Hillclimbing and Scrap Dragging!

My first Australian motorsport spectating happened last weekend when we went to the Noosa Historic Hillclimb. It was run on a 1.5km twisting forest (public) road with about 15 corners on it, and the walking track alongside was elevated from the tarmac affording excellent views.

The line up of cars was spectacular - 175 in total, with a real variety, from Lotus 7s, Mini Coopers, Alfas, TR7 V8s, even a GT40:


Other than the half dozen TR7 V8s (most 3.5l, but a few 4-5l V8s) there was also a TR4, a 3a, a 2.5Pi MK2, and a GT6 Mk2.
The most notable results were the TR7 V8 3.5l cars - dominating their class of 5 cars they took all but the last position ... which went to a lowly Porsche 911!


But in a class with some competition the TR3a came second out of 5 in its class, and incidentally is a daily-driven 11,000 mile per year car!


A Dolly Sprint came fourth out of 16 and only did half its allocated runs, then, the GT6 came second in its class, with one great time and a load of diabolical ones ... I wonder if there was some mid event tinkering!!!



Some of the other great cars were the Minis (one in particular was being chucked around brilliantly, and another had a suzuki 1200 bike engine), the Datsun 240zs


We spent the week after this at the in-laws, which gave me and Jacques the chance to move the spares car. It's been in the garden sitting up at the back end from the diff. removal a month or so back, and somebody was keen on us putting it somewhere out of site. Hilarity ensued.

The car wasn't delivered with any wheels, so we had to consider the best way of moving it 20 metres into the shed ... bearing in mind that my BOB (the 2500 S) was in Brisbane so we couldn't borrow its wheels. Fortunately we had a Bobcat on hire for some other jobs ... could it lift the whole car?



The Bobcat strained and thought about tipping over, so we lifted each end in turn and propped it ... then worked out that the trailer's wheels looked to be about the right size! So with no diff. we dragged it inside:


I doubt you can see the wheels well enough ... but if you ever saw Doug Foreman's GT6 with the wrong rear spring, plus him and Colin in the car ... you get the idea.

Finally we got it in the shed, and up on some home made stands!

A Tale of 2 Diff's

I spent a week at the in-laws place in Bundaberg recently, where the spare 2500 TC we recently purchased was waiting to be investigated. It turns out to be a fairly 'interesting' car.
Unfortunately it's an auto, and a bit far gone to be worth restoring, but there are some good bits.
A look rummage around in the boot revealed a spare diff., a knackered diff. pinion, plus the starter motor, distributor, a spare pair of driveshafts and the radiator grille from a Mk2 2000 ... The diff. was stamped ME**** so obviously belonged to a 2000. Opening it up revealed that the pinion and crownwheel were quite a mess. A shame as one of the reasons we wanted the car was for a spare diff. (just in case!).

Removing the diff. that was fitted proved it was probably in an even worse state than the first one, however! Two useless diff's ... hurrumph!

The next find was that the engine was also an ME prefix engine, which seemed rather strange given that there's a towbar on the back, twin electric fans, and an oil cooler for the auto-box. Why would someone with a towing car reduce their engine size from 2.5 to 2.0? I attempted to measure the stroke to see what was what, and it appears to actually be a 2.5 unit after all. Attempting to turn it over by hand proved pretty easy too, with nothing apparently seized. It will be interesting to see what's going on inside.

The radiator was still full of bright green coolant, when I removed it, and looks to have been re-cored.

There are lots of useful little odds and sods that have been put on to BOB, too, like a better wiper arm so passengers can see out when it rains, wiper bottle bracket, wiper park switch, glovebox lock, etc.
I've got the electric fan going now as well after diagnosing a bad contact.

BOB's been getting some great runs recently - a lot of dirt roads (we've been out looking for them!), and some good windy 'mountain' roads. Here's a shot on a dirt road on the way back to Brisbane from Bundaberg:



On the next visit I'll hopefully get a chance to drop the engine and gearbox out. The box can hopefully be sold.

