I guess I must have been about 13 at the time. A TR3 (small mouth) was
undergoing some extensive long distance testing for a reason I now forget.
It seems it had to be a punishing schedule - i.e. get as many miles on it as
possible in a month and then tear it down to take critical and meaningful
measurements. The car had been running virtually day and night in shifts for
three weeks and five days.
Dad came home in it one Friday night and it was a great surprise. The large
blue Vanguard did not nose its way through the gates that night. Instead, it
was a BRG small mouth with red trim carrying trade plates (transit plates)
1313 DU and it was FILTHY.
He crawled out from under the soft top and looking at me said just one word.
"Bed."
"Why, its not time to go to bed yet?"
"You're going to bed now and then at three in the morning, we're leaving
here for Lands End. When we get to Land's End, we're coming straight back.
And then on Sunday, we're going to York and back via the factory on the
return to leave this behind and come home in the Vanguard.
I went to bed and needless to say, I didn't sleep for a L O N G time
At 2.0am, I was shaken awake and there was a smell of frying bacon from
downstairs. Ma was cooking up a pile of bacon sandwiches for us to chew on
our journey. We left at about 02.45 in the deepest of darkness. The car was
cold and I shivered. I soon woke up!
We were not travelling slowly. I guess we had about 45 maybe 50 watts on
main beam - and we flew. The roads were empty, rabbits and deer darted off
the road at our approach and the blare from the exhaust bounced back off
passing walls as we shot past. Dad was well pleased with the progress we
were making and clipped nearly 15 minutes off the normal time to Bath. I've
only done it once myself in that time and then I was going like a bat out of
hell. Then on down the Fosse Way to Exeter, Okehampton, Launceston, Bodmin,
Redruth, Penzance, Land's End.
It was about lunchtime as we stood on the cliff top and looking out over the
Atlantic rollers, he said, "the next land mass across there is America."
It seemed a very long way off.
Back to the car, gravel and mud flew off the rear wheels and we were going
home again - all 300 odd miles. I think we got back home about midnight.
Next morning it was off to York and that day was just like the one before.
The tachometer fascinated me as it twitched back and forth round the scale
and the snicky little flicks of the gearlever held me entranced. There were
long straights when we went up to about 90 in overdrive 4th on many
occasions. Then there were the twisting bends which we took in 2nd, O/D 2nd
or direct 3rd - on many occasions with that back end twitching and tyres
yelping. There were turned heads from those we shot past - and then it was
York.
I've never done a Cathedral visit in a shorter time - and then home again.
I don't remember the mileage now but it must have nudged close to 1000 in 48
hours. That was more than forty years ago and the memories of those two
trips are as fresh in my mind today as they were during the hours in which
they unfolded before me.
I tend to take a more pragmatic view of the whole thing as I'm now within
about 3 years of the same age as Dad was when he took me on that drive.
Forty years ago, there was a company that made FUN cars. There was another
called MG - and another called Austin Healey. MG's still around (sort of)
but the others?
Gone!
Not gone because people got tired of buying them - gone because a succession
of so-called managers, directors and self-interested trade unionists thought
they knew better and just threw the whole lot down the tube and let it die
while they happily all looked on. The world is the poorer for the passing of
the companies and poorer still for the loss of the people who worked within
them and who played so hard in their own limited leisure time creating and
testing products for the world to enjoy.
Thank god that commonsense still prevails in two small corners with Morgan
and TVR. It could have been SO MUCH MORE for us in the industry today to
hand on with pride in a job well done to those that follow us.
John Macartney
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