British car gathering
Saturday, April 21
Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee (just outside of Knoxville)
Sponsored by Blount County British Car Club
The event was scheduled for 9 to 4 on Saturday. Susan and I drove
up Friday night after work (in the Mazda; boo) and spent the night at
a Quality Inn. We encountered no rain on our trip up, but the
predictions for Saturday didn't look encouraging. Sure enough, when
we got up Sat. morning, it was raining, and the wind was blowing
rather fiercely. Just your typical spring morning in London, I guess.
We arrived at the designated area just before 9. Maryville College
is a small Presbyterian (?) school. The campus is beautiful. There
were a couple of MGBs, a lime-green Mini, and a white Alpine there. A
couple of people were standing in the rain talking. I guess if
you're crazy enough to own one of these things, you don't know enough
to get out of the rain. We thought it best to stay in the car until
a) the rain let up a little, and b) more cars showed up. Every now &
then another brave LBC owner decided to fight the weather and come
out. A TR6 here, an AH3000 there, pretty soon things got
interesting. A tent went up while we watched from safety. After
about an hour the rain stopped and we were able to get out and look
around. The wind never quit all day, though. Around 1:00 the clouds
thinned and the sun actually shone for a little while.
Cars continued to show up all day. I guess the last to arrive got
there at about 3:00. There were about a dozen MGBs, ranging from '67
to '80. The Murfreesboro MGB club showed up in a convoy of 4. There
were about 6 BGTs. The oldest car in the entire show was a '53 TD,
grey with red interior. This car was beautiful. The frame rails for
the top and side curtains had been painted gold. I don't know if this
is original, but it really looked good against the red seats. No
Midgets showed up, which surprised me a little. There were 2 MGAs,
one a red '61 1600, and the other was highly modified. It had been
painted a beautiful burgundy, had a side pipe on the passenger side,
and FAT rear tires. I can't remember the size, but they stuck out a
least 3 inches on each side. When it first drove up I thought it was
a Cobra. Turns out that no cutting was necessary to fit these tires,
which made me breathe a sigh of relief.
As for Triumphs, TRs 3 thru 8 were represented. There were three
TR3s, two '60 models, one grey and one red, and one '63 3B. A
baby-blue TR4, a "valencia" blue TR250, half-a-dozen TR6s (only 2 of
which had red-lines), a red TR7 coupe, a maroon TR7 convertible, and
a teal blue TR8. Obvious in their absence were Spitfire and GT6.
The TR7 coupe had been highly modified, with candy-apple red paint,
tinted windows, all exterior badges and decals removed. Best (or
worst) of all, it had a Buick V6 engine and 4-speed auto trans.
The above-mentioned Mini turned out to be an '80 model, and the
Alpine a '63 series III (with those beautiful tail fins!). Other
rarer models included an '80 Rover 3500, 2 red Jensen-Healey JH5s
from Georgia, and 2 AH3000 MkIIs. One was a yellow '62 with sliding
windows, the other a white '65 (I think) with roll-up windows. No
Sprites, though.
In addition to the Spits, GT6s, and Spridgets, conspicuous in its
absence was Jaguar. I guess the weather kept the big cats holed up in
a dry spot.
All in all, there were about 40 cars there, from 6 states:
Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia. The
long-distance winner was an MGB from South Carolina, who had travelled
380 miles.
After the weather cleared, the entrants broke out the towels in
preparation for the concours. The winners were:
MG class:
3rd 71 B, British Racing Green
2nd 61 MGA 1600, red
1st 53 TD, grey with red interior
Triumph class:
3rd 75 TR6, mustard yellow (sounds ugly, but actually quite nice)
2nd 76 TR6, navy blue with brown interior and tan top
1st 67 TR250, valencia blue with brown interior and tan top
AH class:
1st 62 3000 MkII, yellow
Modified coupe class:
1st 80 TR7 coupe, red, Buick V6 & 4sp auto trans
Best in show:
67 TR250. This car was perfect in every way, at least to these
untrained eyes. This is the same car that took 1st place in the
Memphis show last summer.
The concours was really the only organized event. There were no
driving competitions or swap meet. After the presentation of the
awards, there was to be an informal drive around the area followed by
food & drink at a local pizza joint. With a 4-hour drive ahead of us,
we decided to head on back to Hunts-patch. Kind of a long trip to see
only 40 cars or so, but still fun. Maybe the weather will cooperate a
little more next year, and better yet, maybe Eddie the Eagle will be
up for the trip!
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T.J. Higgins uunet!ingr!higgins (UUCP)
Intergraph Corp. M/S CR041 higgins@ingr.com (Internet)
One Madison Industrial Park
Huntsville, AL 35894-0001 "Well-weathered leather, hot metal
(205) 730-6191 and oil, the scent of country air"
-Rush
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