Robert Houston wrote:
> Before the purist flame me, it is a question of two parts, cost and
> reliability.
> Comments? Arguments? What would you do?
Robert, when it comes to reliability, perhaps the letter shown under which I
received in the early 1970's will set your mind at rest on the reliability
issue
Dear John
A while back, you may remember selling me a TR4A in London when I really
wanted a TR250? You got me a car that was almost what I'd needed and you
asked me to let you know how things were with it.*** I can tell you I've had
to sell it - and with the very greatest regret. I've been married a year or
so and our first kid is on the way, so the car has to go.
After I collected it in London, I drove down to Switzerland as fast as I
could and I never got round to reading the instruction book until much
later. It was only then that I realised I should have broken it in.
I didn't.
I hounded that car all round Europe for two months. I managed to scrape
another month off before leaving for home and decided to take it to Africa.
I drove down through Italy to Sicily and shipped it across to Tunisia -
mainly because Europe was so damned cold and I wanted some sun. Drove all
along the North African coast, went as far as I could through the Atlas
mountains to the edge of the Sahara Desert and then came back through
Tangier and Gibraltar. I left the car in France and had it shipped back to
New York. Between getting it back to the States and selling it, I've done
three return trips to San Francisco, my wife and I spent our honeymoon in it
driving to the Rockies in Canada - and back and I red-lined it all the way,
all the time, every time. Never once has that car let me down, missed a beat
or done anything it shouldn't. It had every opportunity to do so as it never
got the regularity of lube jobs that it should have had. One day, I'll sure
buy another Triumph.
Best regards
*** The three asterisks were put in for a purpose. The reason I wanted to
know how the car performed was very simple. It was delivered to London in
the winter from a transit park near Coventry - a distance of over 100 miles.
It had been very cold and the car had been in stock for so long, it hadn't
been topped up with anti-freeze. Consequently, the coolant froze, blew out
the core plugs and the delivery driver drove it to London with no coolant in
it. That experience, allied to how the customer later used it, indicates the
four cylinder wet liner four pot is pretty well unburstable. Rebuild your
existing unit. You won't be disappointed!
Jonmac
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