RAGTOP

HARRY WEBSTER TRIUMPH SPECIALSTONY’S MODIFIED GT6

SPRING /07 AND THE TTC IS CELEBRATING 25 YEARS

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

PresidentGary Brown 519-942-9949 Vice President Ric Allison vice@torontotriumph.com Past President Chris Walker 905-335-0812 Secretary Brenda Campbell brenda.ron@sympatico.ca Treasurer Mike Hale 289-242-5584 Membership Allan Watt 705-458-1004 Ragtop MagazineEditor & Photographer David BurmanAsst.. Editor Brian Clark Proofing submissions Bill AlexanderContributing Editors Gregory Hertel Simon RasmussenAdverising Ric AllisonDistribution Tony Grosso 416-755-9494 Interclub Coordinator & BBCI. repMalcolm Taylor 905-880-0079 Historian/Archivist & PR. Frank Manning 905-643-2359

Meeting Committee Ken Jackson 905-683-5107Brian Clark bclark4@cogeco.caHelmut Vorkoetter

Ambassador-At-Large Vacant

Volunteers Michael Hale 289-242-5584

SponsorsRic Allison vice@toronto triumph.com

Motorsports Simon Rasmussen 905-853-2514

TR2, 3 , 3A & BRobin Searle 416-971-7902Malcolm Taylor 905-880-0079

TR4, 4A & 250Dave Goard 905-655-7190

TR6Fred McEachern 905-627-2987Wayne McGill 905 847-5532

Spitfire-GT6Chris Walker 905 335-0812

StagTony Fox Sr. 905-632-0479

TR-7& 8John Broomer 416-745-8866

British Car Day Glen Donaldson 416-385-1830 Wayne Mcgill 905-847-5532

Canadian ClassicDawn and Rojer Elliot

Spring FlingWilla and Jim Hopkinson

General Mail PO Box 39, Don Mills, Ont. M3C2R6

Membership Mail P.O. Box1011, Cookstown Ont. L0L1L0

Ragtop Mail & email112 Chestnut ave. Hamilton Ont. L8L6K9dburman1@cogeco.ca

Web Master Vic Whitmorewebmaster@torontotriumph.com

SUBMISSIONSFormat: ʻOn discʼ is preferred for long articles. Word Files are preferred. Typed submissions are acceptable. Graphics must be scannable or in a major graphics formats. By hand: To any of the editors at the monthly meetings.Mail: 112 Chestnut Ave. Hamilton Ontario L8L6K9e-mail: dburman1@cogeco.caADVERTISINGContact the Clubʼs advertising representative for details of dates, and submissions. As a guide, submit ads as camera - ready artwork by mail or courier - addresses given above. The advertising year is from Jan.1to Dec. 31A free copy of Ragtop is sent to all paid advertisers.(excluding free classifieds)2007 ADVERTISING RATESRear Cover $300 per year.Inside Covers $275Full Page $250Half Page $150Quarter Page $100Business Cards $50Classifieds Free Photo Classifieds $5 Process fee.Flyer Inserts $150/issue (max 4pgs)2007 SCHEDULEIssue Deadline MailedSpring Feb 28 End of MarchSummer May 31 End of JuneFall Aug 31 End of SeptemberWinter Nov 30 End of DecemberThe Ragtop is published quarterly by the Toronto Triumph Club

Inc. (“TTC”) and is distributed to its members as part of their

annual dues.

The TTC or the Editors cannot accept responsibility for the safe

return of any submitted material. We will do our best, but accidents

do occur.

We accept no responsibility for errors or omissions.

Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily

reflect those of the TTC Executive or Membership.

Copyright © 2005 by the TTC.

Non-profit groups may reprint articles from this publication, where

the author has not reserved rights, provided we get credited and

both the author and TTC receive a copy of the publication in its

entirety.

Printed by Butler Printing for the Toronto Triumph Club

Marque CoordinatorsExecutive

Event CoordinatorsSub-committees

24hr InfoLine 416-410-4TTC Web Site:

www.torontotriumph.com

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SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

The Prez Sez

4 5

Classifieds Recycle, someone NEEDS your stuff!!! Advertise it free!!!................................................ pg.46

New Members They are always welcome and this group is no exception ..................................................................pg.41

Editor’s Corner We need spring now!...............................................pg.6

The Prez SezGary’s been busy again...........................................pg.5

Club Info

Activities Features

Meeting Madness There are 2 new sheriffs in town, Brian and Helmuth are now in charge of meetings....................................pg.18

Toronto Auto ShowRic Allison is a poet too............................pg.7

Harry Webster rememberedThe man behind our cars.....................pg.22

Show ‘N’ Shine Brian Clark hosts a new regular feature with detailing and car-care tips...............pg.9

The Incredible Photo Page!Back again and more off the wall than ever Send in yours...........................pg.35

Colour Wars are Back!This time in yellow...................................pg.42

Tech. Talk

On The Cover: “Black Is Beautiful”

Marc Lawrence shot this perfect TR-4 at British Car Day on his way

through town. ( see last issues piece on coming for England to see BCD.)

Tony’s GT6 Modified Our Tony is not afraid of a challenge.....................................................pg.32

Triumph SpecialsSimon looks at the world of custom building Triumphs...................................pg.28

Gary Brown

The TTC. Scrapbook PageOur members can post all club infoand TR news here................................pg.25 W ell here we go

for another dr iv-ing season. I don’t

know where all the t ime goes; I had so many plans to work on several car projects and didn’t even get to one of them.

Victor ia and I have just returned f rom our vacat ion t r ip to the Philippines. While we were there I had our 25th Anniversary gr il l badges made. I am very pleased with the quality of work. We are hoping to get these out to our members very shor tly. There is quite a bit of weight to the whole order of 500 pieces so I could only br ing back 52 of them in my luggage. The executive have de-cided that they will go to the f i rst 50 people that renew their membership at Ancaster. This will also save the club some postage fees.

Please check out our website there are lots of act ivit ies planned for our 25th anniversa-ry year. There are too many to mention now, so please take a look and see if you can f it in at least one if not more.

Thank you to the ent i re executive team, new and old for put t ing together this year’s program.

A special thanks to Br ian and Helmuth for working on the monthly meetings. We have had a signif icant increase in meeting at ten-dance over the winter.

Don’t forget to do a complete check on your cars before heading out on the road. Check the l ights, brakes and all the oil levels.

We look forward to seeing you at an event or on a dr ive. Here’s to a good summer and safe dr iving.

The “Wedgetarian”John Broomer’s new regular tech. feature has all the help you need for your flying wedge..................pg.13

Pre-Purchase InspectionDon’t get stuck with a lemon..................pg.16

The British Isles ShowOur club makes a big impressionat the show...................................................pg24

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

Editor’s Corner

6 7

The TTC at the 2007 Canadian International Auto Show

When I was asked to jot down a few words for the Rag-top with respect to our participation at the Auto Show I was stumped. Do I write about the fact that we were less than prepared, about the fact we had the usual trouble at-tracting volunteers to man the booth, or the long hours of standing around the cars with only the “tire girls “ walk-ing by once in a while to break up the day.

