I know many of you have been waiting with baited breath to find out how the
TR6 and TR7 Dolly Sprint faired at this year's Glenwood Springs Rally. The
Dolly Sprint left town without passing the emissions test and getting a
license plate so I went to my big stack of plates, picked out one from Belgium
and we headed out. Immediately I noticed that the just rebuilt alternator was
not putting out so by Santa Fe the battery was dead. Additionally the car was
running on two, three or four cylinders depending on the mood of the gods of
conductivity. We limped along this way all the way to Denver with the
alternator occasionally working and various brackets breaking and loosing
bolts along the way. A couple of overpriced glasses of wine at dinner even
had the Bride talking to me again.
Friday morning, in an act of desperation, I went to Sportscar Craftsmen in
Denver 45 minutes before the Rally for a tune up. They have a really cool
shop if you're ever in Denver check it out. They replaced some wires,
brackets and tightened up the license plate that was starting to fall off, and
got the car briefly back on four cylinders so away we went. We did not win
the rallye. My Bride and #1 son ran the TR6 down on fuel to where the crap
still left in the gas tank shut the car down 'til I could get there and
perform a little mouth to tank resusitation. The TR6 didn't win the rally
either.
Somewhere along the next two days I figured out the coil wire ran about two
inches where it contacted the fire wall andmust have been shorting because a
tie wrap to a nearby radiator hose made the car run on four cylinders except
when climbing the steepest hills.
#2 son and Bride decided the pool was going to be more fun than the tour so #1
son and I ran the tour in the TR6. I think we only missed one question but
still we didn't place in the tour. I guess we should have worked a little
harder on the extra credit questions on BMC color schemes and differences in
badge engineering.
I thought after last year, when there was one car in the "Triumphs Other"
category, that our 50-50 paint job on the TR7 would be good enough for a
prize. Not to be. It must have been year of the wedge cause there was
another really nice 7, 8 and the most beautiful late model Spitfire on the
planet (who restores one of those?).
The trip home was fairly uneventful even though the charging system in the 7
had completely shut down.
We just played musical batteries with the TR6 that was performing brilliantly
even with near zero oil pressure at idle. The TR7 would last about 5 hours on
a battery so we only had to switch twice on the journey back to Albuquerque.
The trip also included a pretty good tour of the French Restauraunts of
Central Colorado, whose expense began to rival the parts and repair bills of
the Leyland cars. If you ever frequent Hesperus, Colorado, do not miss the
Kennebec Cafe. Tres bien.
Back in Albuquerque, Cylinder #1 on the 7 had completely gone Winchester so I
switched out the new style distributor cap with a new original style cap and
the car ran perfectly, after 1500 miles of not so perfect performance.
My Bride would like to add at this point how much she enjoyed the feel and
performance of Leyland's new IRS rear suspension on the TR6 and the way only
two people were required to quickly and easily roll up the windows. She
became entranced by the streamlined beauty offered by Triumph's TR7 and amazed
by how simply jumper cables could be deployed to escape from any convenience
store predicament.
Cheers, Henry, Chris, Connor and Jake Morrison. Cedar Crest, New Mexico
_______________________________________________
Support Team.Net http://www.team.net/donate.html
http://www.fot-racing.com
Fot mailing list
Fot@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot
|