For what it's worth ...
I was clearing out some very ancient boxes from my mother's attic a
few weeks back and before throwing out the contents for burning, went
through each box to make sure there wasn't anything in any of them of
value.
At the bottom of one box, I found some papers written by my father in
about 1937 to 39 regarding some road-testing of Standard cars - mainly
trouble-shooting on Bendix brakes. There's not a lot of narrative as
in a report and the pencil handwriting is naturally now very faded to
a point where some of it just isn't legible. I think they were
probably notes taken during the test runs themselves and these notes
were later dictated into report format - though the reports sadly, are
not part of the 'consignment' I uncovered. I guess they may have gone
for all time.
What might be of possible interest (?) to enthusiasts, are the notes
that specify the routes that were followed in order for the testing to
be done. I know these were key routes used by Standard Triumph (and
other Coventry manufacturers - Jaguar and Rootes Group) in the post
war years as well, because it was by no means uncommon to see Mk 2's,
E types, Alpines and Tiggers making use of them, often seven days a
week, in which the cars carried transferable licence (trade) plates.
Mainly, the testing with those cars was to uncover or precipitate
failures brought about through recent warranty claims. I also
travelled them with Dad as a kid in sidescreen TR's, Vanguards and
Tens when a car needed 500+ miles putting on it over a weekend. In
later years, I drove them myself when I had sold TR 250/6, GT6,
Spitfire and other non US spec Triumphs to customers who paid the fuel
costs to have the break-in driving and the first service done before
final delivery.
Many of these roads, rat runs, test hills etc are close to where I
live and while they may now be wider, have better surfaces, less
severe gradients and bends, they still exist. Some are further afield
in Wales as well as Devon and Cornwall in the south west.
It occurs to me that it would be fun to 'drive' these routes again in
a Triumph with a video camera mounted between the front seats, looking
through the screen and running as you drive?
As some of you may have seen from a recent post on the main Triumph
list, I'm putting together a little amateur production for Michael
Porter's use at VTR this summer, so I'll probably follow through on
this idea for my own reference before I return the camera to its
owner. If nothing else, the resulting footage would be a nice record
for me as a record of my own mis-spent youth and to re-live the past
when I'm well into pensionable age and probably no
longer own a Triumph. I guess for the vast majority of listers, video
footage of being driven on the wrong side of the road in a foreign
country that many may never see (or probably would never want to see)
could be a crushing bore - but I thought I would make the suggestion
to see if there would be any interest from a broader parish.
Replies off-list, please
Jonmac
IN THE SHADOW OF MY FATHER
http://www.toolbox.ndirect.co.uk/triumphbook
THE CROCUS AND A CORNFLOWER http://www.toolbox.ndirect.co.uk/crocus
The SLOW progress with 'Canley Girl':
http://www.toolbox.ndirect.co.uk/
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