Meanwhile back in Blighty, Mum's been selling some of my old Triumph spares on e-bay for me. The only things that haven't shifted yet are a set of very clean GT6 Mk1 carb's and a Mk1 Vitesse rear trunnion set ... contact me if you're interested.

The Verdict

We've had a little time with BOB now. I've spent the last few weeks gradually checking him out. No major work needed so it's just been a case of servicing: checking UJs, changing oil, greasing splines, setting tappets, etc. The only issue really is the diff. which is a little noisy. The kms are clocking up though. Regular trips to my place of work and little trips out at the weekend, plus an 800 km round trip to the in-laws have added up and we've done 1600 km since the purchase already ... as it should be.

This pic's of a trip out to Brisbane port ... where I found a good long un patrolled straight where I was able to 'open her up' a little:





The trip up to Bundaberg last weekend went well, taking the highway up we got 28 mpg. The speedo is spot on according the rev counter by the way, which is a first in a Triumph for me! It was more fun coming back down the dirt tracks on the way home. The car's semi-polybushed at the moment, but has new KYB shocks all round. A fairly harsh ride on the dirt, but still ok for 90 kmph on a bumpy surface. We did nearly collide with a Kangaroo around one corner however ... not very pleasant.

Most of the weekend was spent tinkering with the car. My father-in-law is a big fan, and really enjoyed giving the car a good look over, and a drive (he has fond memories of his father-in-laws' 2500). There was time to go out and find another one to buy, too. In the scrapyard around the corner from the in-laws I'd already seen a 1975 2500 TC a while back. We went back to get a window winder, and some little bits, and checked it out in more detail. Although the dissy has gone, along with the wheels and the steering rack (and the sills!), most of the car is intact, including a mint radiator, twin electric fans, and so on.
It's incredible how good condition the car is in, considering the fact it's sitting in a scrapyard, but that's the difference between sun damage and water damage I suppose.



The dealer accepted a very low offer, so it's going to be kept at the in-laws shed as a spares car. It looks to have fairly low mileage, so hopefully the diff. will be in good shape. The engine will be developed over time ... mmmm.

OK, we're off to a British Car Show in BOB in half an hour ... I'll try and get some pictures up

What to do?

Ok, so we bought a Big Six ... and now I've had time to get a decent look at it and decide what bits and bobs need doing.

We took a trip down to the Gold Coast (about 60 miles south of Brisbane) last Sunday to get an idea of how she's running. As I would have expected of a saloon she was great on the motorway, in fact the fastest on it ... does the speedo read a bit under I wonder? There is a bit of vibration coming from the rear end, unfortunately, but I'd already known that some work was needed there anyway. She was thirstier than I would have liked, too. Otherwise it was a good trip out.

Shooting from the hip right now, here's a few things that it would be nice to do, money and time permitting. No particular order, although there's a few essentials necessary before a trip of any length:

Front brakes - a bit of vibration that could be caused by warped front discs. Plenty of meat on them so they might just need a skim?
Tune-up - get out the timing light/balance the carbs, etc.
Driveshafts - attempt a Datsun conversion, seeing as work is needed at the back.
Diff. - possibly a second hand unit required to swap.
Scrap the anti-emissions stuff? - Aussie set-up has all sorts of extra pipes and an empty canister that doesn't appear to be doing anything (I think it's supposed to have charcoal in?).
Electronic ignition - one less thing to worry about, and worth the money.
Suspension - possibly get some tasty front springs made up, superflex bushes to replace where they aren't already (I noticed the anti-roll bar already has some).
Spin-off filter conversion - the current cannister set-up is a relative pain.
Lots of little bitsy jobs, like alligning the boot latch, flushing the water system out, etc.

... and in with the new!

