Deggers Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 The classic lines, the racing pedigree, the thrill of open cockpit driving? Absolutely! But hey, let's be honest fellas . . . there are, and forever will be, inevitable consequences of wielding such impeccable taste, as we do! (With due apologies to the lady sidescreeners among us, of course!) Happy motoring! Cheers, Deggers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Smith Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) Yep, TuRK works like that every time for me! Cheers Andrew Edit - have a look at 2 mins and 47 secs in (just after the snog - lucky bloke!), it's good to see it's a proper TR, as the handbrake slips! Edited January 19, 2012 by Andrew Smith Quote Link to post Share on other sites
foster461 Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Unfortunately my sidescreen project car is still at the rust magnet stage but it has aspirations especially with the Powder Blue paint. Stan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Don Elliott Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) So why did I buy a sidescreen TR ? That was the only sensible sportscar to buy when I bought mine in May 1958. Here I am in August 1958. She's French and just as attractive as the girl in the video. Edited January 19, 2012 by Don Elliott Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Menno van Rij Posted January 19, 2012 Report Share Posted January 19, 2012 Why I bough a sidescreen? In the words of Sir Edmund Hillary: Because it was there! It was standing in a workshop in a very sorry state. My wife never sat in the car and will never will. Which is fine by me: gives me the opportunity to do things Iike I want to do! The only female voice that I hear is my TomTom's. Menno Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jbenajes Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 Why did I buy a sidescreen TR ? To make it short: because I felt in love with the car in the 80’s and longed for one during the last 30 years. Getting to own one was not easy, and below tehre is a longer story. Jesús Once upona time, as a teenager I started to love classic cars. At that time in Spain, the very few existing classic cars were mainly owned by rich people and this was a very odd and expensive hobby. (So, unfortunately I could not take advantage of the hobby for attracting girls). At that time, my favorite car was the Morgan (another sidescreen car, indeed), but I fell in love with the TR2/3 (I was not able to distinguish) in Switzerland in 1983, when I was around 24. Economic and familiar situation made impossible to purchase a classic car until about 20 years ago. Then, I owned some cheap VW beetles, and was still looking to buy a TR2/3, when I was offered a very reasonable MG TD (sorry for the disloyalty), that I restored during several years. In the meantime, I kept looking for the most convenient sidescreen TR, using that time to read and learn about these cars. I also suffered the experience of being conned by a man in UK in a deal with two TR3s (This is a curious affair that shows how stupid I could be. I can send to you a detailed account of the case for your amusement, if you wish). The good point is that with all this time and awareness, I was able to find a very interesting 59 TR3A in the USA, and imported it to Spain in 2007. I restored fully the car during the following years, and in 2011 (almost 30 years after my first encounter) I started to enjoy driving a sidescreen TR. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley James Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 That bloke never let go of the steering wheel right through that kiss! They are nice, cheeky little cars with a big engine, designed on the cheap by some muddled amateurs and they were incredibly successful. Typically English and rather appealing. I like mine Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MikeTR-6 Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) Looks a lot smother driving than pore old Victor Meldrew's efforts in a side screen. Be glad when my collection of nuts and bolts come together again. Why a side screen , Elementary dear Watson Looks good Sounds good Drives good and by golly it does you good when driving. Guinness label for a tax disc. ? Mike Edited January 20, 2012 by MikeTR-6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ianc Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 In 1963, no other secondhand car (we didn't use "pre-used" in those days!) could offer acceleration at 80 mph (I had never experienced that before!), maximum of over 100 mph, consumption of 30 mpg (Imperial) even when driven hard, and the ruggedness and ease of maintenance that even a beaten-up old TR2 could offer for a couple of hundred quid (or less). Not only that, it had 2 seats (not a bench), a boot (not large, but with a proper lid and lockable), a proper gear change (the Boston Squealy had 3 gears with the lever on the left side of the tunnel - ugh!), fly-off handbrake, overdrive and hardtop/soft-top & tonneau. There was nothing within my reach which could beat its combination of virtues. I had 6 years of TR2s and have been hooked on TRs ever since day one! Ian Cornish Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tony