Can you measure the benefit of these types of public displays? Was it worth the effort? The answer is yes. It was worth it. Hundreds of people stopped to photograph the cars or ask questions. It was an opportunity to share with others our love of the cars and surprisingly there was a great deal of interest by younger people. Fostering interest in these cars with the next generation will help ensure that there will be people to care for and promote the Triumph in the future.

I can’t complete this with out mentioning the contribu-tions of Brian Clark who displayed his beautiful 1973 TR6 and Glen and Malcolm for helping man the booth. While standing around the booth may have been a little tedious at times the drive home in the Triumph the last night in a blizzard was needless to say nerve-racking. Set to the tune of Winter Wonderland the trip home went something like this…. ( it’s actually okay to sing this out loud )

The show is over, aren’t ya listenin’Outside the dome the snow is glistenin’A horrible sight not happy tonight Driving in this winter wonderland

A little snow, hey what’s the big fussMy TR3 is wired my LucasIt don’t like the wet, snow will be far worse I betStalling in this winter wonderland

(Chorus)In the dark I plowed into a snow driftNot white and fluffy but all dirty brownThe snow shorted out my brand new starter Oh… no manThe battery is beginning to run down.

Head lights, wipers and ignitionNot an enviable positionAlone in the dark with an ever-weakening sparkMisfiring in a winter wonderland

Finally home, I did conspireAs I warmed by the fireOf sunnier thingsLike classics and spring flingsAnd the odd trip north to Canada’s Wonderland

Ric Allison

Ric turns out to be quite a poet, soon the whole club will be humming Ric’s catchy little tune. editor

Photo By Brian Clark

Is it spring yet? As you can see from my latest photo I don’t have any snow tires for my Spit project. I can’t wait until

those warm fresh spring days return. Lazy days with lots of cold beer. That’s why we put ourselves through all this isn’t it? I need to get back up to the Walker Garage and turn some wrenches on the Spit project. My original deadline of this British Car Day may have been derailed by a few health issues, but that’s a long and boring story I’ll save for a few unfortunates.

This winter Chris Walker and I stripped off the body and power-train right down to the frame. It’s actually not too bad, the rear of the frame rails where some old repairs are needs cleaning up but basically its ok. The engine had never been fully apart as far as we can see and the block is good. The crank will need to be turned and new cam and lifters are required. This will be a great time to do a bit of upgrading in that area. The head doesn’t seem to be cracked but I will have it checked out and rebuilt to be sure.

Your Spring/07 Ragtop has some exciting new features. Brian and Helmuth have become your new meeting co-ordinators and will be doing write ups on all the meetings for the Ragtop. What better way to demonstrate to the members the calibre of our meetings. If you are unable to attend a session this will also keep you up to speed with the club.

John Broomer will be tackling a regular and long overdo feature on the wedge cars. Be sure to read his piece, its very detailed and full of useful info.

All the regular departments and picture pages are back, better than ever, check them out. And Simon has supplied us with two great stories of brave souls who have put the torches to their Triumph’s and created very some different machines!

Former Ragtop editor Bob Bieler does the first part of a story on Tony Grosso’s modified GT6. Tony is the man behind Pillar Direct the folks that make sureyour Ragtop is always in the mail. Don’t miss it!

Recently I received a email from a reader about how much he enjoyed our British Car Day issue. Turns out he has quite a history of racing MG’s and still races motorcycles! The Ragtop hopes to do a feature on his story soon. So if any of you out there still are waiting for your 15 mins. of fame, here is your chance. Contact us at the club or email me dburman1@cogeco.ca and we will get your story in the magazine.

Here is Les’s letter:

Dear Editor,

Just read the Winter Edition of Ragtop. As usual, it is a really fine magazine - colour cover and, Lo and behold, a colour centre spread of a field full of ........MGs!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, don’t get upset, I’m not writing to complain. Rather, I am writing to boast. What other club do you know of with the tolerance and open mindedness to feature the “Other Brand”. It is a tribute to the type of people who preserve and drive the best sportscar in the world!! (No partisan feelings here!!)

Good on yer Ed!!Les Campey,Member #1531

Thanks Les, but MG’s aside it was the best picture we had that captured the spirit of the event. So get those Triumph’s out and enjoy the spring when it does arrive, and if you have something interesting , send it in.

David Burman

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP8 9

SHOW & SHINEWe may not all be master mechanics

when it comes to taking care of our Tri-umphs but we all have to clean an polish them to make them look the best we can. This is usually one of the more enjoyable chores of taking care of a vintage car and there are many different procedures and opinions on the best ways to make them sparkle. This new section of the magazine will concentrate on some time saving tips and procedures to accomplish that sought after sparkle and will the help of all mem-bers will become a regular section of the Rag Top.

To start the section of in proper style we contacted Meguiar’s who are an ongo-ing sponsor of the Toronto Triumph Club to give us some tips on cleaning and maintain-ing automotive paints and bright work. It is hoped that members will follow up and assist the section by forwarding in tips and ideas that can be passed on to pub-lish in the magazine. Any tips or ideas you may have and would like to share with the club, no matter how small or how in-volved, for the article can be forwarded to Dave Burman dburman1@cogeco.ca or Brian Clark at bclark4@cogeco.ca There has to be a ton of ideas out there that we all do to when detailing our vehicles that we picked up from various friends or shows that can be shared with fellow members, so how about forwarding in your favorite tips for publication in the Rag Top.

Meguiar’s Tip of the Month

Member Tip

For cleaning aluminum wheels or any other bright work, try the Magic Eraser sponges from Mr. Clean or other similar product.Use them in the kitchen first and then

save them for duty on your classic. They also work great for marks on the glass.

Brian Clark

Paint Cleaners

- Always follow manufacturer recommendations

- Always use least aggressive method possible (NO RUBBING COMPOUNDS)

- Use correct method of application per product (hand, orbital or rotary)

- Work one section at a time

- Work evenly and thoroughly, letting the product do the work

- If one application doesn’t remove defect, a second application is sometimes needed- Use separate 100% cotton terry cloth

towels or Mirror Glaze Ultimate Wipe for wipe off of cleaners, they tend to get the dirtiest

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP 1110

Motor Works

������������������������������������

-Early or Late Models-

-Maintenence-Engine Management-Parts Supply-Fuel Injection Service-Carburetor Overhaul-Electrical Diagnosis-Body/Metal Fabrication-Parts Fabrication

British Trained Technicians

Your total sourcefor Triumphs

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

Does your project need to be put in gear?

At British Auto Sport you will get the right parts to bring your sports car to top working condition at a price that won’t make the veins in your forehead begin to bulge. Give us a

call or drop in and feel the energy and see the commitment to getting the job done.

Come out and see us at our NEW location

1565 Hwy.#5 West, RR#1 Troy, Ontario, L0R 2B0

TOOL FREE 1-888-485-2277 Local at 905-627-9995 24 hr Fax 416-410-6479

E-mail: britishautosport@bellnet.ca

12 13

The WedgetarianA new regular feature

By TTC member John Broomer

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP14 15

The Wedgetarian

Originally I thought “Wedge World” but visions of Mike Meyers in a basement kept me searching for an-

other name. I struggled at least twenty-eight seconds more to come up with a title for what I hope will be a continuing column running in the Ragtop.

