaude Canley's newest employee to come along. You may remember Jason if you are a Kipping customer of old, he was John's 'star' mechanic, the only Kipping employee to untake a full apprentership if I remember correctly? Jason has returned to the fold after a long break from classic cars in the dealership network (Audi). His credentials are most impressive, MOT testers licence, a spell with Jeremy Clarkson on location servicing his E type whisl't he did that pan european series on TV. He also sports the largest tool box ever to grace Canleys, it's larger than some of our competitors workshops! Also trying to get TR6 owner Adam along, ask him about his recent exploits with car trailer and new Jaguar saloon in tow!
If the weather stays like this you'll probably find us in the garden out back, bring some sun tan lotion!

Wot no trunnions?

I have been following an interesting thread on the CT Forum regarding the age old problems of the dreaded Triumph vertical link and trunnion assembly. Nearly everyone has seen, or heard of a Spitfire, Herald, etc breaking a vertical link, we get to see the results of such more than most here at the Canley workshops. Fortunately in most instances the fatigue breaks happen in low speed manoeuvers such as parking. I have never heard of one letting go whilst driving in a straight line on a motorway for instance?
Well it's not a very closely guarded secret that we had been working on a complete replacement. Several customers/freinds had pondered over the box of CNC machined rose joint carriers sat prominantly on one of my workshop benches for the last several months. The bulk of the work on the kit was done last year in conjuction with the OE (original equipment) suspension supplier to Caterham, who also happens to be a good friend of mine. So why have we not begun to market it I hear you ask? Easy, cost! The major part of the conversion, the Caterham vertical link, is still relatively expensive at nearly £70 a pop, the same price as the 'normal' Triumph link because they come from the same source, our friend who also happens to be OE supplier to Unipart for the Triumph links. Together we had been working towards a better price on the link (all links, Triumph included), so did not want to jump in with the conversion kit until this was settled. Everything else is done and on the shelf, the carriers were machined back in February for instance.
The kit dosn't end there however, we have worked on multiple up-grades, and add ons to the kit to include beefier stub axles, larger sealed bearings, new alloy hubs for those bearings/stub axles, and an economical bolt on brake up-grade, all specified and ready to go.
As I say all of this was done last year, this year we have gone back to the rear end to try and nail that CV conversion, and the bolt on disc brake conversion, and, and..........

Le Mans Spitfire laid bare

Ever wondered what the inner workings of genuine Le Mans Spitfire looks like? Well here's a one off opportunity to see one in a dismantled state. I have started to empty my garage at home of the complete project (all be it in a very dismantled state!) we had aquired over the past few years from a local source with impeccable provenance. Having been in the same ownership since it's factory racing days, it hasn't moved out of it's Midlands home for over 35 years. Complete less some of the more fragile components, the remaining bodywork is however in a parlous state. Disassembled after a major off, every panel now displays some form of damage. Worse still at some point many years ago the fragile aluminium panelwork was either shot blasted, or paint stripped, and has spent many years corroding as a result. The chassis is badly bent, and everything forward of the engine turrets has been hacked off and discarded.

For the uninitiated the factory circuit cars were unique both by the method of their construction, and the materials used in that construction. It would be next to impossible to replicate today given that virtually every part was handcrafted, or used factory tooling now long gone. Being all aluminium (apart from the fibre roof and front wings), means that to construct an all aluminium tub today would probably cost the same as a new Ferrari! Mark Field had a good go, but took the sensible/economic route and used a steel GT6 tub as the basis of his replica.

We aren't sure exactly how far we can progress the restoration of our car, it's simply a huge task being that it's been stripped down to every last nut & bolt, and every rivot has been drilled out of that precious aluminium panelwork? In the short term be aim to stabalize any corrosion and repair any damage that occurred in in it's 1960's accident so that we can carefully reassemble as much of the bodywork as possible. To that end once we have itemised, catalogued, and photograped every last component, the bulkhead/tub panels are going into our ace aluminium guys workshop for conservation, and reassembly. So take a good look this is the last time you might see this car for some time! If in the meantime you want to get up close and personnel with a part of this car then the TSSC have it's petrol tank in their museum, I'm sure they wouldn't mind you popping over for a look.

So what were they?

