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foster461

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Everything posted by foster461

  1. In the last few years my wife and I have fixed the washing machine, the dryer, the dishwasher and the microwave oven all thanks to youtube videos. These appliances are all 30 years old but better built than the new products and the repairs were all within our capabilities and inexpensive. Stan
  2. foster461

    TRR

    John is registered on Sideways as chippieman which makes sense when you know of his background. John is a real trooper and has gone over and above to take advantage of the opportunity he was given to improve the TRR forums. Stan
  3. foster461

    TRR

    I was part of John's team along with Brian and Tim. It was a pleasure working with this team of people that have a passion for TR's, the TR Register and the TR Register forums. The rules and the forum structure will be updated shortly. I cant say that we got everything that I wanted with the rules update but we made a lot of progress and some of the constraints are coming from outside of the club, GDPR for example. I had no idea what a can of worms this poorly thought out legislation was until I started researching it. A lot of what we focused on was creating a better environment for the forums and a closer integration with the club leadership and the magazine TR Action. We have put some interim leadership in place to help facilitate that and these positions will be available to new candidates during the next election cycle. Stan
  4. foster461

    Bruxit

    I lived in Switzerland (Zurich and Geneva) for several years in the early 80's. At that time they were rigorous in the tracking of seasonal workers and foreigners (me). I was on a long USA biz trip that spanned the time when I should have gotten a new sticker for my car (Renault 20) and got home late on new years eve. I watched the police winching it onto a flatbed at 1 minute past midnight and paid sfr 300 to get it back the next day. Stan
  5. Despite having read everything available publicly about Darren's recommended expulsion from the TR Register I still dont have any idea what was behind that. I see some poorly justified subjective assertions about attitude, proxy votes, VOWH leadership etc but not the one big thing that I was hoping for that a sensible person would read and say whoa, that was a terrible thing that he did and expulsion was obvious. The TR Reg BOD and the independent panel all saw something, when will the rest of us see it ? Stan
  6. No Graeme. The TR6 is still running with the balance tube at least up until the point that I tucked it away for hibernation and is still idling a bit higher than I would like. There will be nothing much happening with TR's here until late April and I will re-visit this next summer. Stan
  7. Last summer I had an email exchange with Don H and we questioned whether we should renew our TR Register membership. I was certainly unhappy with the whole Darren thing, the direction the club was going and the continuing anti-forum sentiment that has resulted in the recent forum terms and conditions, some of which made me laugh. I weighed all of that with the fact that I had been a member since the late 70's, most of that time as an overseas member. I also considered the value that I get from the club both with my Weber converted TR6 and my TR3A restoration project. The TR3 project would not have been possible without the forum and in particular Stuart who practically held my hand for six years. My TR3 is painted Powder Blue using a sample that Raymond Van Donk mailed me from Holland. As a co-leader of our own club (New England Triumphs) I also look to the TR Register for inspiration and ideas so the web site and the magazine are of particular interest to me. I do wish the club had a better option for overseas members. I may have been the one to coin the phrase that Menno likes to use - We pay the most but get the least. In the end I renewed my membership and as the year proceeded we had the AGM. I realized that the proxy voting scheme is worthless since most people will just give their proxy to the chairman (and boy were they encouraged to do that) and our individual proxy votes are just noise. I was disappointed that the forum rule change was voted in as I had lobbied against it. When John approached me to join the small team to review the Forum and make some recommendations I was happy to participate. I opted to click through the new rules to continue my forum access. I guess I figured that the worst of the new rules would not be enforced and if they were I would have the option to sever the relationship. As it happens I have seen no changes in forum moderation or the content that people post. When John submits the recommendations of the team to the management the response will be very informative. My membership is up for renewal in the summer and I imagine I will be going through the same evaluation process as last year. Stan Stan
  8. Just be careful with these random popups claiming you have a virus and click here etc. Often that is the malware delivery mechanism. If you suspect a problem dismiss all the popups and go to the Windows defender security center where you can run a scan that you can trust more. Stan
  9. Mennos English is so good we sometimes forget that it is not his first language and given where he lives it might not be his second or third either. I think Menno was clear that he understands why he has lost access to the members chat area and it was not a surprise other than the lag in terminating your membership and waiting for the process to catch up and update your forum status. Stan
  10. A common tactic in politics. If you want an independent panel to reach the conclusion that you want you just have to time-limit the investigation, narrow the scope of the investigation and put constraints on who the investigators can interview. Stan
  11. The old farts managed to summon up the energy to take on the BoD, change the course that they were on and cast some light on this seedy affair. I'm off to take a nap
  12. He still shows as having a disabled account in the member list. The urgency in cancelling the EGM did not extend to reinstating Darren.
  13. You sure did. Using a flawed process with suspicious motives the board expelled a TR reg member. This pissed off a lot of us so we had enough votes to call an EGM. At the last minute the board agreed to more or less implement the procedures that the EGM would have proposed so we scurried to call off the EGM. Darren is supposed to be reinstated forthwith and an independent review scheduled. Stan
  14. The TR reg forum update was abandoned due to the update script banning everyone. Software rolled back to the old version with the potential loss of some posts. Wayne will regroup next week when the vendor has a chance to fix the problem. I never saw the original announcement as it was buried in the Forum help section. I was sure that the BoD had lost it.
  15. Massachusetts has many different license plates, over 200 I think. The plate on the TR6 is a vanity plate, essentially a current style of plate but with your choice of text within some limitations. No restrictions with this plate. The TR3 has what they call a Year Of Manufacture plate. Back in the day cars were issued a new plate or pair of plates every year. They were a different color each year and had the year stamped into the plate. At some point they switched to issuing plates every two years which is why my 1960 TR3 has a 1959 plate. That is the correct plate for that year and that is the correct color. If you bought a TR3 in MA in 1960 that is the plate you would have been issued. You can buy old license plates at flea markets and as long as the number is not in use they will register your car with it. YOM plates have some theoretical restrictions like not using the car as a daily driver etc but in practice the police have better things to do. Stan
  16. The last 6 months have been hectic, dealing with a construction project at home and the associated landscaping issues. Finally got my TR's out of hibernation and looking forward to putting some miles on them this summer.
  17. I bought this clock in the UK in the early 80s with the intention of hanging it on my apartment wall in Geneva when I returned a few years later. I never got to bang in a nail before I was relocated again so this clock has done a world tour since then but in a box. Any clock people know what it is ?. Looks like it may have come out of a school or an office ? Mechanism looks quite basic. https://stanfoster.smugmug.com/Projects/Clock/ Stan
  18. foster461

