Showtime!

This weekend saw the annual Darling Buds Classic Car Show near Bethersden in Kent at the farm where a lot of filming took place for that classic TV show with David Jason and Catherine Zeta Jones. The owner of the farm is a former Chairman of the P5 Alive club and puts on this show every year in aid of the Kent Air Ambulance Trust. I have been to this show a number of times before and it is always guaranteed to have a good turnout, last year was particualrly good with over 1000 cars, this year the turnout was down a bit, probably due to the weather which was a typical english summers day, wet and windy with the odd sunshine break!

This was the first time I'd experienced a change in the way they organise the cars, when I'd been previously they'd been organised by Manufacturer, this year it was by period, so I found myself initially sandwiched between a W reg Fiesta and V Reg Mercedes Saloon in the 1976 to 1980 Class in my 77 Stag. Fortunately a fellow TSSC member turned up in his 78 Sptfire and I moved next to him. All together there were 5 of us from our local area but we were dotted around the show field - must get a Club Stand next time!

My Wife, Daughter, Son in law and Grand Daughter were due to join me during the morning for a picnic, but they elected to stay at home until the early afternoon due to the poor weather. Consequently very few photo's were taken until they arrived, so I have posted some of my Grand Daughter Maia whom as you can see is already taking some interest in Classic Cars!

Ahh - This must be Grandpa's Triumph Stag












Now there's the Handbrake and Gear Lever - where are the pedals?












When can I have a go Grandpa?













Now this is much better, I can reach the pedals!













I know it rained a lot, but this is ridiculous!















The Stag ran well there and back in the rain - the windscreen wipers worked, it didn't leak - but the cigarette lighter socket has now stopped working. I suspect this may be something to do with taking out the carpeting last week to vacuum it out as the interior was getting a bit crabby.

So when the rain stops I'll get this sorted ready for the multitude of chargers need for the 10 Countries Run! I also fitted a Mountney 15" Leather steering wheel I won on the bay last week which is a great improvement over the standard wheel and more comfortable than the 13" one I'd transferred from the Spitfire.

Next job is to mount a backup Kenlowe fan currently winging it's way to me from a fellow TSSC/CT member. This will be fitted with a manual switch rather than a thermostatic one for the moment as the main fan is on a newish Viscous Coupling and does a good job in hot weather (when we have it!).

Other than that the car is pretty much ready for the 10CR pending fluid checks - I have have some VR1 Oil coming my way courtesy of a very good July offer in Eurocarparts so will do an oil change nearer the departure date.

Recent Travels

Not a lot on the Triumph front recently, this was because we've been away on a holiday in the South of France and Italy. We started off flying to Nice for a couple of days before we joined our Cruise ship, the Azamara Journey for a short 4 day cruise that took in Portofino, Italy where we visited the Cinque Terre villages, Saint Tropez, and finally arriving in Monaco at 8.00am on the day of the Grand Prix. This is me having lunch on board overlooking the harbour.


We spent the morning walking around the 'Old Town' of Monaco soaking up the atmosphere, our ears being assaulted by the sound of the support races bouncing around the old buildings. We had decided not to purchase tickets for the GP given their exorbitant price (400+ euro for a grandstand seat) and instead to watch/listen from onboard ship. We could just see the cars entering the tunnel from the Sun Deck. I elected to return to our cabin and watch the GP on the TV (BBC of course!) with the real sound of the cars coming in through the open patio doors. At one point I had to close the doors as I couldn't here the commentary on the TV!

I was glad we didn't purchase tickets as the last 6 laps were a farce following its restart and the front runners changing their tyres!

After returning to Nice the next day we had a very nice couple of days in the villages above Nice, staying in a nice Hotel in Vence and driving a Fiat 500 up some very interesting roads. Practice for the 10CR!!

On our return home, I had my Birthday Present which was a drive around Goodwood in an Aston Martin Vanquish - what can I say? - I want one!!! Forget all those Ferrari Cars that people want, the Aston is THE car to have, superb drive, no idea how fast I went, too busy looking out for braking and turn-in points, all I can say it was bloody quick and 80mph along the A27 later in the day seemed slow! Yes, that is me in the pic below, you can't see my big grin behind my hand unfortunately.