Sorry I forgot, here is the Stag cam timing figures;

Inlet opens 16 degree's BTDC, closes 56 degree's ABDC
Exhaust opens 56 degree's BBDC, closes 16 degree's ATDC

Fairly tame then! Similar to the late PI/TR6 18/58 cam, that was also not known for it's 'sportyness'.
However it makes the Stag's output look quite impressive given it's tame cams. More power and torque than the 150bhp TR6 (really 142, rounded up for good PR), from less sporting cams than the late strangulated 125 bhp PI/TR6. The Stag was quoted straight out of the box at 145bhp, and 170 lb ft. It makes you wonder what a decent set of cams alone might make to a Stag motor? I have always liked the 25/65 cams fitted across the board to late 60's early 70's Triumph's, the Vitesse, GT6, Spitfire MKIII, 2.5PI MK1 and early MKII, etc. That to me seemed to be the best compromise between power/torque/ecomomy/driveabilty, of any standard Triumph camshaft. I'm just about to start building up a Stag motor (no not a 32 valve, not yet anyway!) for our RBRR entry this year, I wonder if I can get someone to grind me up a set of cams to something with a little more 'sparkle'? I know Tony Hart got Piper to grind him a set for his modsports car a few years ago, and that and a set of quad Webers reputedly kicked out 250 horse power. I'm not after that sort of increase, after all once the RBRR is done the car will go back to the school run as the wife's plaything. It might be worth fabricating a set of headers as well, difficult to do a nice job given the constraints of the Stag engine bay, but I can't do any worse than some of the shocking efforts Iv'e seen from other specialists. We bought another Triumph V8 saloon (Rover V8) recently, and the 'performance' tubular headers under that are a sight to behold, bloody terrible!
One other thing to come to light with all of this Stag research, is that a Stag is a full 100lb heavier than a 2.5 saloon, fat b$%@£*d!

The bloke that designed/specified 6 cyl cams works here!

In an idle moment recently Tony Luxton (he works here part time) and I were discussing Triumph cam specifications, as you do. I mentioned that I had never found out what the Stag's cam timing, lift, etc was despite having poured over every bit of factory literature I could over the years. Just like that, Tony spouted it all out, verbatum, without even thinking! It knocked be back a bit I must admit. He then went on to say that had been one of his pet subjects whilst working in Triumph experimental, he had even had a hand in designing/specifing most of the later 6 cyl cam's. Just to hammer home the point he brought along a load of original specification sheets a week later. Now that's what you call having experts to hand!

Birthday boy gets injected!

Firstly a belated happy 40th birthday to the Chinnmeister, or as we call him here the Reading Bugle (AKA Jason Chinn, TSSC, CT, and bar). Fourty eh Jase, time to start slowing down then mate, put your feet up, that sort of thing. So why then am I booked to PI your Vitesse next Monday!? Jason has decided to PI his Vitesse (a long term ambition I am told) and to this end he has dropped off boxes of redundant Lucas PI gear for me to 'sort out' when I 'have a minute'! It looks like typical ebay pickings, garden shed finds, right down to some stuff found on a beach at high tide! It's been fun sifting through it all trying to put some sort of workable kit together. Stripping the metering units found a likely candidate in the form of a blue spring MK1/early MK11 PI, a good specification unit to start with. The other units were a mixture of later 3 spring (square section), and green top late units. After swapping some diaphrams around, and lubeing some of the links, all is well with the blue springer. The rest of it I shall do as we install it to the Reading dragster. If I get time this week though it might be nice to overall a couple of pumps an re O ring a set of injectors. Apparently I am being paid with a healthy ration of curry and lager, that won't put shoes on the kids feet! This should take me back to the good old days in the 80/90's when i was doing a steady stream of PI conversions to anything that crossed my path. I used to collect redundant PI gear myself for just such conversions, and took a trip down memory lane when I checked some of the stillages where it is stored now.
There's no problem with space in the workshop either for Jason's Vitesse as we have had a bit of a purge and finished off several customers cars recently that have now been collected. We have done more MOT's in the past month than we did over the preceeding 2 years, and we are going great guns fitting those special offer clutch's we are currently shifting. All in all busy times, and its great to be back into the swing of things in the workshop. We even have a record number of the Canley fleet on the road at the moment with 5 Triumphs in use, soon to be followed by two more, seven Triumph's on the road, I'm living the dream!

5 seconds of fame!

The only bit you might see of the V8 on Life on Mars, if you are quick!

Yet More LOM!