    pinky

    A very warm welcome Pink. I still have not fitted the aeroscreens to my TR3 yet but I want to do that this summer and follow your fine example.
  19. The people that live in the northern states are generally pretty good with the snow and ice. We laugh our friends in Houston or Atlanta where the whole city is paralyzed by an inch of snow. There are sometimes problems where everything looks fine but you suddenly run into a freak blizzard with zero visibility. As someone mentioned, the interstates in this area are dead flat and dead straight. You can drive for 5 hours at 80mph on a road than never changes and still be in Iowa. It doesnt change when you cross into Nebraska either. If the traffic is sparse you probably have the cruise control engaged. Then its oh crap, everything is stopped ahead... We had a minor storm last night, half a foot of snow followed by freezing rain followed by a sudden temperature drop into the teens. My truck has a half inch coating of ice on it and the 100ft driveway is a skating rink with at least an inch of ice. Luckily we are in the part of the winter where the sun is getting higher and with some warmer air temperatures forecast for this weekend I may be able to get into my truck again. Stan
  20. And a warm welcome to you too Roger. Just catching up with the new posts for the day and saw you had checked in. Still mid winter here and I'm getting serious cabin fever but I expect your TR2 will see the light of day some weeks before my TR3 ventures out. I dont just have to wait for warm weather but also for the massive pile of snow blocking in the trailer to melt. Stan
  21. Another good point Steve. Many of us maintain our own classics and some have rebuilt/restored them. For my TR6 and TR3 there is not a component internal or external that I have not personally touched. I'm intimately aware of how these machines work and how they are running that contributes not just to the satisfaction of driving them but the confidence too. When I lift the hood of my truck I struggle to identify anything other then where to pour windshield washer fluid. Stan
  22. Agreed Paul, that is another important element. You have more fun when both you and the car are approaching the limit of their capability and you are fully engaged in the process, not just sitting there and steering (a role that may also be obsolete in the future). In these older cars that limit comes at much lower speeds than the modern cars and in a TR6 you are the power steering, abs, engine management and traction control. Stan
  23. I think one part of the puzzle is that you have to be comfortable behind the wheel. I dont mean padded seats and plush carpets but the ergonomics and how well you are suited to fit the car. When I was shopping for a new truck a few years ago I ruled out several models because they didnt fit my short stature. If I moved the seat to get the steering at the right distance the pedals were wrong. In the end I bought an F150 because it had electric seats, adjustable steering wheel and adjustable pedals. I love driving that truck because I am very confident and comfortable behind the wheel. I think the F1 cars are built for the driver, you essentially wear it. Stan
  24. Back in 1985 ish we were working in the UK and my wife had a Ford Escort Xr3i company car. It was red and had sticky tires. I drove it most of the time while my Vauxhall Cavalier remained parked for our three year contract. I loved that Xr3i and drove it flat out most of the time along the country lanes in the Reading/Mortimer area. I have no idea why I did not die or kill someone. I was 33 years old. Looking back at that car it was nothing special by modern standards. 104HP, 0-60 in 9.7 seconds etc. My wife's current car, a Ford Escape 2ltr Ecoboost has at leat 100 more HP and does 0-60 in a little over 7 seconds. The Escape is fun to drive, I like it much better than the Honda CRV that it replaced. Push the sport mode button and the car wakes up. However it still doesnt feel as much fun to drive as the old Xr3i. Maybe it is the modern suspension and steering that are removing the excitement and raw feeling that the earlier cars had. The XR3i was manual transmission while the Escape is automatic (with paddle shifters). Perhaps I should spend more time with the paddle shifters. The way I drive my TR3 is enjoyable but I dont feel the need to push it very hard. The TR6 on the other hand I have to continually restrain myself as that is a great deal of fun to drive. 130 HP engine, all poly suspension and steering, 13 inch steering wheel, drives like a go cart. If you had to boil it down and bottle it, how woulod you define fun to drive ? Stan
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