Millward Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I bought mine because I love a challenge...and I really like the lines of the TR2... Tony Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew Smith Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) Ever since I bought my first TR6 in 1982/3, I've always loved the classic 50s look and sound of sidescreen TRs, but I never bought TuRK. TuRK was given to me in 2003 by my dear friend Fred Johnson (a founder member of the TRR) who bought the car in 1967. Fred developed serious heath problems and lost the dexterity to work TuRK in 1994 when the rear oil seal blew and the engine went terminal! So TuRK sat around it bits and unloved until April 2003. The full story was published in TRAction 194 (April/May 2004), but I’ve attached it below (hope you can read it). Needless to say, TuRK wasn’t looking in as good an order when I got it as it does now: Cheers Andrew Edited January 20, 2012 by Andrew Smith Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dykins Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 I'd read that article in TR Action when it was first published, but reading it again still brings a lump in the throat. I don't think the car could be in any better hands. Regards Peter Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley James Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 That's a very moving story and a very special car. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chris59 Posted January 20, 2012 Report Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) I bought, this morning, another sidescreen car because I love motorbikes Chris. Edited January 20, 2012 by Chris59 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TR24178 Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 The classic lines, the racing pedigree, the thrill of open cockpit driving? Absolutely! But hey, let's be honest fellas . . . there are, and forever will be, inevitable consequences of wielding such impeccable taste, as we do! (With due apologies to the lady sidescreeners among us, of course!) Happy motoring! Cheers, Deggers. At the end of the clip the car stops in Castletown IOM, having driven that road 6 times on the Manx Historic rally in the reverse direction and reccied the stage its unmistakable, very nostalgic for me!! Why did I buy a TR(2), just a lovely classic shape almost art deco of the 50's, other cars in my collection with classic shapes, Alpine A110, Peugout 202 (real art deco) Traction Avant, Escort MK1 Mexico, MK11 RS2000, Ford GPW (WWII Jeep, ugly pretty) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
james christie Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 I bought my first TR2 (for £90) in 1969 because I couldn't afford a Frog eyed Sprite at £200 james Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BrianC Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 (edited) This first part of my tale was posted on another thread: Although my first car was a clapped-out Standard 10, I really wanted a Healey 3000. Alas, this was way out of my financial reach, so I decided to start with a Frogeye and move up in a few years. However, despite an entertaining test drive around the streets of Golders Green (not to mention some close encounters with the kerbs due to the amazingly responsive steering compared with the Standard ), we couldn't agree a price and I started looking again. I ended up, several weeks later, buying a Spitfire from a local dealer that specialised in Spits and Spridgets. The following day, the Frogeye owner phoned to say he'd accept my original offer. Am I glad I made the decision to stick with Standard-Triumph and ultimately progress via the Spitfire (which is a go-faster Standard 10/Herald) to the TRs. I often wonder if I would have got as much pleasure from the Austin Healey family as I have from 40 years of Standard-Triumph, 35 of them with TRs, although I still enjoy looking at Frogeyes at car shows. I also remember seeing several of them fitted with superchargers racing regularly at Brands in the '60s/70s. However, the Spitfire had to be sold in 1971 when I was made redundant and had to move back home to parents in Dover whilst job-hunting. Three months later, armed with a decent job and salary and relocated to Hertfordshire, I decided a new (really new) car was required. I couldn't afford a TR6, so decided the GT6 was the next best thing. I guess Triumphs were selling well in those days as the main dealer would offer no discount, even for a cash payment (courtesy of Messrs Lloyds!), despite most cars being available with 10-12% off. The search switched to secondhand TRs and after failed attempts to purchase two very nice TR4As, I was determined to have a TR. An ad appeared in the local paper or Exchange & Mart for a TR3A somewhere in the wilds of Hertfordshire. At this stage I wasn't sure what a TR3A was and assumed it was just an earlier version of the TR4/4A, so I persuaded a fellow inmate at my temporary B&B residence to drive me over to investigate. The car was painted in Ford Aubergine with fibreglass front wings and apron, steel hardtop, nylon seat covers and secondhand lounge carpet and was like nothing I'd imagined. However, having come this far, I let the owner's husband take me for a test run around the