Apologies over the lack of output recently, I have an excuse. As well as being about as busy as we ever want to be here anyway I had another invitation to provide a car for the filming of the new series of the BBC drama Life On Mars sprung on me at short notice. You might remember that my mate Brummie Dave and his wife Julie kindly took along our 2.5 a few weeks ago whilst we were on holiday. Dave took his own TR6 up to Manchester last Sunday for a days filming, so that's another Triumph in the new series! The guy who arranges the cars for the BBC needed a cream coloured car at very short notice, could we help? A quick look around the fleet revealed one of our V8 saloons resplendant in just the right shade of 1970's beige! Only trouble was it had come off the road 8 months before needing a water pump, and having starting problems, and a serious missfire. Problems all sorted I volunteered to take the V8 up to Manchester on Tuesday as the wife had other pressing things to do here, besides she had been up several times with her own 2.5, it's a about time I had a day off. After a pleasant trip up the M6 dicing with the BMW's I pulled into BBC Manchester's car park just in time to join the queue at the catering van for breakfast. Whilst despatching my bacon rolls I had time to look around at the motors used previously in the series. One of the Allegro Panda cars bore the scars of a recent accident and was in need of some bodywork. There was a very nice white Rover P6S in the compound, and a Lotus Elan Sprint. The Lotus was slated to be the 'star' of that days shooting but was playing up. Robert (the car arranger) had asked me to bring some spark plugs up with me to try and sort its missbehaviour out, so we set to tinkering. Then the call came to move everything lock stock and barrel out to the set for that day some cordened off streets in central Manchester. There we spent most of the day watching the filming, and fixing the bloody Lotus as one thing after another went wrong with it! Had chance to confer with the other two car providers there that day, a chap from the Granada owners club who had brought his MK1 estate along, and a Imp owners club chap with a nice early example. Our V8 was used along with the Granny and the Imp as street dressing whilst the Elan was thrashed around by the stunt driver. I managed to look over the directors shoulder at his monitor whilst they were filming the bit with the V8 in, it should appear for a few seconds only looking as it does in my picture composed later on the car park here. Oh well at least that's another Triumph on the box!

Saturday afternoon and I'm still here!

I'm just putting the finishing touches to a differential for the local TVR specialist, which means I'm still here long after the shop closed! He's desperate bless him, car is on his ramp in bits and in the way, punter is on the blower every 5 minutes, etc. Not really sure what sort of TVR it's from? In another life I recognise it as a 3.89 4 stud Spitfire diff, with a strange fabricated front carrier on it? The diff he brought along that was taken from the car wasn't even worth starting with as it had been run dry. As you can imagine it was a bit of a mess inside and fit only for the scrap bin. I have to get a move on because I'm under strict instruction to get home at a reasonable time as we have tickets booked at the picture house for that film the D'vinchy Code or something, seems like a good excuse to catch up on some sleep to me!

Undiscovered 'works' 2000 turns up?

Well not quite! Actually it belongs to a good friend of ours former 'works' Triumph race & rally driver Bill Bradley. Bill brings along his 2000 every year for annual check over and MOT. In the same family from new, it's a nice low mileage example, and drives like a I remember them driving when they were nearly new. I seem to remember Bill doing a 'Tour de France' retrospective type event a few years ago in this very car, and quite competitive it was to apparently. So does that qualify it as a 'works' car?

Hmm, TR5's nice!

We have a rather nice TR6 in the workshop for a gearbox and clutch. Gearbox wasn't to bad for a left hooker that looked original to the car. Usually all the running gear in imported TR's is trashed, or buggered about with by (lets be diplomatic) unsympathetic grease monkeys. Anyway nothing to serious with this one, just the usual layshaft/laygear wear, should be back together tommrow and off my bench ready to go back in. So what's that got to do with TR5's I hear you ask? Well prior to taking the box out of the 6 I had a little test drive to see how bad the box was. The nice owner had thoughtfully delivered the car here with roof folded, the sun was out, the birds were singing, oh it were nice! On return I realised that its been some years since I last had a convertible on the road of my own, and with all of this wonderful global warming, and pleasant summers in prospect then now was the time to think about dragging one out. Easiest candidate is one of our TR5's, the car I bought when I was 15, the one that kick started this whole Triumph thing I have off. I know it only needs a couple of hours work for an MOT, so no excuses, the other TR5's are all much more involved projects. My original car isn't the best looking TR5 you will ever see, but that's good because it rubs up all the concours freaks, and speculators that have turned nearly every other 5 out there into tarted up precious things. It's very much as I had it in the 70's, paintwork has suffered though, but then again I did spray it in my Dad's garage with Mum's hoover! Oh and I was only 16 at the time, and there was no one out there to give me advice. Restore a TR5 in the 70's, what do you want to do that for? Just scrap it son and buy a Capri was all the advice I got from the 'experts'!

http://www.canleyclassics.com/triumphmuseum.asp?article=tr5twp956f.xml

Another show/demonstration chassis!

