lotus62 Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 Hi al, just curious, how long do you own your triumph's ? and how long ago did you buy your first triumph? I will kick off, I bought my first (and only) spitfire mk4 in 1988 as a restoration project (and as a first car btw I was still at school doing my last final year) I still own that same spitfire so this year in december I have my first car for 30 years. started with no engine (some parts of it where in the area that people call the boot but there was not much left of the boot) it had full floor airconditioning and from whatever angle you looked at it you could look straight through the car. no garage so all in the open.... so as a only child I am single handed responsible for the pre-mature grey hears of both my parents...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6Steve Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 bought my Spitty in 1973 Since then its had a new body, new frame and multiple engines. It's been sitting for years cuz such a little car is deadly in America but I have everything laying around to, including a freshly paainted body, to put it back on the road. Things don't rust here in the Mojave.. I drove it for almost fidfteen years with no top, just a tonneau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulAA Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 18 minutes ago, GT6Steve said: bought my Spitty in 1973 Since then its had a new body, new frame and multiple engines. It's been sitting for years cuz such a little car is deadly in America but I have everything laying around to, including a freshly paainted body, to put it back on the road. Things don't rust here in the Mojave.. I drove it for almost fidfteen years with no top, just a tonneau Steve You may not be familiar with Trigger's Broom - a British TV character, who claimed to have had the same broom for 20-odd years. Same broom, but with eight new handles and six new heads Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotus62 Posted January 21, 2018 Author Share Posted January 21, 2018 1 hour ago, GT6Steve said: bought my Spitty in 1973 mine is from 1973 ! last time I drove top closed was about 20 years ago when I had to move to a new garage in the winter (I only drive on sunny days) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 First Triumph was my Herald 1200 saloon bought from my Grandfathers estate in 1986. Originally bought by my uncle in the early 70s, used by my family for a few months in the early 70s when in the UK "on leave" and then with Grandad until he died in '86. We had many "adventures" together and I eventually sold it to Josh Bowler in about 2006. It then went to Mr Thompson in WA in 2008 and it's adventures continue in the hands of it's current Triumph-nutter owner with recent conversion to S6 power and some rather drastic metalwork. I approve (more or less) of the S6 but not so much of the metalwork. Vitesse came along in 1988 as a "kit" and was put on the road in September 1989. It's been on the road more or less continuously since and done about 70k miles in that time, probably more than two thirds of that in continental Europe. It's a family member. I've also had a Dolly 1850, rough, but faithful. A Sprint, less rough, less faithful and, much more recently, the Mk 2 2.5PI saloon. I did alot of work on that car but never really bonded with it. Now sold and bizarrely showing as taxed but not MoT'd since 2016 on the DVLA systems..... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtuckunder Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 First Triumph, a Vitesse Convertible in 1972 age 18, still have it, lots of other Triumph's been and gone since, but first love is a bit special! not to mention scars, bad backs, frozen fingers, empty wallet.................................... Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterC Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 Bought the 6 in '78 for £1600 with 34k on clock. Daily driver for ten years. Body-off DIY rebuild early 90s. DIY supercharged late-90s. Now at ca 280k miles and crank not touched. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 (edited) I'm afraid I'm the opposite of the above stalwarts. I had a Vitesse, a convertible, in the late Seventies, when they were nearly new. In the Nineties I bought another to restore, realised that I wan't a concourse person, went to the Dark Side and raced it. But Old Blue was always a road car as well, and was eventually taken out by a Sunday Driver on the wrong side of the road! Then, I bought a 13/60 Estate, and converted that into a racing Vitesse estate, in the manner of the BTCC Volvos. Silverback survived until 2007, when that was taken out by a Group 2 Porsche on the Nurburgring. But all was not lost! Each time, many parts and components went to others with more restorative intent, to complete their careful reproductions of Canley's Finest or else was used by me in the next incarnation of my racing machine. In fact, I bought Old Blue back from the insurers for the parts and was able to re-purpose so many that when they sent a car transporter to pick up the carcass, all that was left was the chassis. It looked strange, up there on the multiloader along with moderns that were just a bit bent. Old Blue's bulkhead went into Silverback, as the original 13/60 one fell apart from rust when I tried to pull