It seems that we’ve reached some kind of turning point in the history of the TR7/8 in as much as this past October marked the 25th anniversary of produc-tion ending at the Solihull plant, recently we’ve had a lot of the new members at our meetings standing up and announcing that they are wedge owners and there seems to be more interest in our cars in gen-eral. While I find it hard to believe that we will ever get rich off our investment (not like those cursed Hemi ‘Cuda owners) at least it appears that people are starting to appreciate wedges and not just trash-ing them. Because of this, and, being tired of only receiving solicitation for cheap Viagra from the tr7@torontotriumph.com mailbox, I thought it would be nice to reach out and show how much we really care about the often maligned wedge.

So what follows will be a miscellaneous rambling of my own experiences, items of interest to the fra-ternity and so on. Before I start, perhaps I should frame the context of my experience. I have a 1980 TR8 dhc, purchased in July, 2005 after a long (10 year) drought without a “fun” car. Previous to that I owned a 1975 MG Midget (another maligned car, it was rubber bumpered and harvest gold) for about 7 years plus a couple of daily driver Minis between 1983 and 1989.

British Car Day

It was a beautiful day in September and another great turnout in general with over 1,000 cars but in particular for wedges. There were lots of 7s and many 8s, seemingly more than last year (particularly 8s). My car was relegated to 2nd place for the second year in row. I think only fresh paint will bring the ultimate award to me. On the other hand, previous cars were never even in the running so I can’t com-plain. I had the distinction of serving my volunteer duty out at the main gate of the park waving all the British cars down the road to the maintenance gate. It started out slow but built and mid-morning brought an onslaught of cars and best of all I got to see all sorts of stuff rolling by.

What’s in your tranny?

While most of our brethren (including 4 speed wedges), use gear oil of some type in their transmissions, for the most part later wedges with the 5 speed trans-mission developed for the Rover SD1 use auto-matic transmission fluid. Beware though that early 5 speeds used gear oil and while Leyland records indicate a serial number break where they changed you should double check what yours has in it before top-ping up. In the event that you are putting a

fresh transmission in your early 5 speed car you can change it over to ATF provided the gear oil has been thoroughly flushed out. Some of you may be sur-prised since ATF is so thin compared to gear oil but this is now quite common in modern gearboxes. Of course, BL didn’t change to ATF because they were on the cutting edge of technology, it was because the use of 75 weight oil in a transmission which had a pump circulating the oil didn’t fare very well in cold temperatures. After many complaints of hard shift-ing (or none) in chilly weather, and no doubt a bunch of warranty replacements, the change cured these initial issues. There are a variety of fluids available which meet the original BL specification but it seems that the consensus (from my sources, anyway) fa-vours GM transaxle fluid (part no. 12345349) which is a synthetic oil formulated for GM cars with manu-al transmissions.

Braking 101

Another well known issue the wedge is a propensity to dive under braking. The rear brakes are notorious for providing little of the stopping power of the car due to the forward bias of the system as a result of the proportioning valve being far to generous with front line pressure. There are two ways to deal with this. The first is obtaining a modified proportioning valve from TS Imported Automotive in Ohio (www.tsimportedautomotive.com) which is operated by Ted Schumacher, a long time wedge enthusiast and racer. A second method, for those not up to opening up the brake system, is to install spacer blocks under the front anti-roll bar mounts, which effectively changes the relative position of the bar to the front lower arms which in turn creates more resistance and re-duces the dive on braking. A variety of well known part sources can supply these kits.

Don’t re-fuse your Triumph what it is due

We all have either experienced or heard the stories of unintentional smoke releases from our Lucas electri-cal systems. People just love to blame the Prince of Darkness for all their woes. The following describes why it may just be your (or a PO’s) fault after all.

Everyone is familiar with the automotive fuse. Little cylinder of glass, wire strung between two metal end caps that melts when we ask for too much power

to be fed through the circuit. Some of you prob-ably didn’t realize that there are in fact two common types of fuses and interchanging them can be very bad for your wiring harness.

Our cars require International Electrotechnical Com-mission (“IEC”) fuses. Some of us have probably used National Electrical Code (“NEC”) fuses. There is a vast difference between these fuses in the way they act and react to current. Briefly (and using a 35A fuse as an example):

IEC fuse:

• will carry 17.5 amps continuously• will carry in excess of 17.5 amps for a specified

time period which is inversely proportional to the amount of excess amps and then open (or “blow”) or in other words will carry 20 amps for “x” time and then open or carry 30 amps for “y” time and then open (x being a greater length of time than y)

• will open immediately at 35 amps• measures 5mm x 20mm

NEC fuse:

• measures 0.25 inch x 1.25 inch (6.35mm x 31.75 mm) and explains why they just don’t seem to fit right in that fuse panel

• will carry 10% in excess of its rated amperage be-fore opening (i.e., 38.49 amps)

• will not open at anything less than 38.49 amps (which is well beyond the capacity of the wire in the wiring harnesses of our cars)

• will make your wiring harness the fuse in the circuit, or in other words, the wiring will burn through in order to open the circuit to save your fuse!

Feel free to now run out to the garage to see if you have a ticking time bomb in your fuse panel.

Next time

Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod – does this describe your headlights?

John Broomer

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP16 17

PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION

Wilf Eden Hub 94 Car Repairs

If you are in the market for a classic British car, a pre-purchase inspection is a must. As a mechanic with over forty years of experience in the business, I’ve learned that things that might seem obvious are neglected in the ex-citement of finding just the right car.

A pre-purchase inspection should provide a thorough examination of both the structure and the mechanics of the vehicle. This requires putting it in the air and remov-ing the wheels. Examining only the outside, which is of-ten the case, is not enough. You can repair anything if the basic structure is sound but looks can be deceiving. Not so long ago, a customer of mine brought in a TR6 for certification. Before purchasing the vehicle he had an ap-praiser check it out. The report was golden. At first glance this seemed to be true. It was a beauty. When I put it on the hoist for inspection, however, it was a whole different story. A cover-up repair job had been done on the frame to hide serious deterioration. When I was checking it, I put my ballpoint pen through the frame in a critical spot. The front end and brake lines were in such poor shape that in conscience I could not certify the vehicle as road worthy. It would take far more than the car was worth to bring it up to standard.

Some appraisers do conduct a thorough inspection but obviously this is not always the case. A mechanic with the experience and training to know vintage British cars is your best bet. He will know immediately by the make, model and year, what to look for. So, for your own protec-tion, make sure that who ever is doing the pre-purchase inspection knows these British cars.

A professional pre-purchase inspection will look at the general condition of the vehicle. Is this a turn-key car, one that needs some repairs or one requiring major restora-tion? It will determine how well the car has been main-tained. If repairs or restorations have been done, the in-spection will tell you whether these have been done prop-erly. Over the years, I’ve seen repairs that were done so poorly that it was impossible to make it right.

It will cost money to have a thorough pre-purchase in-spection done but it is money well spent. Like any spe-cialist, a vintage car mechanic wants reimbursement for his years of training and experience. He may not be the cheapest but you are going to get the job done properly. A professional pre-purchase inspection will help to ensure that you will be driving one of the finest sports cars ever built in the condition it deserves.

