My TR4A (a 1967, named Sarah) isn't going to be a concours car, ever - she's
had too hard a life (coming up on 300K miles, I believe) and I don't think I
have the right mental attitude to ever take her completely apart and do a
frame-up, nuts-and-bolts restoration on her. (I say this because I've done that
on various sections of our other cars, and it's more tedious than I can bear.)
She's been in at least three accidents in her lifetime and bears the scars of
them.
Besides, I like to drive her. Hard. If you've been around the british-cars list
for a while, you've seen my epic sagas about half-way-cross-country trips I've
taken in her (if you've missed these, check out
http://triumph.cs.utah.edu/cak/Dimebank.html).
I certainly salute the people who present the incredibly clean cars at VTR
concours. I can't begin to imagine the effort that it takes to get them that
clean in the first place, and then keep them that way.
I know that VTR's purpose for existence is to keep alive the flickering flame,
if you will, of how these cars were when they were new. That's a good thing.
But it still grates to see examples of "our" cars that get rolled off the
trailer, driven onto the field, judged, and rolled back onto the trailer,
waiting for the next show. That just seems wrong. (At least we - VTR- actively
discourage the type of person who doesn't want to put fluids into the car
because they might spill, leak, or leave some other spoor.)
The growing popularity of partcipant's choice vs concours troubles me. As I
said, my car doesn't belong in a concours - that is, I know it will not do
well. For starters, there are many portions that are unrestored, which is an
automatic deduction on the VTR judging sheet - hmm, maybe this is part of the
problem? Should we be encouraging "restoration" or "preservation"? I might
start entering her anyway, just to nudge people to move their very pristine
cars out of P.C. and into the concours class. (I've been advocating an end to
P.C., but that's another discussion.) The problem is that by putting my car,
which I don't expect to do well, into the competition, I take up judging time,
which is apparently a scarce commodity.
Anyway, to my car, which is what I really wanted to discuss: I've had great fun
making her "mine". When I first bought her, I spent a year replacing all the
rubber, to make her trustworthy enough to drive from California to Colorado for
VTR that year. She's been stripped of seven layers of paint and returned to her
original BRG. I repainted the steel wheels the original antique white, and have
Dunlop SP4s - but that won't last. I just can't decide whether to put the
Silverstone or Paddy Hopkirk wheels on next. She has a TR6 sway bar (on a TR6
lower radiator shield), urethane bushings, uprated springs, Konis in front and
HD lever shocks in the rear. The engine is pretty much untouched as yet, but
the plans are for a 10:1 CR ported head, 42DCOE carbs, electric fuel pump (with
filter/regulator from an ALFA!), 280degree cam, 87mm kit, crank lip seal
conversion, harmonic balancer and electric fan. I put the oil cooler on a while
back. She already has an electronic ignition, and that will probably force me
to go to an alternator, because the (albeit reliable) generator just doesn't
put out enough juice to drive the headlamps (Marchal Ampilux halogen racing
headlamps, with Marchal "radar" auxiliary lamps mounted to the bumper, with
relays and fuses near the driver's feet), ignition and wipers - adding pump and
fan seems to be asking for trouble.
The interior is more or less stock looking; I just finished the carpeting. But
she's got an overdrive tranny, diff and halfshafts from a '69 TR6, and seats
from a TR250 (the original seats were long gone when I got her, replaced with
something from a FIAT). I recently added a roll bar, and will put in
three-point belts and fittings for a five-point harness. I swapped the tach and
speedo because all my other cars have the tach on the right. I had a custom
dash made up, hardwood teak, with a fifth gauge port instead of an ashtray;
that's to hold a (horrors!) electric clock. The oil pressure gauge has been
replaced with a dual gauge, to also indicate oil temp, and there's a low oil
pressure warning lamp smack in the middle. As soon as I can find one that's
fitting, I'll put an eight-day rally clock into the fascia locker lid, along
with two Hanhart stop watches. My co-driver is fairly short, so I'm thinking
about making up a swing-away footrest to mount in the passenger footwell.
Since the tranny has a reverse lamp provision, I added one at the rear, poking
out between the twin stainless exhausts.
The rally theme is the one I currently think of when I try to describe the car
and where I'm taking her. The factory never rallied 4As, and if they had, they
almost certainly would have used all British components, rather than the mix of
American, French, German and Italian that I've added. But a privateer would
have chosen from the best available, and that's what I'm doing. She's not
original, she's not perfect, but she's pretty darn cool. Where possible, I'm
using parts that were available then - the headlamps, for example, came out in
the mid-60s, as the first all-halogen lamp, though mine are more modern
production. The electronic ignition is right out, but is my attempt to stay as
clean as possible.
I don't apologize to anyone about her. When she turns 300K, I'm going to make
up a small "3" and paste it on the speedo glass. I'm proud that she's on the
road, looks as good as she does, embarrasses the occasional modern car at a
stop light. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't be on the road.
If that makes me a leper, so be it. I'll be happy taking home autocross
trophies from VTR instead of concours.
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