lanes. That did it - the sound, smell, speed, ride and sheer feeling of being alive - and that was just from the passenger seat. The TR4As certainly paled into insignificance in that short TRip. The lady just couldn't handle the car so her hubby was reluctantly selling it so she could get an MGB - says it all really. I've since had a couple of TR4As and enjoyed them both, although the experience is different from a sidescreen car. Despite the TRials and TRibulations over the years, I've never regretted the decision to buy another old banger instead of the shiny new (or nearly new) cars, and whenever I'm feeling low, I think back to that day and take my current TR3A out for a thrash around the lanes. Edited January 21, 2012 by BrianC Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Lord Flashart Posted January 21, 2012 Report Share Posted January 21, 2012 For me the question is more like "why did I sell my sidescreen?" Been thee years now and even though I have a TR4 to replace it I still pine for my Tr3a. Hopefully I can get another one day, but I'm afraid the prices may be climbing out of my reach!! Paul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bill.p Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 I bought my first TR, a TR2 registered PUK 179,, largely derelict but complete and running with a dodgy and undeserved MOT at the kerbside from a window cleaner in Feltham in 1970; it was hand painted in lovely and fashionable Fiat Positano Orange with tasty matt black sills, ran on ancient "X" tyres and unlike the ropey frogeye I'd just sold, it cost me only 55 quid, so I trousered the 80 quid difference and had a much faster and much more dangerous car....this car I now see altered the course of my life and luckily it didn't kill me...sold it 18 months later to a man who towed it away and whom I later came to know as one Neil Revington....it didn't kill him either, and I believe he still has the remains.....but the overriding reason I bought it? Because it made a bloody wonderful throaty racket !! Maybe I'll write the full version of my TR memoirs one day.....Bill P. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest ntc Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 I took my time,a long time, to find a good un to put together and with a bit of help from Alec found a cracker no rust on the tub and the mechanicals less than 4000 miles from new.The wife loves it so win win Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hpremote Posted January 22, 2012 Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 I first became aware of TR2s in 1955. Then in 1970 my grandmother gave me £50 for my 21st birthday and I was advised by an older motor sporting colleague at my vacation job to get a s/screen TR, seeing as how they probably wouldn't get much cheaper and could of course give the Frogeye a good kicking - if you could stay out of the greenery. So I immediately answered an ad. in Exch. & Mart for a 2, located in Millom and going for £55; I turned up to be given a test ride and was bowled over by the acceleration, fiendish noise and general blur of countryside going by. I wasn't fazed by the fact that bits like the o/s sidescreen, steering wheel centre and the boot floor had gone missing in action. Within six weeks the n/s rear spring had shattered and then the crankshaft broke. That winter I spent installing a scrapyard Vanguard engine, just to try and keep my 2 on the road. However, the reality was that I was a student and didn't have the dosh to run it. so I sold it for £60 to another local Cumbrian. Nevertheless the damage had been done and I had become hooked on TRs. MJM 249 where are you now? - still taxed and on the road somewhere, is the answer. With the exception of three years in the early 70s I've always had a sidescreen since - mainly this beige one I've got now. I'm still surprised at the fact that I still find it a friendly challenge every time I take it out, and that it still occasionally tries to do me harm - or more likely that I'm still not the driver I imagine myself to be. Tim. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Alec Pringle Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I made a healthy profit on a MGTC, went halves on a TR3A back in 1969 . . . . it was quicker than the other option, an MGA, and cheaper. Anyway, I preferred TRs, family loyalties, and WB also reckoned it the better of the two choices. One great advantage of the TR - handbrake turns and doughnuts (not that we called them that then). Running regular discos in the cricket club, we suffered from the local skinheads invading, they didn't like the music. We were getting bored with the resultant aggro and having to chase them down the road. The TR was perfect for spinning in the gravel car park, sending them over the boot like skittles. Kept the local Casualty Department in business briefly, until the yobs got the message. You can't run away with a broken leg. Sadly the TR didn't survive more than a year, my co-driver reduced it to 8' length successfully avoiding a kamikaze child on a fast road. Even worse, he survived, just, but only as a virtual vegetable. Full harness belts aren't always a benefit, sometimes a quick ending would be preferable. Then it was a girlfriend with a TR5, and windey windows weren't