Had the Spitfire out over the weekend, still going well, must get the welding done before the MOT next month. I have a part share in a brand new MIG welder so my only excuse is now to learn how to use it.

Spare Wiring!

It all started with changing a blown bulb in the courtesy lamp on the centre console of the Stag. Having bought some spare bulbs at the TSSC South Eastern Meet yesterday I decided to replace the bulb on the passenger footwell which has not worked for some time, for good reason as when I took the cover off the existing bulb was nowhere to be seen.

I knew there was one in there as I'd replaced it a couple of years ago, so off came the parcel shelf and sure enough, the bulb had simply dropped out and was nestling safely between the centre console and carpet. No need for a new one, this time I made sure it was securely fitted.

Whilst I had the parcel shelf out I decided to see why the radio would not sit right back in its slot, so out that came, I then noticed for the first time a small toggle switch cunningly hidden away behing the dashboard, clearly a previous owner had an alarm of some kind which had latterly been replaced by a Clifford immobiliser.

After checking with a multimeter that none of the wires were powered with the ignition on or off I traced the wires back through the centre console behind the radio , some to the relay board and some to the engine compartment. Fortunately, this is where they terminated behind the sound deadening on the bulkhead, being blanked off with insulating tape.

After some careful extraction, removing scotch lock connectors from the loom, the picture below shows just how much there was. And the radio? - well it now sits properly fully back in its slot.

Triumphs Update and Drive It Day

I didn't realise that I last updated this blog at the beginning of February, OK so we've been on Holiday and dealing with parents and grandchidren that have kept me a bit busy with little on the car front until a few weeks ago. One thing I did do 2 months ago was advertise the Spitfire for sale, I had come to the conclusion that I really can only afford to run one Classic - the expensive one!

Luckily so far the Spitfire remains in my garage, a few nibbles but nothing conclusive - but then I didn't advertise it as well as I could have! During this time, the MOT on the Stag crept up on me unnoticed, I thought it was later in the year to coincide with the anniversary of the new engine in August , so having organised a run out for my local TSSC area I found myself relying on the trusty Spitfire.

This was a lovely run a couple of weeks ago from our base in Hildenborough to the Dering Arms in Pluckley that has a 'Classic car Sunday' every 2nd Sunday of the month. 3 Spitfires, 2 Vitesse and 2 Gentry's did the run and we arrived amongst some very exotic and specialist cars in the station car park!

The following week I had organised another run, this time on Drive It Day to Brooklands, again 3 Spitfires but with 1 Vitesse and 1 13/60 Herald convertible. Brooklands as always is a fascinating place and there were plenty of Classics there as well. An added bonus is Mercedes World next door and amongst all the modern machinery there is a small display of classic cars as well. They also serve excellent coffee!

And what of the Stag, she has passed her MOT just needing two new anti rollbar links and a handbrake brake adjustment. She has also had a full service and two new silencers in readiness for the Ten Countries Run in September.

The pictures from the Dering Arms Run and Brooklands Run can be found here: http://tssc-west-kent.webs.com/apps/photos/

Stag and Spitfire update

A few weeks ago the battery sensing wire on the alternator loom of the stag broke for the second time, looking closely at the wires it was clear that they had hardened and become brittle through age. So I ordered a new cable from EJ Wards - my Stag has a relocated alternator to the nearside so an extended cable was needed, and this is what was ordered.

When it arrived I went to put the new cable on, only to discover that although it was long enough to reach the alternator from the junction connector on the offside wing, it was much shorter than the originally extended part-loom. So, after some head scratching, I thought as a temporary fix as it was cold outside I ran the cable over the top of the engine (see pic).

Yesterday I decided to do a proper job, so thinking it would be a simple job to remove the old cables, which by this time lay disconnected in the engine bay I proceeded to trace their route, only to discover that they seemed to go in front of the radiator. after much tugging, swearing, taking off the radiator grille, I gave up trying to get them out and cut off the visible ends. The remainder of the cable will be a surprise for whoever takes the radiator out next!