Where are they all coming from, and how many did Triumph Publicity Division commision, build? I'm refering to the ubiquitous Herald show/demonstration chassis, that every college of merit had on their books in the 60's/70's, and it seems right up until recently. We already have a MK11 type demonstrator here courtesy of Chris Allen, and have had another 3 or 4 partially stripped examples go through our hands over the years. This new one aquired last week is the rarer MK1 variety, and the build plaque lists it at number 40. It's funny but we were offered another MK1 last month previously to be found in Cardiff technical college. This one however up until recently was to be found at the Studley Castle headquarters of MG Rover (or whatever incarnation of British Leyland they had become by then). In a bit of a state having been left outside for some time, it is however restorable, and should find a home in the museum extension/refurbishment (work recommences next week!).

HCR latest!

6.40 AM and I'm still here on my own at Canley Classics! I'm sure we had one or two entrants back here by this time on last years HCR (or 20 Counties Challenge as it was then?).
Everyone got away OK last night, OK so there were a few last minute fixes, like a starter motor change in the workshop on a nice Spitfire. Then there was the PI strip and check in the car park. Oh and I nearly forgot the knackered quill shaft extension on another saloon requiring that particular team to be split up and share with other crews.
Thanks to Fred Nicklin (former Triumph Test Driver) who came along to wish the crews the best. Fred spent a couple of hours with us moving amongst the various crews/cars chatting as he went. Fred is no stranger to Club Triumph events as he did the inaugural 1966 Round Britain Reliability Run as a 'works' driver, in a 'works' car (press car I think?). Fred went on to do several other RBRR's with the 'works'. Tim Bancroft the present organiser of the RBRR chatted to Fred about those formative runs.
In typical CT endurance event last minute crew formation style a customer of ours who had come along to collect his Vitesse convertable quickly formed a crew with some 'spare' bods and entered, great stuff!
I wonder how long before someone turns up? That reminds me best fire up Betty the tea urn.

Stolen Ginetta

I know its a bit of a long shot but if you hear or see anything of Tonys Ginetta let him (Tony works here part time),or us know. Tony is understandably gutted, keep em pealed!

The following is Tonys description:

This G27 was built from a kit and has competed in the Ginetta Speed
Championship with some success for the last 5 years or so.

The car was taken on a Brian James trailer from Solihull in the West
Midlands on Friday night.

Spec:
4.5 Cross-drilled Rover V8 with early french blue rocker covers.
2x White 4 into 1 tubular exhaust manifolds
4x 13" x 10" Compomotive ML's (Scratched rims due to tight trailer fitment)
Fitted with slicks. (from memory 2 x Hoosier, 2 x Avon)
Rover SD1 gearbox with close ratios
4x Weber DCNF 38 carbs, (matching serial numbers)
Bespoke one-piece tubular steel INLET manifold, painted red.

If anyone sees or hears anything which may be relevent please PM me.

The car actually loosk somewhat more tatty than in the photo, here is what
it looked like when stolen...



Thanks,
Tony

Life after Mars!