Well about time too.
Finally, at last, with the news of the GT6's impending sale Ella and i have made a sneaky purchase, swiping a new Big Red/Orangey Bus. It's a 2500 S with Manual o/d of course. On the test drive it proved to have plenty of poke and good level suspension (the new KYB shockers help i think). Plus it was half the price of the others I've looked at.

The footwells were mint, carpets in great shape, no sign of rotting sills, oil leaks, and apart from a couple of minor scuffs on the paintwork great bodywork. Everything seemed to work fine inside, o/d was spot on, electric fan was working fine, there were new front tyres, and so on.

The seller is moving to NZ (note the SOLD sign on the house in the background) and seemed in a hurry to get rid of it, and at the price I paid it won't even matter too much if there are any little problems I haven't spotted yet.

We're going to pick it up on Sunday.

Anyway, here she is, and yes the door and boot lid are open rather than out of shape!!!

I've Been A Busy Boy!

The photo for the second Triumph Spot (see entry below) was actually taken on June 11th. Since then I've been a rather busy boy. First up was getting married (18th June)



It was great fun ... even though it didn't involve Triumphs (don't worry there was beer and BBQ though!)

Then there was the Honeymoon ... which did involve Triumphs! Hurrah!
Ella hadn't yet seen my GT6, or my family, so we flew to England for a ten day whirlwind Round Britain Run style Honeymoon (or "Funnymoon" as we ended up calling it). We landed at Heathrow, got the National Express to my Mum's near Exeter, and after a rest day gave the GT6 a once over before heading off to North Devon.

Here's the two ladies in my life:



After a beautiful day walking the North Devon Coast we drove up to the Peak District, via the back roads of Exmoor, Canley Classics, and some great Derbyshire roads. Here we met up with both our families for a wedding celebration ... and I got to take my F-in-law along Snake Pass in the GT6 with no traffic around!



After this we headed East to Lincolnshire to stay at my Dad's where we had time for a fancy car line-up!



We also met a load of friends for a day of debauchery. A good Club Triumph count turned up, too! My favourite pub car park was treated to Andy Mac (on his feet), Andy Pearce (and GT6 aka 'The Guttersix'), Andy and Sarah Johnson (Herald aka 'The White Tornado'), Steve Waddingham (Spitfire) and "Group Captain" Tim Bancroft, with the web-enabled JC in Tim's Mk1 2.5Pi (SU) aka 'The Grey Thing'. Great fun! I didn't take my camera unfr

Then it was back to Devon, via Kettering to see my Sister and family, and Reading to see some old work colleagues.

Blimey and Crikey, as Mr Bancroft might say!

Fortunately the GT6 ran perfectly, and not a drop of oil was needed in the whole affair ... seriously, as much as I lifted the bonnet, I couldn't really find anything to do in a week's good driving. Not bad after a 4 month lay-up I reckon.

Nevertheless the decision has finally been made that the GT6 should stay in the country where it was built (or at least in the UK ;-)), and Ella and I will get something a bit cooler running, and more appropriate for dirt-road antics over here.

So now we're back home in Oz. It was great to be back in Blighty where there's fun to be had even within the speed limits, and I must say I do miss the noise of a six cylinder Triumph. But hang on, what did I spot in the paper at the weekend but a 2500 'S' at a pretty good price ... hmmm... I'll take my camera when I go look at this one!

Triumph Spot No.2: Not Just a Pretty Respray!

I am getting better and better at not updating this Blog. But I do have a good reason!

More about that above, but first another Triumph Spot! Admittedly I've seen at least a dozen around Brisbane, but this is the second one that I managed to get a shot of.
It was in almost exactly the same spot as I saw the White 2500 previously (see Triumph Spot No.1), but was an impressive metallic green. It doesn't show up too well in this photo, but looked pretty good "in the flesh".

Brumby no more ...