welcomed, so I didn't actually join the TR Register for several years. The Kings Road was for sports cars in 1970, Chelsea hadn't discovered tractors, and sidescreens didn't cut the mustard like PI !! Cheers, Alec Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dykins Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 As a non-sidescreener, I must say that I love these old tales. Surely the new Editor of TRA could start a series on how/why members bought their TRs? Regards Peter Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BrianC Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 ...this car I now see altered the course of my life and luckily it didn't kill me... Same here on both counts - especially the latter: When I bought mine it came with Michelin X tyres on the front and XAS on the rear. Handling was lethal, so I visited the local tyre specialists and they soon put me right on the perils of mixing these tyres. I went for the expensive option by swapping the fronts (and spare) to XAS as I had some cash left over from buying a much cheaper car than originally intended. That decision probably saved my life and the XASs eventually went onto a TR4A and similarly transformed the handling on that. Howoever, many exciting miles later, that TR3A had worked out another way to kill me. I had a spring hanger tube pull out of the chassis with devastating results. In retrospect it had probably been flexing for a little while, culminating in uncontrollable rear-end steering on a fast right-hand bend, huge slide across a grass play area (fortunately no kids around) and heavy side impact with a concrete fence post. Years later, I bought some TR parts from someone locally and it turned out he had owned my car several years (and owners) previously and had the spring hanger welded-up. Nowadays we know this is a weak area on TR2-4 live-axle cars and would replace and reinforce the tubes. Sadly the car never did get rebuilt and many of the parts have gone to keeping other TRs on the road - probably around 30 at a rough guess - and still a few bits remain. Incidentally, I recently sold the rear springs, one of which still had some remnants of chassis tube attached. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ashley James Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) I have to confess that I wasn't a TR fan in the sixties. I had friends with them, they were seriously rotten and the upholstery was always split and cracking. They just looked cheaply made, so I and most of my friends bought Healey 3000s, even my father had one and my wife did when I married her! However in 1970 an army officer friend got stationed somewhere overseas and asked me to look after his TR while he was away, so I ended up with a very good 3A and plenty of time to enjoy it. I liked it, but it was less stable than the Healeys and probably a tad slower, but it was lovely and I was sorry to see it go. Now forty years on I've owned all sorts of cars, mostl fearfully expensive. As an example and before I bought the TR I did a parts price comparison. A front shackle pin and bush for a MKVI Bentley are nearly £300 a side and the same for a TR seems to be £7 or so. I decided that I couldn't afford to rebuild another expensive car and didn't want to anyway, so I bought a TR. I found one that seemed representative of good average and soon decided I couldn't stand it as it was and gave it to the bloke who does paintwork for me to get the doors to fit properly. When I went back a couple of days later, he'd taken a disc cutter to it and it had become a pile of rusty panels on the floor! I now owned a car I hardly driven, wasn't sure I liked and had bought mainly because it might be cheap to rebuild. I didn't know whether I'd ever like it and the bill to restore the body alone looked as though it was going to be horrific! A year or so later I got it back with an enormous bill and as a bare shell, so I rebuilt it all and replaced everything (the steering was f----d!) that was worn out. It went together surprisingly quickly and I quite enjoyed working on it. I also decided I liked the look of it and that it was tiny and quite appealing! Soon it was on the road, and now I've begun to enjoy it and I'm surprised at how much I like it. Before I had and completely rebuilt at vast expense, a Bristol 400, but I couldn't get on with it. Despite the claims about it being built like a Rolls-Royce it wasn't, it was a half arsed attempt at a cross between a pre war streamliner and the BMWs whose drawings Bristol had purchased at the end of the war. It looked amazing, they say it has a charismatic engine, probably because they haven't tried a TR one and it was bloody noisy, not a lot quieter than a TR with the roof up! My Bentley is almost as quiet as the best moderns. The TR3A might be cheap and cheerful and Standard Triumph might have been a rather muddle headed company, but they got the TR right and produced one of the truly great cars of all time in my opinion. I can well understand why people keep them for so long and I look forward to some decent journeys in mine a lot more than the wife does! Ash PS. I've got a Healey as well! Edited January 23, 2012 by Ashley James Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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