it off the chassis. Al;though Silverback's body was mostly fibreglass, the windscreen surround was completely crushed and the rear tub wasn't straight anywhere, but I gave it to a guy restoring an estate, for panels. It was very shortly after that that my current car appeared for sale on eBay, a car I had raced against in the 90s! I don't know if it had been changed in the intervening years, but there was so much that needed changing to bring it up to standard that it got a lot of parts from Silverback and is now called SofS, Son of Silverback, because it has its father's genes! John Edited January 22, 2018 by JohnD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotus62 Posted January 22, 2018 Author Share Posted January 22, 2018 17 hours ago, oldtuckunder said: First Triumph, a Vitesse Convertible in 1972 age 18, still have it, lots of other Triumph's been and gone since, but first love is a bit special! not to mention scars, bad backs, frozen fingers, empty wallet.................................... Alan funny you mention first love.. my spitfire is my first love as well, I was walking down the road with my first real love (blond hair brown eyes c cup) when I came across this sorry looking spitfire. that c cup girl left after 3 month but the spit is still there..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 On 21/01/2018 at 5:29 PM, lotus62 said: Hi al, just curious, how long do you own your triumph's ? and how long ago did you buy your first triumph? I will kick off, I bought my first (and only) spitfire mk4 in 1988 as a restoration project (and as a first car btw I was still at school doing my last final year) I still own that same spitfire so this year in december I have my first car for 30 years. started with no engine (some parts of it where in the area that people call the boot but there was not much left of the boot) it had full floor airconditioning and from whatever angle you looked at it you could look straight through the car. no garage so all in the open.... so as a only child I am single handed responsible for the pre-mature grey hears of both my parents...... Is that a Triumph green? If so which one? Trying to choose a colour for the GT6 as white doesn't do it for me...... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprint95m Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Long term? I bought my first Triumph, a 2500S, in 1986 and apart from a couple of years lost in the wilderness have pretty much run Triumphs as daily drivers ever since these being a Dolomite Sprint, another 2500S and an early Dolomite 1850 until late 2016. Currently, I don't have a Triumph on the road but am in the early stages of building a Dolomite Sprint EFI, this car being very rotten so it is going to take a while. Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotus62 Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 @Nick Jones Nich I really don't remember car was painted around the y2k I asked the painter for early 70's BRG and he ended up with two I had to choose from. maybe I still have the original code on an extra can I do remember there is a lot of dark blue in it. I am back home tomorrow so let you know. btw many years ago I came across a valencia blue gt6, that was a very nice color for that car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Ok, no worries. Just thought it was nicer than the usual Triumph greens. The only 70s Triumph green (or blue according to some) I usually like is Mallard. Leaning towards Damson at present..... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foster461 Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 My history with Triumphs goes back over 60 years with memories of my Dads Renown pulling our 30ft Bluebird caravan (one half at a time) over the Pennines during our move to Edinburgh when I was 5 years old. I bought my first TR6 in 1978, a 1972 Saffron UK TR6 that was already fast approaching a basket case. I drove it to Switzerland and rebuilt it while I lived there. I have never been without a TR6 since that time. I married a gal from Iowa that had a TR6 which she bought in 1982. I sold my TR6 for a down payment on a house in 1986. We still have her TR6 although the last time she drove it was 1981. I restored it in 1990. In 2010 we added a 1960 TR3a project car to the fleet which I completed (not that they are ever finished..) in 2016. Stan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamish Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I bought my TR3a in the summer of 2016. Well I’ll I have to start somewhere !!! Did some competition upgrades and competed in the 2017 TR Register sprint and hill climb champs along with Alan above. Lots of fun and some success in my rookie year 10th overall and 2nd in class (<130bhp/tonne) (but it’s only 117 per tonne. ) may have to retire whilst I’m ahead also taken it to shows and runs etc apart from fixing a gearbox leak this winter I’ll be trying to reduce the cornering lean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulAA Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I too am a recent convert - bought my TR6 in 2013 and have been endeavouring ever since to make good a rash, uninformed and impetuous choice of car. If only I'd taken some advice... We had some fun importing it to Poland and, to overcome various administrative hurdles, registered it on the list of art important to Poland's