Last week I took a trip to Gregg Tunstall Mechanics in Cleveland, near Brisbane. He specialises in Triumphs, and is a very useful source of information on Triumphs 'down under'. I saw a Mk1 PI, Mk2 2.7 PI, Mk2 2500 'S' (in fact one that I looked at buying a little while back ... see the 'Mellow Yellow' entry below), a TR4a, Spitfire mk3 and some others. At a staggering Gingellesque height I'm not sure how Gregg fits in anything but a 'sedan', though.

Whilst on my way to Cleveland I saw a Mk2 in green sitting in traffic.

Last weekend Ella and I went up to Bundaberg to her folks' place. We did a car swap ... the '91 Brumby for the '97 Saab. Wow! What a difference the extra gear, and a 2.3 turbo makes to the 5 hour drive back to Brisbane!

I looked in at the local breakers yard whilst we were in 'Bundy' too. They let you wander around and take parts yourself, like they should. I asked if they had any Triumphs and the guy at the desk recognised the GT6 on my t-shirt (courtesy of James Carruthers (photoshop) 'design studio'!) He pointed me in the direction of a 2500 TC that was in pretty good nick actually. To see a car that has been left to the elements like that be so relatively clean is great. Dissy was missing, as were most of the sills, but all in all if I had the space and the time and it had a manual 'box I'd have had it. The carbs, manifold, etc, were all in good shape as far as I could tell.

First drive out in the Saab whilst still in Bundaberg and what pulls up behind us but an old couple in a brown 2500 ... clearly the original owners.

Ahhh, Triumphs, Triumphs everywhere, but not a GT6 to drive!

About time!

It's over a month since I posted on here! I've been working hard, what more can I say?

Much time has been taken up with wedding planning (how exciting!), but there has been some fun driving. Most notable was the weekend trip up the Sunshine Coast. The "in-laws-to-be" won a weekend at a beachside apartment, and Ella and I joined them.

We met up on the Saturday. Ella's Mum came down in the mad Subaru, we took the Brumby and Ella's Dad came on his motorbike. He has one of these BMW semi off-road type bikes and loves going on the tracks, so he turned up caked head-to-toe in dirt. I must say it looks like fun!

On the Sunday we went Bush-walking. I figured it would be a short drive up the coast, park up and go for a decent walk. Instead we took both cars a good hour and a half of fast back-roads and excellent dirt roads (it had been raining decently!), then we parked the Brumby at the end of the walk and shot off in the Forrester for another half an hour up more dirt roads. Then we walked to Wandi Waterhole (great Aussie name) where we ate lunch, swam and discussed whether it was a Billabong or not (!). Check it out below!


At the end of the walk, I drove Ella's Dad back to collect the Forrester, then followed him back, which was the highlight of the day! We were blasting down these great dirt roads with both diffs working overtime and going about twice the speed of the few Landcruisers that were around. Penance was paid the next morning though, as we had to fit new gaskets on the downpipes on the Brumby having bashed them out on the rocks!

Otherwise, I'm still investigating the idea of shipping the GT6 over ... there's some serious paperwork to do if I go ahead.

I've spotted some more Triumphs, too, but never whilst the camera is handy.
1 Herald (with Vitesse bonnet as is the Aussie way) on the highway.
1 Spitfire (with the corporate back ... is that a 1500?) whilst I was playing football!
1 Dolomite Sprint (right outside work!)
The occasional big six.

I've also seen an interesting looking Rover 3500 twice in Brisbane, it looked to have a different wheel-arch styling to the UK version, which gave it a more sporty appeal.

There seem to be plenty of old Jags around, too. I've seen a very nice white Mk2 twice near work.

Anyway ... I will be back as and when I have any news!

A little announcement:

I'm engaged ... yes, to be married!
Wonderful stuff! We're both a bit unsure how to do these things, having never been married to each other before, let alone anybody else. But to keep things Triumph related, as you probably aren't interested in hearing about my dress, it means that the GT6 will have to be shipped over here to try out life down under! Marvellous pies!

Chartering unknown territories seems to be the flavour of the day, doesn't it? Never been married before, never shipped a car half way 'round the world before, neither.