These Ragtop file photos serve to illustrate Wilf’s point

This TR-6 was priced for sale in the average price range for solid clean cars, externally it looked fine. It was however hiding many serious and potentially dangerous faults. Shown here are only two of the more then ten that were found.

Above: as seen from inside the left front fender well. Front apron damaged in previous collision not properly repaired, all other front sheet metal fit poor as a result. Notice the rad hose clamp on the steering rack boot.

Below: as seen from underneath at the rear. Many patch repairs to the rusty frame, making it weak and potentially dangerous to an unsuspecting new owner.

Triumphs…Built to be driven

Toronto Triumph Club 25th Anniversary Drive Around Lake Ontario

Date: Friday September 21 – Sunday September 23, 2007 (and possibly Monday September 24, 2007)

We will meet at the interchange exit #410 at Brock Road and the 401. At approximately 8:00 a.m. on Friday and head clockwise around the Lake. The picturesque route will take us through Cobourg, Brighton on Hwy #2, Prince Edward County and Kingston via Glenora Ferry. We will then take the Wolf Island Ferry to the U.S.A. via Cape Vincent (we suggest you bring your passports). We are in the planning stages of some side trips along the way.We will overnight Friday in Sackets Harbour and continue the drive on Saturday morning at around 9:00 a.m. We will stop Saturday afternoon in Canandaigua and stay overnight arranging a special dinner event that night. The drive on Sunday begins with a drive through Mumford to Batavia and we will re-enter Canada through Niagara Falls.

Once confirmed, we will provide you with the details to book your accommodation along the route as well give you information on the scheduled dining locations and pit stops.

REQUEST FOR INTEREST If you are interested in joining us on the drive (even if you are not sure),we need a general idea on numbers so

please complete below and submit this form prior to June 1, 2007 to:

Robin Searle 1016-424 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2H3

Fax 416-977-5091 Ph[E] 416 971 7902E-mail r.searle@sympatico.ca

Name ______________________ Passenger ____________________ TTC Member Yes [ ] No [ ]Address __________________________ City_________________ ON, Postal Code _________

Phone Number (daytime) _______________ Phone Number (evening)____________________

E-mail address __________________________ Car Make/Model/Year: __________________

Once numbers are confirmed, a more comprehensive registration form and details of the weekend will follow. Costs will be for accommodation, fuel, meals and possible side trips only.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP18 19

First Toronto Triumph Club meeting of 2007

We began the 2007 season with our first monthly meeting at the Toronto Aerospace Museum in Downsview on Tuesday, January 16, with approxi-mately 25 members in attendance. Considering the weather, this was a better turnout than expected.

The topic of our meeting was car insurance; the pros and cons of regular and classic/antique insur-ance. The speaker was our own Wayne McGill.We are sure that our members fall into both insur-

ance camps, regular or classic/antique.On the surface classic insurance appears to be

the least expensive, although the restrictions that come with it may not necessarily be what you have in mind, as most of us like to drive our Triumphs whenever possible. Taking liability insurance off in the winter time may not provide the right coverage for you either.

Wayne used some interesting examples to illustrate what can happen if one selects the wrong insurance coverage. Here’s one of them:

Someone who’s taken liability coverage off for the wintertime, while his car was stored in a farmer’s barn with 50 other cars. The farmer allowed people to come in and start their cars oc-casionally. This person did, but unfortunately his car caught on fire, the fire spread, the barn burnt down.-----I am sure you can guess the outcome.

The moral of this example, speak with your insur-

ance agent or broker. Make sure he / she is knowl-edgeable about the insurance options so you receive the correct information on which to base your insur-ance decision.

I summary, this was a meeting worth attending. Getting ‘cheap insurance’ may not always be the right decision.

We urge you all to attend as many of our monthly meetings and outings as possible. We’ll all win and have a good time doing so.

See you all at the next meeting.

Your meeting coordinators:Brian Clark and Helmuth Vorketter

Our 2nd monthly club meeting of 2007

As most of us hibernated during the last couple of months, the organizing committee was wondering how quickly our triumph club members would wake up to anticipate spring, which is just around the cor-ner, and in the process give some serious consider-ation to attending most, and in some cases all meet-ings and get-togethers we have planned for 2007.

We were off to a good start with our January meet-ing (25+ attendees), and were pleasantly surprised about the increased attendance / participation in the February meeting, which again was held at the Toronto Aerospace Museum. The date was Febru-ary 20, and attendance had climbed to 45+. This included some ‘significant others’ as well as a couple of visitors, who had asked to speak at our meeting about a weekend tour through the Muskoka country site. The planned event, titled ‘The Trillium Tour’ is June 1st to 3rd at the Delta Grandview Resort in Huntsville. The presenter was Rob Tanner, and he can be contacted for additional information at 705-769-3263 or through the internet at rtanner@vianet.ca. The event is planned as an annual event, and for the inaugural one Jim Kenzie, who I am sure most of you know from the Toronto Star’s Wheels section, will be the guest dinner speaker.

Prez. Gary opened the meeting by giving his intro-ductory speech, in which he outlined the evenings agenda, which consisted of:

• Welcome to new and born-again club mem-bers and their reason for attending our meeting.• Introducing the aforementioned speaker .• A guided tour through the museum.• A wine and cheese setup to loosen us up to

engage in conversations with fellow club mem-bers and guests.

It was a simple, but effective agenda. The museum tour was excellent, as our tour guides, both of which are volunteers at the museum, had the experience and credibility to illuminate the otherwise stationary objects with stories, facts and background informa-tion, which provided us with an appreciation of our Canadian aerospace industry, both military and civil-ian.

A good time was had by all, and the plan is to have a steady increase in club event participation. This club belongs to all of us.

Our next meeting, titled ‘Dinosaur Warning’ is planned for March 20th , and promises to be of inter-est to all of us. After all, our Triumph engines use flat tappets / cams (my apologies for the less techni-cal members), which suffer from the lack of specific lubricant additives that are no longer present in the modern oils that are formulated for the design of

modern engines. We have invited a guest speaker from ‘Pathfinder High Performance Specialty Lubri-cants, who will enlighten us on what the problem is all about and how it can be prevented.

See you all at the March meeting.Your meeting coordinators: Brian Clark and Helmuth Vorkoetter

PS. As you are reading this in the Rag Top, there is a good chance that if you do not visit our website on a regular basis, you will have missed the March meet-ing. To ensure that you don’t miss future meetings, we would suggest that the club (Vic Whitmore) has your email address, so we can send you a meeting invitation a few days ahead of the meeting. Please make sure your email address is current.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP22 20

March Meeting Write-Up

The March meeting was labeled our “Engine Lubri-cation” meeting and our guest speaker was Mr. John Day from Pathfinder High Performance Lubricants.

