Graham Robson
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Posts posted by Graham Robson
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Cornwall isn't a county, it is a separate nation.
You don't believe me ? Then go to ask any true Cornishman and he will tell you ....
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I'm sorry to report that Peter Browning (one time Competitions Manager of BMC/British Leyland) died on Sunday.
He wasn't important to the TR Register, but we respected him in the overall Triumph movement for the way that he master-minded the 2.5PI entries in the 1970 World Cup Rally (where Brian Culcheth was second and Paddy Hopkirk was 4th).
A great and modest guy - and was always friendly to our movement.
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My second jab is booked for next week- but of course I am a lot older than 56 ....
In my part of the world, the NHS has been quietly super-efficient. Thanks guys and gals ....
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The new (April 2021) issue of CLASSIC & SPORTS CAR contains an eight page feature about the 'works' TR4, 3VC, followed by a four-page piece on Triumph in motorsport.
I hope you all enjoy reading it ....
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I managed to persuade CLASSIC & SPORTS CAR to put my tribute to my dear old friend on their website.
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7 hours ago, Graham said:
Excellent news
Oh wow !. Three big clubs, with big memberships, and big personalities running them, all getting together to be involved in one mega-event. Soon someone will have to be appointed as the Top Man to knock all the heads together, and to produce a seamless weekend. So who should that be ?
And no, I'm not looking for a prestige job ....
Hon. Pres.
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A pity Joe Root and Johnny Bairstow don't play rugby union too .... but I would say that, I'm a Yorkshireman ....
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The 'works' Triumph team used the Bristol freighters regularly in my time in the early 1960s - usually Lydd - Le Touquet, which took about 20 minutes. They also did Southend to Rotterdam, etc. They carried three cars and up to 20 passengers.
During the 1960s they were superseded by four-engined Carvairs, larger aircraft which were Douglas DC4s re-engineered for nose-loading by Freddie Laker's company. The longest journeys we regularly took were from Southend to Geneva.
Journeys were surprisingly cost-effetive for us - and they saved a lot of time compared with ferries from Dover.
Hon. Pres
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Number plate swapping was never carried out by us.
But if you want to see where that was practiced as an Olympic-standard art, look at my friend Robert Young's new book about 'works' Mini-Coopers ! I bet he had a real headache sorting them out
Hon. Pres.
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2 hours ago, qkingston said:
Interesting that 4, 5, 6 VC all show as TR4s, 3VC just states 'Triumph' but the engine size might also suggest a 4 given it was issued in 1962? Are they all known? (I know 4VC is)
All four cars were ordered with the optional 2.0-litre engine, all were delivered with the 2.0-litre engines, and all of course were assembly-line-manufactured TR4s.
'Are they all known' ? Of course - all are currently in the UK, with owners known to us in the TR Register.
Move along please .... nothing to see here....
Hon. Pres.
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Here is the definitive answer :
January 1962 : I asked our Fleet Managers to get me four distinctive numbers - they came back from the licencing office with 3VC, 4VC, 5VC and 6VC.
March 1962 : As was their usual 'system', they made up the plates and sent them across to us to fit to the cars. When I told them that we would use plastic stick-on plates instead, they were not best pleased. The redundant plates went into storage in their (not our) workshops.
April 1962 ; We correctly applied the stick-on plates to the 'works' TR4 cars, as and when they were completely ready.
May 1962; The Triumph PR machine needed to get brand-new Vitesses ready for the launch, did not want to use real numbers, asked for 'some plates' to be fixed before photography and - Lo and Behold - 'Fred' found these unused plates in a corner.
1962 - 2020 : I have been explaining this cock-up ever since, but it refuses to lie down
Hon. Pres.
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I'll guess at an Allard M-Type of the late 1940s - complete with a side-valve Ford V8 engine.
Your call ....
Hon. Pres.
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9 hours ago, stillp said:
+1
Morgan builds about 15 cars a week, I understand.
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As a senile old Hon. President, I can't recall ever ruling out Stafford. However, I can recall working (as a commentator) at TSCC events there in the 1990s, and it was the TSSC, rather than the TRR, which originally decided to withdraw because of a lack of some facilities (and no, I have quite forgotten what they were ....).
But that was then, and this is now. For all I know, Stafford is a much more capable place than it was - and like Malvern, it is handily close to the road systems in the Midlands, and therefore acceptable to most TRR and TSSC members..
Let me close by insisting that, as a 'non-executive' of the TRR, I have no influence on the choice of the IWE location.