Anyone with expert knowledge of the cheapest and best ways of doing this kind of thing (the car not the marriage, please!) drop me a line or whatever.

What goes on 'Outback'

Not much Triumphy going on at the moment ... but had some 'interesting' driving experiences last weekend regardless.

Ella's Mum lent us her nutter turbo Forrester to drive out of Brisbane to meet the family for a picnic. We needed a four-seater to get Ella's sisters to the rendezvous and her mum took the Brumby. Great, I thought, on the big open roads we can get a bit more speed up, and overtaking will be a doddle. And it was, even with slushbox it is fun when kickdown operates and the whole car bucks and just takes off, accompanied by a whine from the turbo that sounds like a police siren. Ahem, unfortunately eventually it actually was the siren and not the turbo. Despite repeated warnings from all and sundry about the revenue collection attitude of the Maryborough police, Greeksy knew best didn't he? Erm, no, he didn't, and as we rounded a gentle curve doing a trifling 117 kmph (according to the constabularies' equipment) the 50s were coming the other way. "Whoops!" I said in a 2-pack metallic colourful tone. The most annoying thing about it was that after I'd been booked by one of the rozzers the Ella recognised that the other one was a guy she'd been at Uni. with, and when he realised he said it was too late to let us off as the ticket was being written. Oh well, I guess it was about time. Doesn't half make driving a powerful car boring though!

When we met up with the rest of Ella's family, her Dad was on BMW motorbike and Mum and Uncle were in the Brumby ready for a bit of 4x4 action into the 'Bush'. a good 10km of 2nd gear creek crossing commenced ... and for some reason I was allowed to drive the Forrester, dinging the bumper on a big rock only once. Ella and I camped in the woods for a couple of nights doing some bush walking, climbing and swimming in a fantastic waterhole, and experiencing 50p sized hailstones in a mad storm, before driving back out, this time in the Brumby. Witness the mighty Brumby below as it crosses another dried up creek! There were a lot of loose rocks around and it was a good thing the diff. has a cage. It was rougher than the Targa Rusticana! I don't think even a TR7 would have had much joy on this one, not so much because we needed the 4wd but because in places the ground clearance was virtually zero.

Triumph Spot No.1: The Lesser Brown-seated 'S'

Oh, blimey, it worked! Well, seeing as I'm on a roll, I might as well publish this snap, too.
Ella and I took a decent walk around Brisbane on Saturday.

Coming back through the City we chanced upon a sighting of white 2500 S. It was parked up at the side of the road, looking to be in reasonable condition. Needless to say I was more excited than Ella. Although my camera had claimed the batteries were flat, it mustered up the power to take a shot of the 'S'!



The only noticeable differences to the European species were the go-faster stripes and the unusual brown interior, that looked original.

See the mighty Brumby!

After messing around trying about 10 different ways of uploading pictures on this blog, there's nothing to say that this method is going to work ... but here goes anyway!

This is the Brumby. I like to pretend that it's actually a TR5 with Surrey Top, and I make 'six cylinder noises' when I drive around Brisbane in it ... I know, I really need help!

Changes

Changes afoot it turns out.

I got a phonecall a couple of days ago that has meant the Triumph search is going to be put on hold. Ella's father is looking for a new car and he has been dissapointed with the part exchange offers that have been made for his old one. He really likes the car and doesn't want to get rid of it for peanuts. He asked me if we wanted it for free, and I couldn't really say no. When he gets round to ordering his new car we'll get his old one. It's a very well kept 1998 Saab 9000 2.3t, which, although it's no Triumph, is certainly adequate!

However, it doesn't mean the end to all things Triumph. I've decided that rather than chase after a saloon when we'll have the Saab, the money might be 'better' spent shipping my GT6 over. I've yet to see one here for sale, but I've been told that they are fairly rare, so it would be extra fun. I'm not going to rush to bring it over. I'll leave it a few months until I've decided if I want to stay in Australia long-term.