The meeting commenced however, with a presenta-tion from John Kersley and Randy Smith inviting members to participate in the second annual Cana-dian British Classic Charity Run. The run will take place September 21-23, 2007 and will depart Cam-bridge for a demanding 700 mile drive around south-western and south central Ontario. Each team’s goal is to raise $500.00 the charity drive. The money raised will be donated to a very worthwhile charity, the Canadian Diabetes Association. The run is lim-ited to 50 cars so sort out your schedules and contact their web site at www.cbccr.org for complete details

The idea of having an engine lubrication meeting was to address the so called “Dinosaur Warning” that has been recently been outlined in many articles. The warnings have outlined many failed vintage en-gines with flat tappets due mainly to the reduction of oil additives in the recently modified API rated en-gine oils. In an ongoing attempt to keep emissions as low as possible and to prevent contaminating catalytic converters, manufacturers have been put-ting tighter and tighter limits on how much phospho-rous and zinc additives can be in a motor oil. Failed engines have been reported both in the vintage car hobby as well as the American muscle car hobby as both sectors have flat tappet engines.

Mr. Day outlined the changes that have been made to the new engine oils and that most modern oils only consist of 10% additives in the base oil stock. He demonstrated the shear strength of several oils and how adding the Pathfinder additive package dra-matically improved the oils shear strength without modifying the oils viscosity. He outlined the differ-ences between petroleum based oils and synthetic oils and talked about the desired viscosity oils to use in our cars. It was a very informative presentation on an important subject to all vintage car owners.

Engine lubrication and filtration is quite an interesting and somewhat controversial subject so you may want to check out the following web sites for further informa-tion.

1./ Pathfinder High Performance Lubri-cants www.daydistributing.ca

2./ Website On the basics of engine oils www.bobistheoilguy.com

3./ Chart showing Triumph Spin On oil filters http://members.visi.net/~kohout/Spi-nOnOilFilters.html

4./ Oil Filter Study comparing various manufacturers filter designs http://people.msoe.edu/~yoderw/oilfilterstudy/oilfilterstudy.html

Oil is on all classic car owner’s minds these days. It seems it may not be as good for our engines as it was in the recent

past. Look for more info on this slippery topic in an upcoming Ragtop tech. article.

Below: The bar holds the test metal. Look close you will see the wear on the metal where the oil without the additive caused the notch.

The machine that measures the friction of two metals rubbing together and allows the oil additive (ad pack) to make the oil even more slippery. In this picture, the weights are about 3 times more than without the additive = more slippery oil.

John Day of Pathfinder High Performance Lubicants was on hand at the meeting to help the club understand more about oil additives and there importance to classic car owners. See his ad on page 42. photo’s on these pages by Mike Hale. Meeting report by Brian Clark.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP23 21

At left Michelotti: his inspired designs remain as timeless examples of the some of the finest sports cars Britain produced

Michelotti’s sketch of Barb indeed shows many similarities with the earlier proposal, but translated into a four-door, six-light scheme. The first full-sized model of the car produced by Michelotti looked remarkably similar to this rapidly produced sketch. The tail was lengthened, and a “peak” was added over the rear window (by Standard-Triumph) at the insistence of Harry Webster

A pre-production Triumph 2000 undergoing final testing at MIRA in the months leading up to its launch

Harry Webster, who died on February 6 aged 89, was a much-admired and re-

spected automotive engineer whose team in-spired the birth of successful Triumph sports cars such as the TR2 family the Spitfire and the Stag, and was also responsible for the Herald, Vitesse, 2000 and 1300 family car ranges; in the same period, he supported the building of special cars which raced successfully in the Le Mans 24-Hour race.

Although all these cars have now become icons of the clas-sic car movement, Webster always insisted that this was never the intention when they were designed.

He once remarked: “Can you imagine a product plan-ning proposal of the 1950s and 1960s saying that: ‘Finally, in making this proposal, I expect to receive an avalanche of greetings on my 80th birthday’. After all, I was only doing my job.” advertisement

Henry George Webster was born on May 27 1917, and educated at Welshpool County School. Aged 15 he was ap-prenticed to the Standard Motor Company in Coventry. After spending six years in Standard’s aircraft engineering operation as an inspector dur-ing the Second World War, he returned to the chassis design department in Coventry in 1945 and rose rapidly through the ranks.

By 1948 he was chief chassis engineer, and from 1952 was responsible for the design and refinement of the Triumph TR2 sports car which, along with its successors, was a great sport-ing, commercial and export success.

Having become director of engineering in 1957, Webster as-sembled an enthusiastic team which produced a series of char-ismatic new models to near-impossible development schedules, even though investment finance was always very limited.

It was Webster who discovered the mercurial little Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti in 1957, signed him up as a consul-tant to Standard-Triumph and ensured that a new generation of Triumphs would have much more flair than their ancestors.

Webster (a fast and enthusiastic driver) would often drive from Coventry to Turin and back in a weekend to confer with Michelotti about future products.

Because Webster was so successful with his new products, and could always convince his bosses (Alick Dick until 1961, Stanley Markland and Donald Stokes thereafter) of their worth, that generation of new Triumphs showed much innova-tion. In 1959 there were several types of new Herald, with a taxi-like turning circle. The 2000 saloon brought real refine-ment to the middle-class sector, while the TR5 was the first British sports car to have fuel injection as standard equipment.

At the same time Webster’s team produced TRS racing sports cars which won the Team Prize at Le Mans, and later

developed sleek, very fast little Spitfires which also won their capacity classes at Le Mans.

Webster was director of en-gineering at Standard-Triumph for more than a decade. After the formation of British Ley-land he was moved to Long-bridge to bring order to the faltering engineering operation at Austin-Morris.

But his six-year term was hampered by a lack of corpo-rate vision and by industrial action, so in 1974 he moved on to become group technical di-rector of automotive products in Leamington Spa. He retired in 1982, then was chairman of SKF Steel UK for five years.

A modest man, Webster was astonished to become an icon of classic car enthusiasts. Three years ago, when the two oldest TR2s of all were reunit-ed, he was enormously proud to have them parked outside his house at Kenilworth for commemorative photographs to be taken.

So popular was he among his former colleagues at Stan-

dard-Triumph that a thriving appreciation society was founded in his honour.

He was appointed CBE in 1974.

Harry Webster married, in 1943, Peggy Sharp. She and their daughter predeceased him.

Above: the TR-3, below: the TR-6, and nothing can top the interior of the TR-4, but these beauties really need no introduction in this club.

Above, a clean MK111 Spitfire

left the famous “m” on the bonnet latch.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP 2524

The Toronto Triumph Club participated in the British Isles Show from March 2 through 4th 2007 at the Toronto CNE grounds. Attendance to the event was heavy and the three Triumphs and Austin Seven were very

well received. Much interest in British Car Day and the cars themselves was expressed by those in attendance. Many of the crowd remenised about the cars that they had owned back in the U.K. when they were younger and many of the younger people were quite taken by the cars as they had never seen cars quite like these, having been brought up with modern cars. The club members who staffed the booth answered many questions about the cars and British Car Day and distributed flyers to the attendees. It is expected that the interest shown will generated an increase in attendance at British Car Day year in September.

