Deano and others,
As most of you would probably agree, old car buffs, enthusiasts, LBC lovers,
etc., our cars are a part of us, not just cars, like children and pets they
are parts of our lives and personal history, and for most of us, unlikely to
go away, for whatever reason. Since the age of 18, when I bought my first
car, a somewhat ratty bugeyed sprite that I fixed up, and and that lead to
my first Jag (59 MK I sedan), to the many other Sprites, Triumphs, Jags,
Austin Mini, so many I can't remember them all, but many I wish I had back
now. I was extremely fortunate early on, in that I ran my father's
manufacturing business, where I had a full machine shop, fiber glass shop,
paint shop, and space to store and work on my toys. I have fixed,
straightened, welded, turned parts for all of them, painted most of them,
some more than a couple of times, as scratches and dents were un-tolerable,
and I had the resources to maintain them and keep them beautiful.
I left the company in 1982, and have been self employed since. As some you
can appreciate, being self employed can be very difficult at times, such as
now, in this economy, having a manufacturing business in Sonoma Co. is
extremey challenging, physically and financially, and some very difficult
decisions have to be made, such as do I sell this or that. I found myself in
a similar situation in 1994, facing very difficult times, no money, not
enough business, I had a house to pay for, a wife and young kids to feed,
and after years of people literally walking up to my front door asking to
buy my Triumph, the time and situation had come, I had to sell my beloved TR
4, I WAS CRUSHED. Life went on, and 3 years later, the young man that bought
my baby committed suicide, and long story short, MY TR4 came back to me, on
very shakey terms, but she is back. My kids are older now, one going off to
college, the wife has a job for now, and I continue to face many
difficulties. My car collection has dwindled to a Camaro, a GMC Yukon, and
MY TR, and as I have told my wife many times, never ask me to choose between
her and my business, or MY TR. For what it's worth, the beauty and design of
cars in general, but in particular old cars, the things we don't see
anymore, leather door straps, side curtains, no computers, a vehicle you can
touch, carress, work on and love, hold an allure that cannot be replaced. I
don't care how much gas ever costs, or even if there is gas or not, I will
never sell MY TR again. Hard times or good, pretty or beat up, no matter
what the wifes says, MY TR is mine untill I die.
Michael
64 TR4
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paige, Dean" <DPaige@srcity.org>
To: <nobbc@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 8:26 AM
Subject: [Nobbc] FW: [TR] What cost to give up your Triumph? (Rhetorical?)
> A question we might all have to consider.
>
> My response follows
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: triumphs-bounces@autox.team.net
> [mailto:triumphs-bounces@autox.team.net]
> On Behalf Of John Macartney
> Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 2:54 PM
> To: Triumph List
> Subject: [TR] What cost to give up your Triumph? (Rhetorical?)
>
> I guess this might seem a stupid question to ask of people in a part of
> the
> world where fuel is so cheap - but is it safe to assume it will always be
> so?
> Earlier this week, I had a long talk with an old friend I've known for
> more
> than 40 years who has been the besotted owner for at least 30 of those
> years
> of a 1930 Speed Six Bentley. Okay, that in itself is a car from the
> collector
> stratosphere - but I was both amazed and shocked to learn he now has the
> car
> up for sale. By his own admission, it's not that he has tired of it, come
> to
> be less interested in it - or even that he can't afford to run it. Dave is
> the
> first to admit that he has plenty of money and he could easily keep and
> run
> the Bentley to his dying day. Knowing him as well as I do, I asked him why
> the
> time had come for he and the car to part company?
> His answer didn't
> exactly surprise me.
> "I've reached a point where I feel it's not only a very selfish whim to
> continue to drive it and enjoy it but that I am finding it difficult to
> reconcile the cost of filling the tank for a weekend of pleasure.
> I'm extremely lucky to be able to afford to fill the tank on that beast,
> but
> its the principle of paying such an horrendous amount of money for what is
> to
> all intents and purposes an indulgent pursuit that benefits no-one.
> Simply,
> the cost of pouring fuel into what seems a bottomless tank gives very
> little
> "return" in terms of money per mile on fuel used. And at 12 mpig if I'm
> lucky,
> that works out at 45 pence (70 cents) a mile. That figure is just plain
> ludicrous, so Its time to let someone else enjoy the privilege. It'll
> break
> my heart to see it go - but the time has come."
> And that conversation reminded
> me of other vehicle enthusiasts I know in similar situations. There are
> Triumph and MG owners who are saying"it's been fun but we're not playing
> this
> game any more because of fuel cost" Then there are others of whom several
> have
> shared ownerships in specific vehicles. There's the group of six lawyers
> who
> all have equal shares in a Routemaster Double deck London bus, another
> group
> who lavish care and love on some superb heavy duty trucks - and the steam
> engine fraternity who are grumbling (with reason) about the price of coal
> and
> escalating costs for bi-annual boiler safety pressure checks..