Meanwhile we'll have to stick to the Brumby (which I found out yesterday means 'Wild Horse' ... I'll put some pictures up of it soon, as I bought a digital camera a couple of days ago.
I'll keep this blog going, though, as a record of the stuff I get up to out here, but it will become more a log of weekend trips and Triumph-spotting than a record of my involvement with Triumphs.

Ok. Does anybody know anything about shipping cars to Australia?
Answers on an e-mail please to reeksyofoz@gmail.com

See the sky about to rain (surely not!)

It is with a tinge of sadness that I can report that progress on Triumph Hunt has been fairly slow of late.

Last Thursday (10th March) I spotted a 2000 advertised locally. It was going fairly cheap, and far too quickly I was imagining changing tack from looking for a pricey and 'sorted' saloon (like we have seen already) to a rust-free but tatty little number with potential that could be driven and developed. We set out in the afternoon to go and have a look, but horror of horrors the unthinkable happened! It rained ... and it wasn't any of your English drizzle, this was your bona fide, rain-stops-play, full on, fair dinkum, actually-I-don't-really-fancy-crawling-around-under-a-car-in-this, sort of rain. I didn't know this sort of thing could happen in Australia, I might ask for my money back! So we bailed out half way there, and Graham sulked all the way home.

When I eventually got around to looking at the car the next day, it didn't turn out to be as interesting as I'd hoped. Looking rather forlorn in a front yard full of dodgy looking motors unfit to accompany to be stabled alongside the work of Michelotti, I was informed by the wife of the owner (whose face was covered in food for some reason) that it had been given to them by a friend and her husband had intended to restore it as a project, but didn't have the time, and they'd been told they were rare cars and it was worth at least $2,000 *yawn*. They were asking $1,000, but guess what? Yes, you're right, it was a bloody auto! Very calmly, and without frothing at the mouth, I explained that I didn't want an auto (it wasn't even worth buying and converting) and turned around and left. I naively assumed that an advert would mention such a detail, but I guess it's my own fault for not checking.

Determined not to give up, I also paid a visit to British Auto Care in Brisbane last week. I've been ringing them occasionally to see if they know of any cars around that are on the market, and thought I might as well drop in on them and see their workshop. It wasn't a wasted trip, and I had a decent chat with one of the guys there who had just sold his Toyota super-charged 2500 saloon to another mechanic at Greg Tunstall's (another Triumph mechanic). Have a look at it in the register on www.triumphowners.com. The guy reckoned it hadn't really been worth building in the end. I also gave Greg a call again to see if he knew of anything, and ended up chatting about the lemons that people try to sell him, which was pretty funny. There's a nice sounding Mk1 Pi up for sale in the area it turns out, but at a little more than I'm willing to part with.

However, I did have another sniff at the Mk1 Pi that's for sale in Adelaide ... thought I'd see if the guy was willing to meet up half way if the car was 'all that' and then drive it back. He didn't seem over-enthusiastic about it though, and I think I'd prefer to hang on and wait for something local.

The driving at the weekend was fairly good fun, though, even without a car befitting my suave British character *cough*. Ella and I jumped in the Ute and headed south out of Brisbane to Springwood National Park. We really ought to get a Collie to stick in the back of this car to complete the image. About an hour south, we came off the highway at Mudgereeba and headed up some excellent twisting mountain roads, crossing little wooden bridges and revving the nuts off the little Brumby. Eventually Ella asked me to slow down so she could point out her favourite spots ... not accepting my explanation that "we need to keep the momentum up to get up the hill!" The coin-operated BBQ (!) worked a treat and we had a decent walk in the rainforest the next day.

So far this week, I've not so much as smelt any 20/50 or EP90, although in response to my advert on the afore-mentioned website "no slushboxes considered!" a gentleman has contacted me about his Mk2 2.5 Pi ... Watch this space for news, I don't have any details on it yet.