Well that's it, all done and dusted, I think? Clare spent a further two days up in Manchester this week with the 2.5 on location with the Life on Mars production people. Filming went on well into the night on Monday (finished about 1 AM!) necessitating a night in the local Travel Lodge so that she could be back on location bright and early on Tuesday. Apparently the 2.5 was required most of Tuesday for filming, again requiring a 'late one', Clare not starting off back down South till gone 10 PM bless her. A minor scare occurred whilst she was driving home with a fairly major missfire spoiling the trip home. AA card at the ready she pressed on with the missfire getting worse by the mile. Finally at just after midnight she limped back onto the drive, totally shattered! To late to do anything about it then I decided to swap motors in the morning and limp the 6 miles or so to work in the dark and empty roads. From that short trip I had deduced that the fault was ignition related and probably something to do with the distributor baseplate/vacuum operation. A quick check later in the daylight confirmed a detached condensor/LT wire from the contact set changed the week before, no names no pack drill! Coincidently exactly the same thing happened to me a day or two before in a customers GT6 on the way to an MOT.
Anyway back to life, back to reality, whats going on in and around Canleys I hear you ask?
Finally getting around to finishing that Museum extension we started last year. You know what it's like, builder go's off to do a quick extension for someone else, don't see builder for a couple of months, builder comes back in the middle of the winter when funds are tight so nothing gets done. Anyway it's all back on, all the roofing materials turned up here yesterday, builder is due to make a start in a week or so, exciting stuff!
Also with a healthy amount of excess funds floating around we have decided to commission a nice set of fancy wrought iron gates for the car park/driveway entrance. They should be here and fitted towards the end of next week, should give a much more handsome vista to our frontage.
After being effectively closed for the past two or three years the workshop is back in operation, we might even put a telephone back in! Don't all rush to try and book your car in though as I have already filled the place with customers cars! Have now done 4 MOT's in the past few days so am well aquainted with the new computer generated MOT system and it's teething problems! Sid and Tony my old mates at D & R's (our preffered MOT station for the past 15 odd years) have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and they don't like it one little bit!
Going to spend a fair bit of money in the workshop over the next couple of months, so need to clear a few cutomers cars to give us room for improvements. Always fancied a rolling road, that day can't be to far off!

Brummie Dave reports from Mars!

As mentioned in the last post Dave & Julie kindly took Clares 2.5 up to Stockport yesterday for further filming on the Life on Mars set. The following pictures are his (thanks Dave!). Apparently the GT6 was hammered up and down the road and handbraked turned by a stunt driver until it threw its teddy out of the pram and boiled over in spectacular fashion! Bloody lightweight (as in feable, not pared of excess weight!) GT6's, I told them they could thrash the 2.5 to their hearts content if they wished, there's no way they would cane it any harder than Clare does!

The Plot Thickens!

Anyway back to the plot! Clare set off at 4.15 this morning for the LOM set in Stockport. She was not best pleased at having to get up at that sort of hour! Seems her 2.5 is going to have more of a starring roll than first envisaged. Originally it was only going to be car park dressing in a background shot. Now it's going to have one of the actors using it in an undercover sting. Because of that it now has to go back up to Stockport on Monday when unfortunately we are away on holiday. Step forth a knight in shining armour, Brummie Dave and his missus Julie who have agreed to take the 2.5 up for further filming. Apparently Julie is going to get her best 70's gear out of mothballs in the hope of a walk on part?
If you didn't watch the first series of Life on Mars find out more about it here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/lifeonmars/

Charm offensive!

Did you watch that retro BBC police drama set in 1973 'Life on Mars' earlier in the year? I was hooked mostly for the old mota's being hooned around, but the storylines wern't to bad, and the photography/feel of the thing took me right back to that flares and tank top time. Craig our web guy kept on at me when it was showing about mentioning it in these blogs, I never got around to it then. Seems it was quite popular with an average of 6 million viewers per episode. Had a guy in the shop on Saturday who is responsible for getting the cars that are used in that (and other TV/Film stuff), so we had a good old natter about things old mota. He was telling me that the prices for MK111 Cortina's had shot up since that first series aired. I'm not surprised, the 'star' Cortina in LOM certainly looked the part being ragged around Manchester. Anyway seems Robert is a bit of a closet Triumph fan, and its mostly down to him that we saw a Vitesse convertible at the start of the first episode, a 2000 later in the series, and a 1500 saloon (Toledo?) as well. I was bemoaning the general lack of Triumph's on the gogglebox, so we have hatched a plan between us to do something about it! Robert explained the usual problems with securing suitable 4 wheeled 'actors' are lack of notice, dealing with the chain of command in owners club's (and the time penalties that brings about), unrealistic demands/fees asked of owners, and finding the right colour (seems they just can't use certain colours?). After a nanoseconds thought I suggested that we might be able to help! We have 30 + Triumph's here a good proportion of which could be made roadworthy given 48 hours notice, we have one or two of most models, and a decent spread of colours. Better than that we are not confined by 9 to 5 jobs and the need to book time off so we could be 'on set' with minimum fuss given the word. I think the thing that swung it though was our offer of our time/Triumphs for free, we are not fussed about the financial side of it, we just want to see more Triumph's on the screen, and raise the general public awareness of this otherwise dieing marque.
Didn't think anymore of it until the phone rang yesterday afternoon, it was Robert enquiring if we could be in Manchester tommrow (Thursday) morning with that blue 2.5 saloon he saw on our car park! They are about to start filming the new series of LOM and need a couple of extra cars, could we help? No problem Clare said she will take it up as its a good excuse for a shopping trip, the eldest showed interest when shopping was mentioned so she's going as well. That leaves me to get the car ready this morning, only a couple of things to do like changing the present number plates for ones that don't have www.canleyclassics.com along the bottom for some more historically acurate examples! Oh and I might have to chuck a travel rug over those huge speakers and inertia reels on the rear parcel shelf!