Cars on display left to right:Ric Allison’s TR-3, Gary Brown’s Austin 7Wayne McGill’s Triumph Herald and TR-6

Inset photos and text by Wayne McgillExcellent turnout for the show, fun with the Coronation Street players,and a big bear hug!

centre spread photo courtesy of William C. Smith

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP26 27

The TTC Scrapbook Pages--

News, Rambling, Info and Stuff Seek and ye shall find

Joy Rainey reports on last weekend’s Beaulieu International Autojumble

Like all the best sales, an orderly queue starts to form several hours beforehand. Equipped with shopping trolleys, canvas bags or anything capable of carrying large items, thousands of car restorers and collectors are waiting in joyful anticipation of finding a rare part or bargain. When the gates open at 10am, the throng quickly dissipates, disappearing into avenues of almost 2,000 stands spread over 17 acres in the Hampshire grounds of Lord Montagu’s Palace House, home of the National Motor Museum.

It was here at Beaulieu, back in 1967, that the great British autojumble was born, with just 80 stall-holders present at a one-day event. Who would have thought that, 37 years on,

it would be one of the biggest events of the year, held over two days and attracting almost 30,000 passionate motorists from around the world?

In association with the MG Car Club of Toronto, the TTC presents

Spring Fling 2007

Friday to Sunday May 25-27 2007

In beautiful St Jacobs Country

www.stjacobs.com

Dust off your vintage Brit, cool off your spring fever and come join hosts Willa and Jim Hopkinson for some roaming and socializing in a wonderful part of Southwestern Ontario!

Friday evening – top off your spring evening drive to Waterloo with refreshments in the Spring Fling Hospi-tality Suite

Saturday morning – experience the spring breeze in your hair with a drive through beautiful St Jacobs Coun-try and the rolling farmland of Waterloo Region, ending with lunch followed by Participants’ Choice judging of our British classics

Saturday afternoon – continue with a leisurely drive through the country back to the hotel to relax by the pool, or cut out for some browsing in the unique shops in the Village of St Jacobs or the nearby colourful Farmers Markets or Outlet Mall.

Saturday evening – reunite with your Triumph and MG friends at our delicious Spring Fling Banquet at the hotel

Sunday morning - Sleep in, get up early to sneak back to the Sunday Farmers Market, or join our entourage headed for the Wings and Wheels Heritage Festival at the Toronto Aerospace Museum at Downsview Park www.torontoaerospacemuseum.com.

Register NOW using the insert enclosed with this Ragtop, or go to www.torontotrimph.com to download or print a copy of the registration form.

THEN, book the hotel ASAP. Rooms are limited and the hold on our block reservation ends on Friday April 13. Ask for our special Spring Fling 2007 rate of $145 + tax.

The Waterloo Inn and Conference Centre475 King Street North, Waterloo, ON Reservations: 1-800-361-4708, 519-884-0220 www.waterlooinn.com

See you there!

Another celebration of the Toronto Triumph Club’s 25th Anniversary

Parts SourcingBy Tony Fox

I visited a parts business in NY State recently, just east of Rochester. It’s named British Car Parts and is in Macon NY. It blew my mind to see the inventory of British cars there, they claimed to have 600 cars and I could believe that claim. Rows of TR7s, probably 30 to 40, MGB’s galore, Metropoli-tans (a few) Healeys both 3000’s and Jensens. A good size row of Marinas and Minis in the Austin section. The list goes on to the odd ones such as Minors, Jaguars, various including E Types and even a ZB Magnette. I haven’t listed all the different makes and models there but I bet there is one of most cars from the 1950’s through 1970’s. It would be nice to have a photos of the area but the weeds were too high to really see the cars from an overall view. If you are interested in visiting give a call and I’ll direct you there. I must warn you though, it is hard to find and the track into the field is muddy and rutted and around a quarter mile long, but if you need that long sought after unplated dubrey end flange this could be your final stop.

The executive would like to thank all members who provided answers and comments to the ques-tions provided in early March. The results were very favourable and well thought out and with a response rate of almost 14%; the data should provide the ex-ecutive with great opportunities to improve on how the Toronto Triumph Club works for its members in the up-coming years.

The questions were related to membership renew-als, Ragtop publications, the TTC website, monthly meetings and special outings. To ensure that the process of handling all of the data in a professional manners, it will take time to analyse and format into actionable items that the executive can review. Once this has been done, a formal report will be published with the overall results and action items. Hopefully this can be accomplished for the next edition of the Ragtop.

Thanks again for all the positive comments and especially the prompt returns of the survey. We are looking forward to a great and successful 2007/2008 season.Allan Watt

As seen in the London Telegraph: Wayne Mcgill searching for bargains on one of his numerous trips across the pond.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP28 29

Triumph Specials.by Simon Rasmussen

For most of us, driving a Triumph is an experience quite different from using a modern car; there is more direct feedback through the steering wheel and pedals, the car is agile and

responsive, the sounds mechanical music.

But for some this is not enough. They may have a desire to personalize their car, even to create a unique statement of how they feel a sportscar should look and drive. This may mean replacing mechanical components, or even designing and build-ing custom bodywork.

Triumphs are especially suited to this type of modification because their sepa-rate chassis design means the existing body can be removed and replaced by something completely different. While “specials” were created in the 1950’s and 1960’s usually as an inexpensive entry to motorsports, some modern specials are more like works of art.

The TR6 based special shown in these photos taken by Alan Meyers of San Di-ego, California. The bodywork was creat-ed over a period of about 10 years by one of the employees of a customizing shop, Moal Coachbuilders of Oakland Califor-nia, as a personal project.

Various influences can be seen in the aluminium bodywork, but the theme is clearly similar to competition cars of the 1935-1955 era, especially some of the Al-lards, or possibly Mercedes Grand Prix cars.(Photos and information provided by Alan Meyers.)

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP30 31

Another Triumph Special.

The car featured in this article is owned by the husband and wife team of Jeremy and Yve Rivers Fletcher, and is used in hillclimbing competition, a traditional motorsport event.

The name Rivers Fletcher may sound familiar; Alec Rivers Fletcher, Jeremy’s father, raced at Brooklands, and was one of the “Bentley Boys” who achieved such success at LeMans in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s against the French Bugatti team. He was also an associate of Mal-colm Campbell, later knighted for his world speed records on land and water, and was involved in motorsport as a journalist and documentary film maker.

Jeremy very kindly sent an email describing how the car was created, together with several pictures.

The basis of the special was a rusty GT6 whose body was discarded. The centre section of the chas-sis was then cut out, with the front and rear sections welded up into a “ladder” style unit, to which tubular hoops were welded for strength and to support the bodywork.A TR6 engine converted from fuel injection to

carbs was installed about 18 inches further back, using a shortened propshaft. The steering rack was modified using universal joints an special pieces unique to the car, such as the gas tank, had to be fab-ricated.

The fiberglass and aluminium body is from a “Wheatcroft Classic” racing car, basically a style similar to single seat racers from the 1950’s.

Early testing showed the handling to be “really dan-gerous” until the rear suspension was replaced with a live axle setup from a Reliant Scimitar, which solved the problem.The entire project took a year to complete; the car is

shown in action at Loton Park.

Simon Rasmussen

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP32 33

Tony’s GT6– slightly

modified

I’ll start this article with a disclaimer to all Triumph purists…. Read no further.

But for the rest of you, please read on.

Many of you may know Tony Grosso, as he had been the treasurer of the club for several years and his company; Pillar Direct Marketing, mails the mag-azines to the members each quarter. Tony has re-stored many cars over the years, including a ’73 TR6. That project was really assembling 1 car from 2 do-nor cars. He as also done many other restorations of North American classic & antique cars, so it should come as no surprise what he is up to with his latest project… a slightly modified GT6.