'S' lightly too Mellow Yellow

Hello from the sunshine state!
It's proving a little tricky to get around to writing these entries since I'm undergoing conversion to Mac use, and I'm accessing University of Queensland servers which sometimes 'blog' me in as a completely different person ... which is a little scary. As for getting photos on to this thing, it seems to be a little trickier than it might be on a PC as the Mac doesn't seem to want to run the photo programme thing - why can't I just put a jpeg on? Raaa! All this technology! Why don't computers just have a set of points and some carburettors (or carbies as they call them down here).

Anyway, I shall persevere. On with the Triumph stuff:

After the disappointment with the slushbox Pi in East Brisbane I started making further investigations. It seems there are some great Triumph people out here, just as there are back in the UK. British Auto Care, Greg Tunstall, and the Queensland Triumph Owners Club were all contacted to see if they knew of any cars around that weren't advertised where I'd been searching. And guess what? There were!

Unfortunately, the 2.7, TR5 cam, Datsun driveshaft monster mk2 for sale at $4k (approx. 1,700 GBP) had gone already. I wonder why? However, I smiled as the next car I came across did sound tempting. A yellow 1978 (the year I was born - nice) 2500 S, all standard, but with remote central locking, new A/C and kangaroo blinding halogen headlights. Fortunately this car was located just an hour north of Brisbane at Narangba, close to the Bruce Highway (that name still makes me laugh - "G'day Bruce, meet my brother, Bruce").

Ella agreed we ought to have a look at it on our way back down from her folks' place outside Bundaberg where we were heading for the weekend. So last Friday afternoon I had my first opportunity to do a decent length drive - it takes about four and a half hours to get there from Brisbane. Ella's family are keen motorists so they don't use the main roads much. And now I know why! I had great fun, even in the Subaru Brumby that Ella has (yes, it's a Ute!)

Once off the highway we shot along virtually empty and narrow, undulating, twisty country roads where it was easy to keep the speed up. As much fun as I was having it got better, though. "Ok, slow down a bit we're coming to the gravel". Oh, gravel! What fun! More curvy bits, but this time on gravel! Then occasional bits of tarmac, before 20k sections of dusty red gravel. There would have been little clearance for the GT6 in some places I'm sure, but the Brumby is fine and it would be criminal not to give a saloon a thrashing on those tracks. Even after all the fun of the dusty driving was over the tarmacadamed roads further north were enjoyable enough, nice long fast sweeping corners.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to take Ella's Mum's Subaru Forester XT 2.5 out for a blast as well. Wow, it's quick - it's basically the Impreza with a different shell, and 0-60 in about 6 seconds, even with the dreaded auto. Ella's Dad also said I could have the use of his shed for car maintenance whenever I wanted ... and for shed read hangar.

After a suitably relaxing weekend we came back down to Brisbane on the Monday, and stopped in at Narangba to check out the 2500 S. It turned out that the guy who owned it was an Auto-Anglophile, had married an English woman and actually worked for British Aerospace in England and owned a brand new English 'S' whilst living there. Now he has the saloon and a Stag for sale, to help fund his Piper Cherokee habit. He was very up front and explained that the first to go would be sold, but he wasn't taking offers.

The saloon was in very good condition, no discernible end float on the 100,000 mile original engine, but a set of nasty SUs that I didn't recognise - something about emission regulations. The seats were as new I think, still offering excellent support, and bodywork was almost mint, albeit a little bit Inca for me! Overdrive operated nicely, the gearbox and linkage was as good as I've ever tried, but the engine was lacking some 'oomph' (what cam did they put in the Aussie 'S' I wonder, or was it the carb's?). The springs were a little lacklustre, too, so the ride was a little softer than necessary.

After the test-drive we had coffee and a chat about Triumphs, as the subject of the 10 Countries Run, and the Round Britain Reliability Run came up, and the ladies' eyes began to glaze over as their thoughts shifted to soft furnishings and wall paint colours, the Aussie man popped off to get his copy of the Classic car mag that featured the article on the RBRR and a picture of The Big Red Bus amongst others!

