Phil,
I consider my TR6 a daily driver and I put 5-6000 miles a year on it. As
long as the weather is good, it makes the 6 mile commute to work every day.
On weekends it goes to the golf course and grocery shopping plus it's a
frequent visitor to the mall. Does it go out in rain or snow.......... hell
no. Is it driven in the winter......... as much as the snow and salt Gods
allow. For most owners their insurance dictates what kind of driving they
can do and the classic insurers have all turned me down because of the way I
use the car. To me, it isn't the miles per year, it's the type of use that
earns it the name daily driver. Oh yea, I corrected the spelling of
philosophy too ;-)
Bob Danielson
75 TR6 - status at
http://pages.cthome.net/BobD
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-triumphs@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-triumphs@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Philip Haldeman
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 5:10 PM
To: triumphs@autox.team.net; philpatt@kalamazoo.net
Subject: Re: The Philsopophy of Originality
Phil Pattengale said:
>Well, my (father's) TR3 is as much a daily driver as the weather allows.
>Since I started driving it daily about 3 years ago, I've put more miles on
>it (about 7k) than he did in the previous 20 years.
7,000 miles in 3 years doesn't sound like a "daily driver" to me. Can I be
wrong?
>Course, I've also blown
>up the differential (tire squealing in driveway - chipped spider gear tooth
>to begin with though) two years ago and blew up the 1st gear countershaft
>(or some such thing) drag racing a '58 MGA last year, but I've since
learned
>how to replace a rear end, and rebuild a transmission.
That's great. I wish I had the time, space, and perhaps motivation, to
learn how to seriously work on these cars. I also figured I'd get a lot of
people from the list writing that *they* have a TR3 daily driver. But the
exception doesn't prove the rule. I'm glad that Triumph people tend to
drive their cars. I'm not for the "show" approach. Indeed, our cars were
meant to be driven. I'm also glad that many of you drive your cars on a
"daily" basis, because someone has to keep the parts suppliers in business.
I'm not being sarcastic. It takes a certain turnover in repairs to make the
Brit parts business viable---and the more we use our cars, the more viable
that business will be. I may not see the point of driving a TR3 through
rush-hour traffic every day, but that's just me. (I drive around in an '87
Subaru so that I can afford to own, drive, restore, and maintain the TR6 I
bought.)
I don't like the idea of "museum pieces" either. If I had a '35 Gloria
Southern Cross, I'd be driving it on weekends, too. But we non-mechanics
can't afford to keep rebuilding our cars---and we'd also like to pass them
along to our offspring. One of you besides Phil brought up the fact that
Triumphs are still raced, and race-prepared. Well and good. Why not
restore a Triumph as a race-prepared example? On the other hand, "vintage"
racing is just what it says---vintage. From what I've seen, rules are very
strict about getting too close to other cars, and if you should so much as
brush against another car on the track, you're suspended. The mentality is
different. People understand these are "collector" cars, not all-out race
cars. Winning (and therefore risk-taking) is not the prime motive. There
may be exceptions.
Not long ago, I owned a 1950 Studebaker Champion. In that year, 250,000
Studebakers rolled off the assembly lines in Indiana and California---in
that ONE year, as many as the whole Triumph TR2/3/4/5/6 series in ALL the
years of production. Piggot notes that only 15% of sidescreen TRs still
exist and speculates that only one-third of them are in running condition at
any given time---which would be about 4,000 cars. Very few in your own
city, I'd say. So---argue about what's *really* factory, and about owners'
rights to modify and screw around to their heart's content, but I'm not sure
I understand why Triumphs should be any less cherished and respected for
their originality as any other make of collectible car. Do you?
I was hoping, in my own bumbling way, to start a discussion of what
"originality" or "reasonable modification" might actually mean to the list,
but instead I get the "anything goes", one-thing-is-just-as-good-as-another,
"we're all beautiful in our own way" argument---and I can't stand political
correctness!
Phil Haldeman
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