Tony had been working on building a Lowcost 7, a ‘build on your own workbench from ‘plans’ in a book’, Lotus 7 replica car. Having completed the frame and sourcing a drive train courtesy of a 79 Toyota Celica, Tony decided to abort the Lowcost 7 project before it turned into a Highcost 7, in terms of time & money. Seems he had a few other things on the go, as he was having a 2nd story put on his house. So when a GT6 body & chassis became available at a reasonable price, he jumped on it. He’d always liked those cars, and this would be a way to get one.

The $52 dollar question was: “would the Celica 20R engine & transmission fit under the hood and body of the GT6 without too many modifications”? (read be-

tween the lines, don’t touch the hood). This question would take a while to be answered, as the ‘car’ was sold to Tony in pieces, (bits & pieces, several trips of bits & pieces in fact). At least it made it easy to mea-sure things, as there was no body to get in the way of all those (weeks & weeks) of measurements & chin scratching. After many drinks & expert opinions, all indications were it would fit quite nicely, with suf-ficient room for the existing pedal box and foot well area, battery box & wiper motor, radiator, etc. In fact, the only visible modification to the body can be

seen only when the hood is open, as an inch & a half of material was removed where the engine meets the body/firewall shelf. Inside the car, this is concealed by the dashboard.

The 20R engine seemed like the prefect swap for the GT6 powerplant. At 280 lbs, it was far lighter than the original 450 lbs. stock Triumph engine. It also puts out 120 bhp (stock), but can be taken up to 180 bhp.

The 20R 2200cc engines were the most popular US Toyota engines. For 20 years, 1975 to 1995, these motors served as U.S.Toyota’s dependable workhorse engine. These engines powered the popular Celicas until 1985, and the unbreakable Pick-up models used these engines until 1995 (in commercial models).

The engines are OHC design, with hemispherical combustion chambers. The cross-flow head was very efficient, short of a 2 or 4 valve (per cylinder) twin cam. The long stroke provided a lot of torque at a

reasonable RPM range. The engine responded well to all the tuning tricks.

In 1985 Toysport raced a 22RE Toyota Celica GTS in the Macao Grand Prix. The original plan was to use an 18RG, but since the vehicle had US serial #’s they were forced to use the U.S. engine the 22RE (similar to the 20R). They qualified at the last min-ute, and started the race in the last half of the grid. At the finish the Toysport Celica placed 3rd- behind 2 BMW Motorsport prepared 6 cylinder BMWs! This is the highest finish achieved by the 22RE in inter-national racing competition. Can you imagine how well this drivetrain will propel a GT6, that is 1,000 lbs lighter than the Celica.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

The Incredible Photo Page

34 35

The carbureted engine develops 185-195 HP. The secret is in the torquey characteristics of the power band. The limiting factor of this engine is also its strongest point. The long stroke limits RPM capabil-ity to about 6200 maximum, but the bottom end will take a lot of abuse. The crankshaft is forged.

But now the neat part, the stock 4 cylinder 20R puts out 20% more horsepower than the existing GT6 en-gine, and it is 200 lbs lighter. Engine & transmission placement within the GT6 frame can be further back behind the front wheels vs. the stock engine/tranny, so weight distribution will actually be a little more balanced front to back. That extra power will be de-livered through the existing GT6 differential & rear axles.

Because the transmission is slightly wider than the GT6’s, the inside of the frame was trimmed slightly and reinforced with 1/8 inch plate steel welded to the outsides & bottom of the frame. As well, a couple of cross-member brackets were bolted on underneath the transmission.

On a warm winter day, Tony had a few friends over to trial fit the body & hood, while the engine was in its final position mounted on the frame. It took a couple of tries to figure out how much, if any cutting was re-quired to have the body & hood where they should be, and after a little trim, everything lined up as it was intended. Now that question has been answered, the real work begins.

The body was removed, and the frame will be completely disassembled, blasted, treated & painted. A custom drive shaft will have to be manufactured, to match up with the Toyota trans-

mission and the Triumph differential. New brakes, suspension bushings & seals will be installed on re-assembly.

This is expected to be multi year project, so I’m sure you will get to read about its progress in future issues of the Rag Top.

Bob Bieler

This is Liv Haasper’s 1967 MKIII Spitfire and “Nugget”

Wayne McGill really likes this page and never fails to find interesting stuff!I always though I wanted big Mudder tires on my Spit but now I’m not so sure.Below we see what he would like to do with his smart car. Do any club members have a big rig tractor the can lend him? At right is a cool Spitfire pickup... cutting torches required to copy this one.

New member Harry DeYong was keen enough to send in these two interesting photos. Below is a puzzler, a yield sign in the remote regions of the Yukon. And on the right a “white knuckle” road with a huge rock overhang in the south east of France. I don’t see a “danger falling rocks” either.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP36 37

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP38 39

RAGTOP 39

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TM Trademarks owned by IGM Financial Inc. and licensed to its subsidiary corporations.

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

Date:____________________________________________ Name:___________________________________________ Spouse:__________________________________________ Address:_________________________________________

City:____________________________________________

Province/State:____________Postal Code:____________

Phone Home: ( )___________________________ Work: ( )___________________________Fax: ( )___________________________

e-mail:__________________________________________

Annual dues are $35.00, due on May 1 every year.Payment may be made by cheque or money order (Canadian funds),payable to the ʻToronto Triumph Clubʼ.If you wish to pay your membership fee with your VISA card, please complete the following. VISA NUMBER: _________________________________________ EXPIRY DATE: _________________________________________ NAME on CARD: ________________________________________ SIGNATURE: ___________________________________________

PLEASE DETACH AND MAIL YOUR APPLICATION TO:AL WATT MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN

PO BOX 1011, COOKSTOWN, ONTARIO. L0L1L0

Model:_________________________________Year:___________________________________Commission No.:_________________________ Model:_________________________________Year:___________________________________Commission No.:_________________________

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL FORMPLEASE LIST YOUR TRIUMPH CARS

The TTC. is pleased to wel-come these new members and their wonderful cars to the club. New members are critical to our survival as an organization and we thank them for their support.

NEW MEMBERS

40 41

Club Meeting Ideas RequiredIn and effort to bolster meeting turn outs and to make the meetings as interesting as

possible for next year we would like some membership feedback on meeting topics and outings. The meetings that have traditionally drawn the most support in the past are either social events like the BBQ in the summer, or organized outings like the welding seminar for example. If you have any topic ideas that would be interesting to the club we would like to hear

from you. If you have a particular skill you would like to learn about, let us know so we can source out either the information or arrange for a company or specialist to put on a seminar or a facility tour. The more ideas we have the better we can formulate an in-teresting line of events for the upcoming meetings. Please forward any thoughts or ideas to Brian Clark at bclark4@cogeco.ca

David and Lorraine Rice Barrie TR6 1973

George Moncur Hamilton

Kieren Smyth & Claudia Cuttress Etobicoke SPITFIRE 1500 1981

Nicholas and Jennifer Hope Campbellville TR6 Looking

Dave and Kathryn Penn Oakville SPITFIRE Looking

Harry and Liz Deyong Mississauga SPITFIRE 1975

Greg Wellings and Jody Peirson Caledonia SPITFIRE 1500 1980

John and Kay Verdone Guelph TR3B 1962

Doug and Michelle Barclay Milton TR4 1963 TR4A 1967 TR6 1974

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP42 43

Keep it W

et!