Anyway, despite my obvious infamy, he stuck to his guns and said he wasn't prepared to shift on the money, and as good as the car was, for $5k I reckon I should be able to hold out and find something as good or even with more poke for less. It would have been cool to have had a saloon with remote locking though!

Hmmm, there's a Mk1 Pi in Adelaide ... how much are flights to Adelaide I wonder?

Automatic for the people?

I'm back, and with tales of Triumph ... although not particularly triumphant, yet.

In Australia for a day and I've already found a sweet sounding mk2 2.5 pi to go and inspect (In fact I spotted it on the wibbly wobbly web before I even got out here). Fortunately it's in East Brisbane, just 5 minutes drive from Spring Hill, where I'm living. We went to check it out today and as I suspected from the advert on the web, it's one very smart looking car. The paintwork is spot on - it's very odd going to look at a Triumph and not being able to find any bodywork issues to worry about (sorry if that makes you jealous). As for the chrome; shiny like it should be!
Under the bonnet was pretty tidy, too, lots of new bits including PI gear, linkage, alternator, etc. It had the Bosch pump conversion, and loads of work had been done recently. Apparently it didn't leak oil, or burn much ... so I was tempted to ask for paperwork to check that it was actually a real Triumph. Best of all, though was that it even had the plastic covers still on the original door cards in the rear!
Unfortunately the guy selling wasn't the most knowledgeable of owners, which is a bit awkward (i.e. he didn't know if it was electric ignition or points, so I had to check myself). But that didn't detract too much from an obviously well looked after car.

We went for a spin, but I have no insurance yet, and as we were in the centre of Brisbane I let him do the driving.

The guy was haring along showing how good the newly built suspension and the Datsun driveshafts were and launching into corners. And here is where the problem with the car arises. When he came out of the corner and put the power down the automatic gearbox just took all the power away and we might as well have been out for a jolly sunday afternoon thrash in a pedalo! Oh god i'm coming over all 'Clarkson' about this now ... Who on earth invented these things? If I didn't want to change gear myself I'd hire a flooping chauffeur! Maybe a croc will one day bite one of my legs off, but until that day (well maybe a few days after as I'll probably suffer from shock) I won't be driving a slushmatic.

To cap it all, on the way home we saw a tidy looking green 2500 S going in the other direction ... and I just know that it had a lovely 4 speed with overdrive. *sigh*.

I've looked into the cost of getting the gearbox converted - thanks to all the Club Triumph guys who chipped in with tips and suggestions - but as the car's not exactly bargain basement and there seem to be enough around to choose from, I'm going to keep looking ...

Why hello there

Please, come in, take a seat.
This is my first blog entry, can't you see how proud I am? It might take me a while to accustom myself, but hang on in there.

You will notice something not particularly interesting about this site; no pictures. Sorry about that. Pretty useless, I know, but it may get remedied one day ... just like that rear crankshaft seal on the GT6, so don't hold your breath!

So far not a great deal to report.
I'm in Brisbane, which is as you might expect somewhat warmer than a Berkshire winter - 27 Celsius today. Everything is quite lovely - the girl, the apartment, the city.
One problem - a distinct lack of a Triumph. I went an entire fortnight without driving one when I was in Thailand a month ago, and I'm expecting it may be a little longer this time.
I'm going to look at one this afternoon, though. Ella (my lady friend) is particularly excited about it, which is excellent! A mk2 2.5 Pi is this afternoon's investigation - superlite's, KYBs all round, lots of nice stuff, and to ruin the whole thing, an autobox. Not good. Still we'll have a little look, as it is only up the road, and I'll report back. Hell it gives me something to write about.

Ok, that's my lot - time for some lunch.

Oh, and McJim, at least I still OWN A TRIUMPH!!!