In a message dated 26/06/01 19:51:53 GMT Daylight Time,
pandachadwell@mac.com writes:
> Who has the right answer? Who knows? Maybe NONE of us do
Very nicely put, and remember that not being right every time is what makes
us ALL human.
My late father arosed my interest in LBC's when we restored his 1967 Rover
2000 TC (P6) back in 1975. I was 16 then, and it taught me a lot.
Unfortunatley, that fine car was written-off in 1978 by a funeral hearse that
ran pushed it into a truck in the traffic.
His replacement car, which my mother and I found for him, was a 1974 Triumph
2000 Mk.2, and although it was less exciting and innovative, it was much more
reliable.
That car we ran, resprayed and restored during the period 1978 to 1990, when
it was destroyed by a bus in Troyes, France.
I bought my own Herald Convertible during March 1981, when I was 22, and
learnt just about all I needed to know about those cars in my 18 year long
period of ownership which ended in November 1998.
I drove it some 155,000 miles, I raced it, I took it all over Europe, from
the North Cape of Norway to Venice in Italy. I fitted all sorts of go-faster
goodies including twin webers and a supercharger etc...
I started building my Vitesse, from scratch in 1984, (I was 25), and finally
drove it in April 1997, (when I was 38)...I have been working on and
improving it ever since that time...
My point being that I have seen very many examples of what can be done with
our cars over the years (I also attend the TR Register International
Meetings), where my Vitesse elicits much interest from the TR people, and
never looks out of place lined up with the same period TR's.
I have learnt that everyone is entitled to do whatever they wish to do with
or to their Triumphs, we all learn by our mistakes! It is called life!, and
at the end of the day it is too short to sweat the small stuff.
Just get out there and enjoy it. If the youngsters want to mess with their
TR's then they have every right so to do. They will learn eventually, and at
least they are being kept out of the jaws of the crusher.
If they choose to move on to a more modern, reliable, (and let's not fool
ourselves here, modern cars are more reliable, if only thanks to 40 years
more development, and a real R&D budget at most modern car companies, unlike
cash starved Triumph
who never had enough money, otherwise what would we all do with our time?)
then so be it, I am sure they will want a good price for their Triumph before
parting with it.
Of course you get the young tearaways that Kai is referring to, but you get
old ones too!, such as the guy who joined our club, bought a nice Triumphat a
good price, insured it through our club scheme on agreed value, then 'stole
it' one night, took it to a nearby town and destroyed it with a lump hammer,
before claiming the agreed value on the insurance, roughly 1000 GBP more than
what he paid for it.
Unfortunately, it was discovered that he had done this before, with other
classic cars and other insurance companies...he was 51 years old.
I have also followed a club member, aged 65 years up a steep hill, he was
driving his Vitesse, and me my Herald with Webers, I stopped following him
when he overtook a truck on the very brow of the hill, crossing the two solid
white lines, and on a blind corner...he had his 62 year old wife in his
concours winning car at the time.
I was not impressed.
So you see, it isn't always the youngsters!
I have seen young guys driving modern GTI's with larey paint jobs, wide
tires, and fat exhausts and incredibly loud stereo systems, driving like
angels, possibly due to their already exceedingly high insurance premiums.
So you see, Kai, you really cannot generalise about people.
We are all a little different, with different values, viewpoints, opinions
and competences, even you.
Your opinions are valid, although not perhaps mainstream, as you have no
doubt noticed from some of the responses to your original mailing.
Leon F Guyot
1963 Triumph Vitesse 2-Litre Convertible (Diva)
1988 Volkswagen 1600GT Scirroco Coupe (Driver)
Wimbledon, London, England.
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