Brian Sanborn wrote:
Last week I was in London for 4 days on a business trip to visit
customers. I took the later flight home on Thursday and drove up
to Gaydon in Warwickshire to see the famed British car museum. It
was a really interesting drive up the M25 to the M40... about 160
miles roundtrip. I was driving a Ford Mondeo with a 5-speed and
diesel engine. I had driven in the UK before... but all those
roundabouts require complete concentration to find your way, be
in the right gear and not be in the wrong place on the road.
Whaddya mean - roundabouts? In the middle of a motorway? BTW, did you
eventually manage to find reverse, Brian? Uncle Henry hid it behind
fifth.
I also had a chance to meet and get the grand tour with John
Macartney. John even came in on his day off to meet me.
Ah, there was a very profound reason for this.
I was disappointed at not seeing a TR4 on display. I wanted to
see a real original car to compare mine with.
That's why I went in on my day off, you see? We have to be very
careful with visiting US enthusiasts - especially those who have made
earlier declarations in print that their cars are undergoing
restoration. It's not unknown for accompanying wives to have two
hydraulic trolley jacks, a complete set of open-ended and ring
spanners, compression tester, feeler gauges and digital camera with 10
spare CD-ROMS in their handbags - imbued with malice aforethought. We
weren't too sure whether Mrs Sanborn would be in tow, so my prior
arrival was simply to help take out the prototype 20TS, Le Mans
Sabrinas and a few other goodies in which he might have been too
interested - before he arrived!. Thank goodness he was an hour late.
This gave us just enough time to put the injection TR6 in their place
and close up the ranks to make it all look convincing.
And perhaps he ought to know the 'restored' TR3A was actually made of
cardboard. This was a dummy run to practise prepping a car in the
event that Joe Curry ever vists to see the last Spitfire. The replica
sits on a Spridget floorpan but as most self-respecting Spridgets
never needed a rear camber compensator (their handling in the wet
wasn't too bad), we're having a problem finding somewhere to screw it!
This all came about as a result of a visit made by Dave and Linda
Massey in 1999 (with three seven car Leyland Hippo transporters trying
to look anonymous closely following their hire car) as they went
through the pay booth. Thanks for the photo with your Christmas Card,
Dave - we now know where the UK spec TR8 went. The fact it made a
troublefree journey last year to Oregon is surely testament to the
earlier maintenance programme it underwent in our workshops. We all
secretly agree that your conversion of the car to LH steer looks
fairly good for a quick fix.
Jonmac
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