Andy's Triumph Stuff

2010 CT RBRR

2010-10-11T22:40:00.006+01:00

Well, now the 2010 run is over and we have all had time for reflection. It was a really good one! However there were some low points too.

We had a very bad journey to the start, due to bad weather and heavy traffic on the M4 and M25; it took us 3 hours to get from Reading to the Plough. (We're planning to go on Thursday night next time.)

We were away reasonably promptly and had a good run up the eastern side via Blyth, Edinburgh and Inverness to John O' Groats for breakfast. I always look forward to breakfast at the Seaview Hotel - they looked after us very well, as usual.

Janey by the last house

This was followed by a superb drive down the B871 and B873 to Altnaharra and the A836 to Lairg. We then stopped for a little breather overlooking Dornoch Firth.

What a view! At least the weather in the Scottish Highlands was good, and the scenery is superb - you can really appreciate it when the sun is shining.

The next bit wasn't so good - after the 'energetic' drive through the highlands a nasty vibration developed, which turned out to be the rear propshaft universal joint. There was no option but to change it - which we did in the car park at the lunch stop in Conon bridge. That took 2 hours, leaving us somewhat behind schedule; we were only supposed to stop for 20 minutes!

Anyway, having repaired it successfully we had a very smooth drive down to Stirling - although the weather was getting a bit more threatening.

We left Stirling very late, but had caught up sufficiently by the time we reached Gledrid to relax somewhat.

I understand that the drive though Wales was very enjoyable too, but I was asleep - even for the bit through the tunnel, when I'm sure Janey must have sounded superb.

The Bristol group of the Triumph 2000 Register turned up in force at Gordano services - at 4am! Now that's what I call dedication. And it was really good to know that other people valued what we were doing sufficiently to disturb their beauty sleep.

Then we really got some weather! I don't think I've ever seen rain like we had in Devon in the early hours of Sunday morning. It was reminiscent of a monsoon - but colder. And we had thought that the rain on Friday night was bad!

More to come...

Club Triumph Round Britain Runs

2010-04-11T15:07:00.009+01:00

2012 will be my eleventh RBRR! My previous runs were:

1984 Mk1 2.5PI saloon DPA 120H "Mark" (the first Mk1 PI to do the run).

1986 Mk2 2.5PI saloon LPG 292K "Fizz" (we were planning to take the factory prototype Mk1 PI KWK 546F but failed to get it ready in time).

1988 Mk2 2.5PI saloon LPG 292K "Fizz" again.

1990 Mk2 2000 estate LPB 424K "Holly" (holed a piston near Penzance but still finished).

1996 Mk2 2000 estate LPB 424K "Holly" again (by this time it had a 2500 engine).

1998 Del Lines Stag Estate TNH 10. Friends and relatives also did the 1998 run, in LPB 424K.

2002 Mk2 'facelift' 2.5PI saloon GHX 273N "Freddie", seen here alonside Tim Hunt's TR at Land's End.
2004 Mk2 'facelift' 2.5PI saloon GHX 273N "Freddie" again.

2008 Del Lines Stag Saloon JNY 590N "Janey", seen here after the run with some of my work colleagues (including Phil, one of my co-drivers) who sponsored us.
2010 Del Lines Stag Saloon JNY 590N "Janey" again.

We're going to take Janey again for the 2012 run. The entry is confirmed and the crew will be Andy Roberts, Phil Gibbons and Peter Clapp (same as 2010).

We unfortunately missed some of the runs, for a variety of reasons:
1992 We had just moved to Devon and were setting up a garage business.
1994 Our garage (Lake Garage, Sourton, Devon) was one of the stops on the 1994 run.
2000 I was away on business (very bad planning, I know).
2004 The PI developed engine trouble during a continental trip 2 weeks before the event and I didn't have time to fix it before the run.

Big 6 models NOT owned

2010-04-11T14:58:00.002+01:00

After boasting last week that I had owned at least one of every 'big six' model, it seems that I was mistaken. I don't seem to have owned either a 2500TC estate or a 2500S estate!

Triumph 2000s I have owned

2010-04-04T13:09:00.020+01:00

Most of these have long since gone to the great scrapyard in the sky. Those known to survive are marked with an asterisk. I'm sure I will have forgotten some, because there were so many - and my memory is not what it used to be, even for registration numbers! As and when I remember more of them, I'll edit this post. I'll also try to find some photos.

