To you all,
LIFE AT TRIUMPH
I refer to my post of yesterday advising you that I had removed the Life
at Triumph stories site. Firstly may I say how very touched I have been to
receive so many notes from such a large number of people, many of whom
hitherto were entirely unknown to me. Without exception, it is clear you
all feel I did the right thing though its obvious as well that you're going
to miss having something to turn to for a little relief?
All the encouragement I have had in this intiative has spurred me on to do
the best I can in the shortest time possible, consistent with content and a
degree of entertainment (?) value. So, at the risk of a little bandwidth
I'll give you some advance notice about the book I have in view.
'Life at Triumph' will almost certainly appear on the cover, although the
main title under which I hope to sell it will be "In the Shadow of my
Father." This is because Pa was such a long serving employee of The
Standard Motor Company in his own right and had attained a high level of
managerial responsibility in the company's activities before the outbreak
of war in 1939. As there is relatively little that has been written about
Standard per se, though lots about Triumph and the other LBC marques - Pa,
and his own career is the lead in. Then, we have the stories you already
know plus some others I still have up my sleeve. On top of that, I am
anxious to obtain as much anecdotal evidence as I can from as many people
as possible about everyday life in the company (post war). I feel it is
important to continue the theme of short stories - as mine have been
(sometimes!) and I'm anxious for the humourous side of things to come
through wherever possible. To this extent, I already have a considerable
response from former employees who are happy to throw in their two
pennorth. This has come about through a recent announcement in the Coventry
press.
The one area on which I want to concentrate as far as possible, is the
provision of photographs. Of course, I do have the excellent good fortune
to have an inside track into the BMIHT archive for monochrome, colour, 16mm
film and video - but that's the downside in one way. BMIHT earn a lot of
income from copyrighting their archives - but maybe we can cut a deal
"bein' as wot I'm one of them already." On the photographic front, I
already have quite a number of non-protected pictures which I plan to use
but I'll be spending a day in the next week or so in the archive looking
out some piccy's for you all to enjoy.
The manuscript is already well advanced as it affects Pa and the former web
stories and is already laid out on a page measuring 5" x 8" in Arial at 11
point (I'm now an OF, like many of you, so I have your visual interests in
mind) - and the book will fit in your case for reading when you're away
from home! I guess it'll fit a TR glovebox too - but would someone mind
measuring one for me just to make sure? Page count without photographs is
already at 111 and I'm expecting it to about double. If we can release
something in the order of 250 pages total, I'll be happy.
Some people have expressed concern that because of what has happened, I'll
be leaving the list. Sorry, you're stuck with me! It's my daily read over
my Cornflakes at breakfast and I'll be here submitting my own thoughts
about 48 hours after all of you have gone over to another subject! I just
hope I don't drop my bowl and the milk into my keyboard.
THIS AND THAT
On the SU dashpot oil which is still seeming to have a few people getting a
bit twitchy, I was delving through manuals and bulletins today in the
Reading Room to see what oil weight should be used. For the most part,
straightforward engine oil is the substance referred to. Spridget, B and
3000 paperwork refers to "A suitable lightweight oil" and a '65 factory
Midget manual says "a lightweight oil or engine oil of 20W is
satisfactory." I bet someone'll come back saying "ah, that's what you put
in a Spridget - but a Spridget isn't a Spitfire."
All I can say is if you've got an SU, regardless of what make of car is
fixed to the back end of it, a 20W/50 oil is AOK. If you want to use
something else, that's your decision.
THE OTHER
Ignition keys in parking light/indicator assemblies. Can John Mac throw
light on it? Yes, I can. In fact, I'd forgotten all about that little
affair until the thread reminded me. So many cars arrived at their shipping
destinations all over the world without the original keys - i.e. no keys at
all, that another set was supplied and hidden in either the front or rear
light assemblies - according to model before the car left the assembly
line. How did they go missing in the first place? Very often, dockside
stevedores just threw them away "for a laugh" and I wouldn't be at all
surprised that if someone wanted to spend an afternoon in the mud of
Liverpool docks, they'd come up with barrowloads of keys with Willmot
Breedon stamped all over them. I also expect that having read this,
tomorrow will see any number of people stopping work on restoration - and
Triumph owners worldwide will be frantically ripping out light assemblies
looking for 'the spare set.'
John Macartney
Still carefully polishing the thinning cellulose . . .
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