> All of them
> are now saying to a greater or lesser extent, "this will have to be the
> last
> year. The costs for enjoyment has got out of reach and this is
> substantially
> dulling the pleasure."
> As of today, one US gallon of gasoline in the UK is selling in
> supermarkets
> for the equivalent price of US$6.71 of which the better part of $6.00 is
> tax.
> Franchised gas stations with BP, Shell or Texaco have higher prices and so
> I
> ask this either / or question of all of you who are inclined to answer
>
> "How high would gas prices have to go in your country before you would
> seriously consider giving up your Triumph?" or "If there was no way you
> could
> buy gas for less than $6 a gallon, what would justify you in keeping and
> using
> your Triumph as you do?"
>
> I've already sold both of my
> Triumphs because I simply could not justify the cost of re-fuelling either
> of
> them for the simple entertainment value they gave.. With two cars in the
> family, we now put fuel economy at the top of the list and that's why our
> household has converted over the last three years to modern high-speed
> turbo-diesels of less than 2000cc. They're boring, they're absolutely
> reliable, they're fuel efficient and both are returning +50mpg with
> extremely
> low emissions. That's what matters, that's how our motoring will be in the
> years to come - and not because of inclinations towards a 'greener'
> environment. Running a classic car that does little more than 25mpg
> (because
> it was never designed to do it) is simply throwing good money after bad.
> And
> that's exactly how my friend with the Bentley feels which is why he's
> selling
> it - and it's a view being ever more widely propounded throughout western
> Europe. The price of fuel is slowly killing the hobby.
>
> Jonmac
>
>
>
> Here's my take on the subject.
>
> As for me, my 1973 TR-6 has not been a hobby for most of it's lifetime.
> It's
> been an avocation. For most of the TR's life it was a daily driver and
> then
> some. The Red Car as it came to be known has been across the country from
> Chicago to Key West, to New York City, 200 miles into Baja, and in 1976
> from
> Illinois to it's now home of California. Together we hit the 325K
> milestone
> and the 37th year just two weeks ago. My late wife the inimitable Helena
> once
> claimed that I had touched more parts on the TR than on her. This of
> course
> was a gross overstatement but it is evocative of the time I spent keeping
> the
> Red Car and us on the road.
>
> As Helena (H) and I and the Red Car rolled up the Ventura Highway through
> Montecito and into Santa Barbara top down on a fabulously sunny morning,
> with
> the Pacific on the left, the exotic scent of jasmine in bloom in the air a
> week after Thanksgiving in 76 all I could think was WOW "What a good Idea
> it
> was to pack it up and move to Santa Barbara!" As it turned out it was a
> GREAT
> idea. With $1700 in our pockets we made our home in SB. Both H and I
> earned
> our degrees at U. C. Santa Barbara and the Red Car most always got us to
> where
> we needed to be. Most of those years we were broke and the Red Car at
> times
> suffered for lack of maintenance. The discovery that Moss Motors was
> located
> in Goleta was a blessing. Actual parts were available something that was
> near
> impossible in Chicago.
>
> After a number of years of neglect of crucial maintenance I slowly started
> bringing the Red Car back to health. Many obstacles were overcome, many
> problems were solved and improvements made. Rarely did I have to resort to
> professionals to keep us on the road. It was my responsibility alone to do
> the
> work that kept us rolling.
>
> The Red Car carried us from Santa Barbara to the High Sierra's, to the mud
> flats of Morro Bay, to the Baja, to San Francisco, to Oregon and any new
> country road we could find. In all the years there were very few
> strandings.
> Details such as a cracked rotor on a late night trip from Santa Barbara to
> L.A. were about the worst of it.
>
> Lo, these many years later in Santa Rosa, the Red Car and I continue our
> Journeys. The ghost of H rides with me on these sojourns along with a the
> new
> woman in my life the impeccable Maria Pia who surprisingly loves her
> roadsters
> dearly having owned an Alfa Romeo and now owning a BMW 325 CI. We ride
> with a
> host of British car owners of all types on a two week basis every Saturday
> through the wine country, up and down the coast and points north, south
> and
> east. The Red Car has never looked or run better. It still sports its
> Silverstone mags and as of a couple of weeks ago it is the proud recipient
> of
> a Herman van den Akker Toyota 5 speed transmission conversion.
>
> The Red Car is not just a machine to me. It is a portal to the past and an
> opening to the future. Our travels together spin tales of love, triumph,
> loss,
> hope, adventure, tears, joy, and heartbreak.
>
> The cost of fuel is irrelevant in this scheme of things. As long as I am
> able
> to turn a wrench I will look after my long term partner the Red Car. I
> will
> treat it as a member of the family and look after it accordingly. I will
> not
> let the Red Car just sit in the garage. I'll fill the tank and hit the
> road
> when the call of the highway beckons.
>
> And for me... That's the truth of it.
>
> Deano
>
>
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