Wolseley Club of Ireland Rally 2008

In preparation for my annual pilgrimage to the Wolseley Club of Ireland’s annual rally I gave the TR a thorough service. This included a change of oil and filter, greasing all suspension and steering joints and new plugs, points and condenser.

The tyres on the car were 15 years old, but only about half worn. They looked to be in perfect condition, but I was concerned by reports of tyres over ten years old failing and I didn’t want to chance my luck. After consultation on the TR Register’s Forum I ordered a set of Vredestein Sprints, which at £38 each seemed to be very good value. They were fitted by my local garage two days before I left for the rally.

On the way across to Stranraer to catch the ferry I was concerned that the engine seemed to be misfiring when accelerating from low revs. This seemed to be getting worse and I suspected the new condenser or rotor arm. I stopped on the hard shoulder of the M8 and quickly changed over to the old condenser and rotor arm. Although this improved things slightly, I was alarmed to notice that under hard acceleration the car backfired and left a trail of black smoke.

I stopped at the next services and took out the spark plugs from number one and four cylinders to see if they gave any clues as to the source of the problem. They both looked a healthy colour, but then I noticed that number four spark plug had an enormous gap. It looked as though the centre electrode had disappeared inside the ceramic part of the plug. Stupidly, I hadn’t taken any spare plugs with me, so I bent the top electrode round as far as I dared and continued.After that the misfire was much less pronounced, but then the overdrive started cutting out and in. Luckily this seemed to resolve itself after five miles, but because we were paying attention to the problem rather than the route, we missed our junction. Once back on route progress was slowed considerably by five sets of road works and a convoy system. As a result of all of these delays we missed our ferry, so arrived in Ireland three hours behind schedule.

We continued south, where after a night in a lovely hotel we bought some new spark plugs from a little motor factors. Plugs fitted and the misfire was solved.

The rally started in Mallow, County Cork and continued to Bantry where it was to be based for the next three nights. The scenery in this most south-westerly part of Ireland was breathtaking and the rally organisers surpassed themselves with the roads and locations they used.

The new tyres proved their worth with lighter steering and much better grip. There was no more spinning the inside wheel at junctions and apparently stronger sidewalls, as the tyres kept a better shape during the driving tests.

The rally consisted of mostly regularity average speed sections, although with the standard of some of the roads some of these were more like hill climbs. There were also a few driving tests thrown in and I managed to get the fasted time on three of the five tests.

After 350 miles of rallying along small bumpy roads we were delighted to end up first in class and third overall and we managed fasted time on three of the tests.

The next morning we set off early on our return journey and with light traffic we managed to arrive at the ferry two hours early! The total journey from hotel to home took 14½ hours! Our average speed on the road was just over 50 mph and the fuel consumption for the journey was just over 30mpg.

The TR ran like a dream and it never fails to amaze me that a fifty year old car can take such punishment and manage to cruise comfortably at 80mph. I will forgive it the minor indiscretions on the way over. After all it was the spark plug that failed, not the car!

My Current TR3A

My current TR3A left the factory on 22nd December 1959 and was shipped to the USA. Its first owner was a young lady living in Memphis Tennessee. She ran the car as her daily transport for 15 years and it was parked outside in all that time. Eventually, she gave the car to her brother-in-law, who sorted out some electrical issues and taped the top up before driving it to Oklahoma.

There it lived for another 15 years, while slowly being worked on. He re-trimmed the car and painted it in its current two-tone colour scheme. The car was in use in all this time.

In 1991, after 15 years, he decided to sell the car because he was building a house and the TR just sat in the garage, not receiving enough use and at risk of having building materials dropped on it.

I bought the car to use while I was restoring my other TR3A. When it arrived in the UK, I discovered that it was not in as good condition as I had thought. The paint was crazed, there was some old accident damage to the rear of the car, the engine was not running well and numerous rubber items needed to be replaced. This was unfortunate as I had already entered the car into a rally!

Three months of hard work had the car on the road with a fresh MOT and we made it to the rally. We even managed to finish the rally, although by then the TR was only running on three cylinders and the dynamo had stopped working.

Over the next few months I had the rear bodywork repaired, fitted a new cylinder head and rebuilt the engine and generally overhauled the car. This was not all without its problems. Two memorable ones were losing a manifold nut while replacing the cylinder head. It turned out to be inside cylinder no 4 and was the catalyst for the engine rebuild. The other was driving the car home after having the bodywork sorted, only to spin the car on a corner and smash up the front end.

That was all within the first year of ownership. The subsequent 16 years have been a lot less painful and we have completed many trouble-free miles and various rallies together.

Triumph TR3A

This was my TR3A when bought in 1989. I was looking for a car to completely restore, and that is certainly what I got here! It was a Californian import and I was completely won over by the relatively rust-free condition of the car. I knew that it required a total re-trim, new outer sills and repairs to the boot floor and floor pans, and I expected to have to restore most of the mechanical side of the car.

Unfortunately, though, it turned out to have bent chassis and the engine block and crank were beyond repair. Other interesting features were the gate hinges holding the bonnet on, a length of wire and six inch nail for a choke cable, short lengths of hose pipe used as suspension bushes and an MGA rear bumper on the front of the car.

The chassis was repaired by welding in the front of another chassis. A new boot floor was welded in and various repairs made to the floors. The outer sills weren't too bad, but they were removed and replaced in order to check out the condition of the inner sills. The car was then re-sprayed. A replacement engine was fitted and virtually every other item was either replaced or overhauled. I re-trimmed the car and fitted a new top, side-screens and tonneau cover.

Eight years later I had completely rebuilt the car, but by then I had bought another TR3, which was meant to be a temporary fun car. However, I decided that it would be more sensible to sell the rebuilt car, which I felt was almost too good to drive. I sold it in 1997 at a great loss, but I enjoyed the experience of completely rebuilding a car! This car is now in a private collection in Denmark.

A little history

Amongst the classic cars I have owned, so far I have had nine Triumphs. I still have four of them in various states of repair. In fact I am begining to think that I am adicted to Triumphs! I bought my first in 1985 and I haven't been without one ever since. Over the next few days I hope to post details of them all and some of the adventures I have had with them. I am sure that some other old friends will also appear here in time.