FPC 83B 1964 Mk1 2000 saloon, manual o/d, olive / cactus, "Bee"

FBL 489C 1965 Mk1 2000 saloon, manual o/d, conifer / red

MPG 207D 1966 Mk1 pre-facelift 2000 estate, auto, white / black, "Jasper"

SPD 509F 1967 Mk1 2000 estate, manual o/d, gunmetal / light tan

KWK 546F 1967 Mk1 2.5PI estate, manual o/d, conifer / red, pre-production (X769) *

VLL 645G 1968 Mk1 2000 saloon, manual o/d, damson / black, "Humphrey" - racing car *

VLR 364G 1969 Mk1 2000 saloon, auto, valencia / black

PCR 493G 1969 Mk1 2000 saloon, auto, wedgwood / light blue *

DPA 120H 1969 Mk1 2.5PI saloon, manual o/d, jasmine / black, "Mark"

REL 616H 1969 Mk1 2.5PI estate, manual o/d, jasmine / black, "The Relic"

APF 459H 1969 Mk1 2.5PI estate, manual o/d, valencia / tan *

CPH 737H 1969 Mk2 2.5PI estate, auto, valencia / tan

VCV 734H 1970 Mk2 2000 saloon, auto, damson (now 2.5 manual o/d) *

LPB 424K 1972 Mk2 2000 estate, manual o/d, emerald / black, "Holly"

LPG 292K 1972 Mk2 2.5PI saloon, manual o/d, mallard / black, "Fizz"

XLJ 683K 1972 Mk2 2000 saloon, damson / tan

OPH 189L 1972 Mk2 2.5PI saloon, auto, pimento / black, "Baby"

DEE 540L 1972 Mk2 2.5PI saloon, manual o/d, honeysuckle / chestnut, "Pumpkin"

JHO 939N 1974 Mk2 2000TC estate, manual o/d, carmine / light tan, "The Jolly Green Giant"

TNH 10 1974 Del Lines Stag Estate, manual o/d, jaguar azure blue / light tan (now JJH 818N) *

JNY 590N 1975 Del Lines Stag Saloon, manual o/d, mimosa / black, "Janey" *

GHX 273N 1975 Mk2 facelift 2.5PI saloon, auto, carmine / chestnut, "Freddie" *

NNH 414P 1976 2500S saloon, manual o/d, honeysuckle / chestnut, "Charlie"

UVU 205S 1977 2500S saloon, auto, inca yellow / black

EUD 109S 1977 2500S saloon, tahiti blue / black
(This car was the last big saloon off the production line, MP10228DLO. It had serious damage to the nearside, inflicted by a Sainsbury's lorry, but was otherwise in good condition. We broke it for spares before we realised what it was... today we might have tried to repair it.)

Janey

2010-04-04T12:27:00.003+01:00

This is Janey after completing the 2008 Club Triumph Round Britain Run. We only just got her finished in time to take part, and I foolishly did what I always tell everyone else not to do; I did not plan things properly and was left with too much to do in too little time as the date of the run approached. Without the help of friends such as Adrian, Alan, Bill and Phil we wouldn't have made it. And if I hadn't been so exhausted, we wouldn't have had the ignition troubles that plagued us during the run!

I am only the second owner of this car; it was built for Michael Hooper, who was Del Lines' rally navigator. He wanted a Stag but was too tall to fit into one - he hit his head on the roll-over bar, even when the seat was as low as it would go. So Del built him a "Stag Saloon". I bought the car in 1986 with about 80,000 miles on the clock and proceeded to do another 90,000 miles in the next three years! Then the dreaded rust caused an MoT failure, and she was taken off the road.

As Janey was, and still is, such a special car, scrapping her was not an option; she followed us around whenever we moved and even had the indignity of having to watch while we bought and restored a Del Lines Stag Estate, while she languished in the background getting even rustier. While it would have been fantastic to have kept both the saloon and the estate - what a classic pair that would have been - reality and limited finances meant that we had to choose one of the two and we chose Janey. So the estate was sold and the restoration began - very, very slowly at first.

Taking part in the run was the culmination of a restoration that took about 5 years to complete and cost a truly embarrassing amount of money. The car passed its first MoT for 19 years just two days before the run. Do as I say, not as I do - don't cut things this fine. It really isn't a good idea and I most certainly won't do it again. I can feel all the stress coming back just writing this! I think I'll go away and wash the car for a bit of relaxation. She might even get polished too - but perhaps that might be going too far.

Scary

2010-04-03T16:17:00.001+01:00

After being in the computer industry for nearly 40 years I have finally taken the plunge and started a blog. This really is scary! What took me so long? Just getting round to it, I suppose. And perhaps the fear that it might take up too much time in my already extremely busy life.

This is supposed to be a Triumph-related blog, and I will try to keep to that theme.

I am a fan of the Triumph 2000 range of cars, made by Standard-Triumph Ltd. in the UK between 1963 and 1977. I first came into contact with these fine cars in 1972, when a friend bought a 1965 2000 saloon from another friend's father. Being mechanically minded, I got to look after this car, and even got to drive it occasionally. When he got a company car in 1974, my friend offered me the Triumph - and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the next post I will try to list all the Triumph 2000 range cars that I have owned. There are quite a few of them; I think I have owned at least one example of every single model!

My current car is "Janey", a 2000 saloon with a Stag V8 engine, built by Ian "Del" Lines of Atlantic Garage, Weston-super-Mare in 1975, which I have owned since 1986. I expect I'll be writing quite a lot about that car in future posts.