history. As you do. But I had two earlier 'significant' brushes with TR6s, which sealed my fate. One was the - ahem - statuesque woman I worked for whilst still a student in the mid-80s and who had a battle-worn red PI. Forever are red '6s associated in my fetid mind with substantial... lungs. The other was a triple-weber'ed beast a friend in Cambridge had in the early 90s (and still has to this day). At the time, I had a rather pathetic MGB GT, which he kindly offered to swap for a day, on condition that I took the '6 to the narrow confines of Silver Street in town, slipped it into first and floored the throttle. And I became hooked after one shot of the most addictive drugs known to man. My name is Paul and I'm an addict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotus62 Posted January 24, 2018 Author Share Posted January 24, 2018 sorry Nick, no paint code I did found an old can from 1992 but that turned out to be blvc 258, her previous color (signal red) the spare can with green has no label anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Thanks for looking. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TR3tim Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Nice to see tbe Renown, Stan! I learned the basics of driving in my Ma's Mayflower, at the age of 13/14 in 1963. EHH 602, where are you now...? After l passed my test, my Ma got a '63 Herald 12/50 which was my passion- wagon in 1967/8. She duly bought a '66 Spit Mk.2 - a lovely thing. I bought my own Triumph (£50) in 1970 - a v. rotten TR2 - and l broke the crank inside a month. Replaced the engine with a Vanguard out of a scrappy's, and thus began to learn mechanicking. Sold it for £90 and after 3yrs got a rotten (but strongish) 3a; haven't been w/out a TR since. Replaced the 3a in 1975 with a '55 3 - and l've still got that (tho it's been rebuilt twice in the interim :D). It's been on aeroscreens only, since Le Mans 2001. I run it with almost zero trim, no carpets (learned my lesson of what soggy carpets can do to floors and sills!). The trips and adventures -including Jabbeke and the 'Ring - l've had in this! Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Smith Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Bought my first TR6 (OPC 310L), a 73 CR, in about 1982 from a Surrey scrapyard for £900, although it was only 11 years old it was rotten as a pear and needed a full restoration, luckily Stanpart panels were available from the TR Shop, London – changed the colour from white to signal red and kept it for about 10 years - since then I’ve had 3 other TR6s, 2 TR4As and a TR3A – still got a 6 and the 3A. OPC with Linda Lusardi, circa 1988: OPC with me (tat now gone!) and Linda........... Cheers Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foster461 Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 On 1/25/2018 at 10:40 AM, TR3tim said: Nice to see tbe Renown, Stan! I learned the basics of driving in my Ma's Mayflower, at the age of 13/14 in 1963. EHH 602, where are you now...? After l passed my test, my Ma got a '63 Herald 12/50 which was my passion- wagon in 1967/8. She duly bought a '66 Spit Mk.2 - a lovely thing. I bought my own Triumph (£50) in 1970 - a v. rotten TR2 - and l broke the crank inside a month. Replaced the engine with a Vanguard out of a scrappy's, and thus began to learn mechanicking. Sold it for £90 and after 3yrs got a rotten (but strongish) 3a; haven't been w/out a TR since. Replaced the 3a in 1975 with a '55 3 - and l've still got that (tho it's been rebuilt twice in the interim :D). It's been on aeroscreens only, since Le Mans 2001. I run it with almost zero trim, no carpets (learned my lesson of what soggy carpets can do to floors and sills!). The trips and adventures -including Jabbeke and the 'Ring - l've had in this! Tim. I have a special fondness for the razor edge Triumphs. My buddy has a 1952 Mayflower and it is always a treat to get a ride in that. These two are just showing off with the trafficators.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foster461 Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 1 hour ago, Andrew Smith said: Bought my first TR6 (OPC 310L), a 73 CR, in about 1982 from a Surrey scrapyard for £900, although it was only 11 years old it was rotten as a pear and needed a full restoration, luckily Stanpart panels were available from the TR Shop, London – changed the colour from white to signal red and kept it for about 10 years - since then I’ve had 3 other TR6s, 2 TR4As and a TR3A – still got a 6 and the 3A. OPC with Linda Lusardi, circa 1988: OPC with me (tat now gone!) and Linda........... Cheers Andrew Mudflaps with reflectors, oh the humanity.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Smith Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 H Stan, I knew, just knew, some refugee would comment on those - will my shame never leave me............that said, I see Mudflap Mike (Mike 3739) is now 'seeking refuge' on here too. Cheers, Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 those pictures..... and they are talking about mudflaps Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtuckunder Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 43 minutes ago, Nick Jones said: those pictures..... and they are talking about mudflaps I assumed it was some sort of euphemism for................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now