After this fruitless task I turned my attention to a better routing for the new cable and determined that the easiest solution was to cable tie it the front anti roll bar, keeping it away from the front nearside downpipe.


One of the most frustrating parts of the process was screwing back the radiator grille which hadn't needed to come off in the first place!

Today I turned my attention to the Spitfire, I have decided to sell this and concentrate all my efforts (and finances) on the moneypit (Stag) As it hadn't turned over since well before Christmas the battery needed a good overnight charge, but I am pleased to say she started easily once the fuel had got through. Only problem now as I've sorned it I can't give it a good run, so I ran it up and down the Close I live in a couple of times to make sure nothing was sticking (brakes, clutch) and that everything works. I also took the radio out to put in the Stag as its a more modern MP3 one. The next decision is whether to sell it with the MX5 seatsthat I fitted a couple of years ago or put the originals back in which I still have and ebay the MX5's.

Apart from that it just needs a good clean inside and out, some photo's taken and then advertised.

More Stag news

The Stag is safely back from Faversham Classics having had its second head torque and oil change following clocking up over 1000 miles on its new engine. According to the engine builder, Trevor, I am now allowed to extend the engine rev's gradually above the previous 3000 limit. I can now report that this engine is very sweet and smooth at 4500! and accelerates very nicely. Really need to get on a rolling road to see what its really putting out!

One adverse effect is that the new engine seems to have found the weaknesses in the silencers, I knew they were a bit marginal at the last MOT and had to have some welding up, well now they will definitely need replacing before the next one!

At long last I have taken the RBRR stickers off the Spitfire and have been using that car a bit, it seems to have developed a few new rattles since the RBRR so some light winter restoration is needed. Still runs well though there seems to be a constant smell of fuel coming from somewhere, the top of the float chambers seem to slightly wet with fuel so will start the investigation there.

That probably explains the comment from my Co Driver Grahams wife when we returned from the RBRR that we stank of petrol, I thought at the time it was because I spilt some fuel over the rear deck at The Plough when topping up the tank from the fuel cans that were carried unused for over 2000 miles- clearly not the case!

Stag update and a bit of history!

I've been using the Stag a fair bit over the last couple of weeks, mainly to put mileage on the new engine so that I can put it in for the next oil change and head torque. Consequently its now booked in next week having reached the requisite 1000 mile mark. This new engine just gets sweeter as the miles go on and its getting increasingly difficult to keep to the 3000 rpm limit - only 4 more days to go!

One thing I did notice recently was a bit of driveline vibration between 50 and 60, so today I took the car into my local National Tyres for the wheel balance to be checked. I have good experience of this tyre supplier having bought tyres for my Skoda, Spitfire and the wifes Ka through tyreshopper.co.uk for fitment there.

They balanced them all, but pointed out that the offside rear was very difficult to balance as it was slightly buckled, this is strange as looking at the wheel it seems to be in better condition than the rest. Anyway, they did get a good balance on it in the end and I took it for a good run up the M20 - admittedly at a slightly greater speed than the legal limit and more than the 3000rpm for just a few minutes, what a difference - the vibration had gone completely. Just need to sort out the slow puncture in the spare now and swap the wheel.

On a slighly different topic - still Triumph related in a way, I have been scanning in some old 35mm slides on a new slide scanner I bought from Maplin and came across some photo's of my first Triumph Herald a 1966 1200 convertible taken during a holiday in Cornwall in 1973 with my then Fiancee Rose (now wife) - hence the strange photo of me pointing to an appropriately named road! You can see from the photo that this was my Hippy look!

The next photo was taken outside the holiday cottage we had rented - I seem to holding the local cat!
The last photo is taken in the driveway of Rose's parents back in Kent. I remember that we had to stop on the way home at Heathrow to wire up the exhaust rear box as it started dragging along the ground whilst travelling along the M4!