32 Valve Stag!

I have always harboured a desire to build a 32 valve Stag motor, it just needs to be done! To that end I have a couple of Stag V8's sitting in the engine shop awaiting the glorious day.They are placed in such a manner so that I catch my shin on them every now and again to remind me why they are there!
It's not an idle dream either, I know it existed as a paperwork exercise in Triumph experimental early on in the seventies, but did it progress further? A school mate of mine's Dad ran a small engineering shop locally specialising in amongst other things construction of race winning motorcycle combination outfits, but what he was really known for throughout the Midlands was his ace ability in the black art of aluminium welding. At least it was in those days, I remember his tig plant being virtually the size of the end wall of his industrial unit, nowadays they are much more manageable. Anyway as I recall said mate and I popped into his Dad's unit on the way home from school one day in the mid seventies to check out the latest motorcycle combi, only to be confronted with his Dad 'doing a late one' for some lucrative hush hush British Leyland contract. Obviously oblivious to my even then unatural interest in all things Triumph he didn't make any attempt to cover up what he was doing. Mounted on a comprehensive alighnment jig was what looked like a Sprint head with a Stag chain box being carefully welded on the wrong end? I remember asking my Dad at the time if he knew anything about it (Dad worked near to experimental at Triumph and in the course of his job regularly found excuse to have a nose, and take the odd picture in there!) only to be met with a blank expression? So is that as far as it got? I must remember to ask my mate Pete Clarke (former experimental), he was one of the team on the mini 'production line' building the Stag engine saloons/estates in experimental, maybe he might recall how far things progressed?

Another Triumph Trader finishes!

Hot on the heals of the demise of Six Spares a couple of months ago comes news that Triumph traders British Sports Car Spares are also to cease trading. I spoke to Theo from BSCS at Stoneleigh and he hinted then that they were close to shutting up shop. Well it's confirmed, after dropping some Herald sills off here Saturday (watch out for future special offer on Herald/Vitesse sills!) en route to the Jaguar show at Stoneleigh, Theo told me they had effectively finished as of that weekend. Sad news another stalwart trader from the South East has closed the doors for good, bit of a trend developing? We seem to be losing traders on a regular, and accelerating basis, not good for competition (as far as you the customer is concerned), and dosn't bode well for the future spares supply for the marque? It seems that the support isn't there from customers for the smaller to mid size Triumph specialists, and that the larger concerns are the only ones benefiting? Shades of my Blog from the 31 January this year '2005 Market Survey'? I suppose my pessamistic predictions of the Triumph spares supply business being collared by one or two of the largest traders might be coming rather sooner than I envisaged?

It's to light to dent the bonnet!

Lovely morning!

Pretty outside isn't it? Just snapped a couple of pictures to catch this mornings frosty start.

Sad day!

To some of you this may come as a surprise, those of you who know me better will know that this has been coming for a long time.
After sixteen years as a TSSC member, nearly seven of them spent looking after the Herald 948, 1200 & 12/50 Register, today is my last day as a paid up member of the club. My membership is about to lapse and I do not intend to renew.
I will of course no longer be able to contribute to this messageboard, I will maintain my online presence through the Triumph Herald Yahoo group:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/triumph_herald...
through other open club forums and the website of Rarebits4classics.
I would like to thank all of you who have contributed material for my articles over the past seven years. I would also like to thank Bernard Robinson for his work, in making my work look good! Bernie does more than most of you will realise, I have really appreciated his continued interest in his work, and in Triumphs in general.
Though I am no longer a TSSC member, I remain a dedicated enthusiast. If anyone needs advice, or simply an opinion, you all know where to find me,
All the best,
Bill.

