I have thoroughly enjoyed the birthday thread. I am
certainly at the young end, but at least I'm not the
youngest! At age 32, it was 1982 when I turned 10.
Thank god I haven't got the urge to go out and buy a
'82 cutlass or something along that line. I came close
to this mark with my fourth car, which was a 1983
z-28.
I can't pinpoint a certain point that drew me to
british cars. My dad had MGB's and such and also a TR3
that was left sheltered from just about before I can
remember. Seems my sister and I put a damper on the
little car driving, and I remember mom and dad driving
a lot of VW's over the years. So what caused such a
passion when I got to drive a friend's mom's 1974 MG
Midget back in 1993? I think it was something genetic,
as there just wasn't a lot of other exposure to
british steel in the seventees and eightees in Odessa,
Texas. Well, I bought that MG Midget in 1996 and cut
my teeth on engine/hydraulic rebuilds and had a good
time, though I was broke and it took way to long to
get it running again. We hopped up that 1275cc engine
as best we could, but it never really thrilled me. It
wasn't until dad finally restored his TR3 and I got to
drive it that I fell in love with the performance of a
british car. I was bitten with the bug bad enough that
I saw an easily-restorable project car in the backyard
of our house - a car that was actually a rusty basket
case. Still, I happily towed it up to Northern New
Mexico and took it apart. Didn't take too long to
realize what a mess it was, and I now have a donor car
that is in better shape. Between the two messes, I
might just make one good car - hopefully before I hit
35!
Unfortunately, dad suffered stroke-like symptoms from
bleeding vessels in the brain in late 2002. The docs
fixed him up so they shouldn't come back, but he has
severly diminished motor skills on right side of body.
Dad's a fighter though, and went from a wheel chair
(which docs said he might be in for the rest of his
life) to a cane in less than 6 months. Still, he's got
a long way to go before he can handle the tight
steering and clutch working of the TR3. So, I have his
TR3 in safe storage up here, and I get to take it out
for brisk runs when I start to get discouraged and
down about my own little project. It sure does help
keep the restoration inspiration going!
Whew, sorry for the long post. Last thing I'll say is
that I'm also impressed with all the 30-somethings on
this list. I was expecting an overall higher age. It
seems that the survival of our beloved TRs might just
be secured for a long time to come. I very much expect
to influence my kids and others with the TR3, when the
resto is complete and I can motor around the
neighborhood.
Richard
TS42099L
TS62007L
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