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A further comment on Maurice Gatsonides. As something of a 'superstar', he always insisted on picking up his 'works' TR ahead of the team's departure to an event, so that he could then add his own 'extras' to the specification before the start.
Which explains the oddities seen on WVC 247 in the picture above. (Note - alternators were not yet available, so running with all those extra lamps illuminated must have been a very draining experience .... Incidentally, we know that Lucas, to whom the factory was contracted, were not amused .... The other WVC team cars were differently equipped.
This 'Gatsonisation factor' was also a very important influence in his sacking from the team a few months later ....
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Gatsonides was quirky to say the least. I think that 'letterbox' was actually connected to the body panel, is clearly hinged at the top, and looks as if it could be folded down to close off the cooling air towards the radiator.
Second thoughts, by the way - was this, in fact the 1959 Monte Carlo rally ? I cannot discern the rally plate detail on the bonnet though it's overall shape is Monte-like. Gatso started No. 360 ....
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That's Maurice Gatsonides on the 1959 Tulip Rally - a picture in THE WORKS TRIUMPHS (page 85) confirms the car and its unique lighting arrangement.
The Tulip ran in Holland, Germany and France in May, so those scoops ahead of the screen were probably to encourage more cooling air into the cabin, and to keep the engine bay well vented.. By the end of that rally, the central 'Cyclops' driving lamp had been discarded.
Hon. Pres.
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That four-headlamp Spitire is certainly not an ex-works car - for by the end of their career all of them had the GT6-shape fastback roof. To me (and I think I count as an 'expert' on those cars), that looks like a good replica/homage bonnet on a very ordinary Spitfire.
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Anorak's alert :
Yes, that particular Big Healey won the 1962 Alpine Rally in June . The fact that the Big Healey rally car has that particular driving lamp arrangement, while carrying Competition No. 5, dated the Hayes event as July 1962, for it was re-prepared for the Liege-Sofia-Liege event almost immediately afterwards, and carried a different competition number.
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Like every one else, I was sorry to hear of the death of Sir Stirling Moss, though I'm afraid that some of us had been expecting this sad news for some time.
Over the years I managed to interview him several times for magazine pieces, or even live, on commentary, at major shows. He was always totally professional, totally involved, and totally prepared. As far as the commentaries were concerned, if he was expected at - say - 3.00PM, Lady Susan would often appear five minutes early, tell me that he would be there in five minutes - and he always was. Before we started, he would want to know how long we were to talk, and he wanted to be reminded about the agreed topic. If it was an arcane subject (I remember talking to him about the vagaries of the Aston Martin DBR1 gearbox, which was apparently awful...) he would first of all freeze, look into the far distance, sigh just once, then say : 'Right. let's go ....' - and he was always perfect.
A true master at everything he did, a peerless driver, of course, and (to quote Tina Turner) : 'Simply the Best'.
GRAHAM ROBSON
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All this means, surely, is that thieves will use hammers to shatter the glass, rather than trick keys to fiddle the locks ?
And what happens when the batteries in your 'remote' go flat ?
Hon. Pres.
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Warning : Anorak Alert
Ref ##14 - X760 was originally applied by the factory to the sixth 'Wasp' (TR5 ....) prototype, which presumably morphed into the Ginevra (which, incidentally, was shown at the Geneva Motor Show of March1968).
Ref ##16 - Long stroke six-cylinder engines are no taller than 2.0-litre types - in fact all the six-cylinder types (including the 1.6-litre of the Vitesse) are the same height.
Hon. Pres.
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A friend and Register member garages his TR4A with me while he lives and works on the other side of the world. It lives safely, and snugly, inside the building, which is next to the house, but is not heated..
Last year it was garaged in August, with the battery still connected. From that time, it was not moved, nor started up, until this morning, 11 months later. Yet, after just one longish churn of the starter motor, it fired up and was ready to roll. The tyres needed topping up, but everything else was OK.
Having been serviced, the TR4A and its owner will be re-introduced to each other next week.
Is this a record ?
Hon. Pres.
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.... but don't forget that when the vents were first devised in 1962, we had the services of truly excellent body-build/fitters, who were used to doing miraculolus things on prototypes. These vents, by those standards,were not at all difficult.
Hon. Pres.
Cream Tea Row goes national
in Social Scene
Posted
Every year I take a short holiday at a splendid hotel overlooking the sea, near Truro in Cornwall. They serve a magnificent afternoon tea - and get this controversy absolutely right. Every day they provide a heaped plate of scones, a large pot of clotted cream, and two pots of jam (one Strawberry, one of Raspberry). After this it is up to greedy sods like me to make my own 'what goes on first' decisions....