[TR] speed is the new black

[Hoyt Duff]

A local hotrod shop was given a TR3 by one of the silent-partner
owners; he had one in high school. I know the managing owner well (I
have hotrod interests as well) and he asked me for advice. I told him
that if he wanted to add value to the car. he needed to keep it stock,
but there were modifications that were embraced by the community. I
loaned him the books that cover restoration details and he read them.
Typical hotrod-style approaches are generally frowned upon and cars
modified in that way actually reduced their re-sale value. Aware of
all this, he did some hotrod-ish things that the owner wanted, but
understood what he was doing and how it would affect the re-sale value
of the car and took pains to limit modifications to things that could
be undone in the future if desired. He did use a hotrod-style wiring
harness because of munged bullet connectors and the lack of fused
circuits. He did keep the engine stock and sent it out to the local
sports car machine shop to be rebuilt.

The hotrod and Little British Car communities are filled with very
different people with different thoughts about their cars and
different approaches to caring for them. Both think the other has no
idea what makes a car a great car. You can tell this by what the
producers of Speed is the New Black chose to focus on: make fun of the
car and bolt on some horsepower. Does an extra 30 HP really make that
much of a difference in typical driving? Probably not $5,000 worth,
but HP bolt-ons are a big industry for hotrods.

I thought that they did show the TR3 some respect by doing honest
metal repairs, avoiding flamed paint jobs and radical body mods and
not adding some horrendous music/video system to the car. The roll bar
seems unsafe to me as it was bolted to the outrigger body mounts, not
the frame.

And again, it's the owner's car to do with as he pleases. That guy
obviously has no concern for top dollar in a re-sale; he can go to
pick up the car flying in his private plane, so money is likely not
his primary concern.

On the plus side, it did expose a wide audience to the TR3 and it is
quite a handsome car.

On 6/17/17, davehogye <dlhogye at comcast.net> wrote:
> Duh. The show was a total joke. They further ruined an already messed up
> car, but it looked better before.
> A 0-60 comparison would tell a lot.
> The car already had Webers. Perhaps there was a problem there.
> A totally superficial program.
> I wonder if the TR's owner had ever found the top speed.
> I'd chalk it all up to a good case of more money than brains.
> Duh.
> And in the mean time the show was otherwise focused on making flames exit
> the exhaust of an outrageous pickup truck.
> Three times, duh.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Hoyt Duff" <hoytduff at gmail.com>
> To: rbtr3a at cox.net
> Cc: "Triumphs List" <triumphs at autox.team.net>
> Sent: Friday, June 16, 2017 8:44:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [TR] speed is the new black
>
> I would guess that they used whatever Victoria British had to offer
> for that, if at all. The show seemed to focus on the dumbass behavior
> of the mechanics rather that the particulars of the build,
>
> On 6/16/17, rbtr3a at cox.net <rbtr3a at cox.net> wrote:
>> I was surprised they didn't address the suspension. Talked about lowering
>>
>> it but never elaborated on their efforts to do so.
>>
>> Ronnie
>>
>>> On Jun 16, 2017, at 6:33 PM, Hoyt Duff <hoytduff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> supercharger
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Hoyt
>
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-- 
Hoyt