TSSC Messageboard 28.2.06

Like Bill says no surprise to those of us who know him but still a bit of a shock. Bill and myself had a long chat last Saturday here (the Davis family were here on mass), and previously at Stoneleigh. Nice guy Bill and a real loss to the TSSC, but like he says you can still find him elsewhere if you look. We shall continue to support Bill and the family, and of course Rarebits. Keep up the good work Bill!

Interesting postcript to Stoneleigh!

I had wondered why we had had a noticeable welcome increase in business from Ireland over the past couple of years (particularly Southern Ireland). Someone explained to Karl at the show that the reason is simple. Some years ago as a result of some wacky probably EEC funded scheme a bounty was placed on all old cars of approximately £150 in an attempt to clear the country of this 'environmental' problem. As a consequence all old cars (classic or not) were traded in for this bounty and crushed! As a result there are no old car parts, or project cars, to be had over there. Is this true? If so god forbid it ever happens here, imagine!

Did you go to Stoneleigh?

We did and very good it was to! Still one of the best Triumph show's in the calender. The public obviously think so to as they continue to attend in reasurringly large numbers unlike some other shows which seem to be going backwards. Got to chew the cud with some old aquaintance's from the trade and compare notes about what's happening out there. I was chatting to an old face from Rimmers when an overpowering sence of dejavu came over me, it's only at times like this that you realise how long we have all been doing this. Not bad for a car manufacturer that has been out of production for over 20 years, and cars that had a life expectancy of less than 10, there must be something special about these Triumph's! The consensus amongst the major traders seems to be that as a trade we will all be attending far fewer (cherry picking) Triumph events. Most shows are percieved as being purely a PR exersise from the larger traders (apart from Stoneleigh which continues to be a money spinner). Unfortunately for the smaller club shows this PR is seen as poor value for money as against other mediums, so attendance by the hard core traders is set to continue to dwindle. One show in particular this coming year was highlighted by several traders as being likely to suffer from poor attendance by potential customers (and as a consequence traders), part of a year on year noticable decline. It's a shame but the market moves on, fashions change, and we all find other things to do with our summer weekends and our Triumphs.

Alloy Cylinder Heads

Some early questions regarding our alloy cylinder head revelation need answering.

"What's the weight saving?"

In simple terms an aluminium equivelant to a cast iron head (bare) is a third of the weight. This holds true for any like for like aluminium replacement anywhere in the engine bay, water pump housing, water pump, etc. A worthwhile weight lose you will agree. Allthough our head's will be outwardly similar to the original cast iron ones we are taking advantage of this opportunity to improve them in several respects, in ways that aren't possible with the original iron head. This however will not affect that simple weight saving equation.

"Any performance & economy improvements as a result?"

See above. We have looked long and hard at where things could be improved as a result of starting from scratch with new patterns. We have sought extra advice from respected Triumph head modifyers of standing. We have not undertaken this process lightly bearing in mind the costs incured that would be foolhardy. Several interesting inherent weakness's came to light in the original head as a result of sectioning and sampling original cast iron heads, hopefully now removed for good.
By far the greatest improvements will be for the 2ltr Vitesse and GT6, simply removing all of that weight from ahead of the front axle will bring huge benefits in handling if nothing else!

" What models will your heads fit?"

Allthough we see our biggest potential market amongst the TR6 boys, we intend to have heads to suit every application on the shelf as soon as feasable. The first off head will be fitted to a 2.5 engine in the next couple of weeks, full production follows after that has been extensively tested.

Six Spares RIP

Sad news one of the longest established 'small Triumph' parts suppliers Six Spares has ceased trading. I spoke with Bill yesterday and he confirmed that apart from some s/h parts that he may continue to autojumble Six Spares as was is no more. It was no secret in the trade that Bill had wanted to get out for some time (we had been discussing this on and off for 3 years or so), well now the decision has been made and bridges burn't and Bill is looking to pastures new. Six Spares had the tooling to make some of the unique seals on the Herald range, thankfully these have not been lost as Rimmers have agreed to continue production. A great shame never the less to see one of the older statesman of the Triumph suppliers dissappear. Does this mean that manky jumper Bill was to be seen in at every autojumble since the year dot is to be retired as well, we shall see!