John R. DayOFFICE 905-898-3185FAX 905-898-7629CELL 416-697-0891

Day Distributing176 Victoria StreetNewmarket, ONL3Y 4E1

www.daydistributing.ca

RYCON - 1Oil Fortifi er

TROPIX #2Extreme Grease

TRIJETFuel Additive

MULTI-SPRAY 2Penetrating Lubricant

FARMING MANUFACTURING CONSTRUCTIONRACING TRUCKS CARS FLEETS

HYDRAULICS MARINE LOGGINGRAILWAY INDUSTRIAL COMPRESSORS

Standing Strong in the Colour Wars

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the colourful rantings and ravings of Club Brown’s inimitable Captain

over the years. He takes a lot of good natured abuse about his colour-challenged gem, and as can be seen from his contributions to the Ragtop, really knows how to feed it back. Personally, I’ve never been one to get fussed about colour wheels – they don’t hit the road!

However, his recent Ragtop rave “We Will Never Sur-render” went just far enough to jolt even the pacifist in me into action. He’s picked on a lot of colours in the past, but when he dragged the beauty of Yellow into his rant, I could no longer sit by on the sidelines. I had to jump into the fray. That’s the way wars spread. (Yellow is what white becomes on it’s glorious transformation to BROWN, hence we accept you as an honourary member of club brown!)

I do confess his impeccable specimen (the Spit, that is) has long been the envy of keen Triumph owners for its mechanical perfection and spotless condition, if not its colour!

Brown envy though, is not a wide spread virus as far as I can see. I strenuously object to the Captain’s presump-tion (dream?) that, just one example - our wonderful and loyal NY TTC supporters Bob & Dot weakening, and infecting their beautiful yellow wedge’s new paint job with a brown stripe could be construed as indication that Team Yellow as a whole is about to summarily break down. Team Yellow has not, to quote Captain Brown, “…joined forces…” with him. One does not constitute a trend. We have Churchillian resolve too!

You see, the bright fresh Mimosa Yellow gets its colour and name from the beautiful wild flower of the same name, native to southern France. It conjures up images of a lovely girl in the breeze-brushed meadow – maybe even doing an ad for another famous Triumph trade name (and, it is said, another of the Captain’s favourites!). This, surely, is a much more pleasant mental image than some of the connotations of brown.

I can assure the reader and all honourable members of Team Yellow that the only way I can imagine a brown streak on my shiny Mimosa fenders would be if I got too close while passing a livestock transport on the 401!

Rubber Ducky #1069

SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

Background:The car has had numerous upgrades, following the “Tri-umphtune Pluskit D” specifica-tions as well as performance upgrades outlined in the “Kas Kastner Performance Manual”. While maintaining a stock ap-pearance, power has been in-creased to ~160hp. When the car goes to the British Car day (Bronte, Ontario), it always receives a “top 3 in class” placing (~75cars in the class / ‘73+ Rubber bumper).

Service:The regular service, and many of the upgrades have been performed by Phil Allen, of BritCar, over the past 10 years, and he knows the car inside and out.

Engine:The engine was rebuilt John at BVR (British Vintage Racing). Triumphtune (TT): Tubular push rods; TT “Fast Road 83” cam-shaft; TT Lightened Cam Followers (lifters); .30 Over pistons; TT: Competition 16 row Oil cooler (5/8” unions) with TT braid-ed Aero-quip lines and thermostat.

Cylinder head:Shaved, Ported and Polished (10:1 com-pression per Kaster specs). Triumphtune: Air flowed valves (larger intake valves); TT Competition Valve Springs & TT Alu-minum Valve Caps; TT Bronze Valve Guides.

Carbs / Fuel system:Triple Weber carbs (3 x 40 DCOE) with 16mm Short Ram Stacks; 3 K&N 1.75” filters; (& 3 spares); Many spare weber Jets, Emulsion tubes (~50 pieces in all). Triumphtune: “Aero-quip” fuel lines; “Filter King” regulator, “Pacet” electric pump

Electrics:Triumphtune: Re-curved dis-tributor; Piranha Electric Igni-tion; TT 8mm Silicone spark plug wires; Lucas “Sports” coil.

Exhaust:Triumphtune: Stainless ex-haust with twin 24” oval si-lencers (mufflers), TT Headers (6 into 2) that have been “Jet Hot” coated.

Suspension:

Rims: Panasport 15x6 / Tires: Pirelli P6000 (95% tread remain-ing); Brakes: Wilwood 4 pot front calipers; Triumphtune: Vented brake rotors; “Aero-quip” Braided Brake Lines; Spax (adjustable) FR & RR shock TT conversion; Competition springs (std height), TT Solid aluminum steering rack mounts; ADCO sway bars: 7/8” front / 5/8” rear with Urethane bar mounts and end bushings

The items listed above are com-plemented by many other beauti-ful parts. I have owned the car for close to 20 years, but other cars in the garage have necessitated the possible sale of Bluey. The car has been treasured and pampered during this time, and is now looking for a new home.

Contact: Mark Armstrong (Oakville, ON)

cell: (416) 471-5613 (5-9pm) bluetr6@sympatico.ca

For Sale: 1975 TR6: French Racing Blue: $29,999 CDN / $25,999 US

www.autophile.ca

44 45

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SPRING 2007 RAGTOP

Classifieds 1972 TR6Emerald green with black interior. Never (inten-tionally) driven in the rain, stored winters. Professionally maintained, now leaking oil but not burning any. Solid body with no rust. Shows extremely well with sparkling new chrome and very good paint. Interior in great shape, all gauges work. About 105,000 mi. No time to drive – 4 times each of the past 3 summers. $11,500.Scott 416 254-5973 sg@boomart 1962 TR4 Rarer “ white dash - straight axle” version. The car is in very nice shape and quite reliable. Just returned from a week in New England and the car ran great. New tires and Panasport rims, new top, recently rebuilt transmission (has OD), re-cored radiator, re-lined fuel tank, solid engine and drive train, seats and interior recently re-upholstered, gauges rebuild, up- graded Weber side draft carbs,roll bar and many other repairs and upgrades. $16,000.

Ric Allison cell (416)2725004

1979 TR7 Convertible fairly solid car in need of top and interior work stored for many years 1500.00 obo.Contact Mike (519) 456-8309 Woodstock or deweerdm@rogers.com

1976 TR7 Coupe for sale for 2500 or trade for interesting old car. Located in Pennsylvania. Car came from California so body is very restorable. Orange in colour, has a sun roof, not roadworthy. Now needs restoration. Email bertie@epix.net

1975 TR7.Why restore when this one’s ready to go! 1975 TR7 coupe, 4spd,1owner, 41000 original, rust-free floors,trunk,engine compartment, etc. Everything works. Starts runs great. Undercoated in 1975. $2400 certified Ron (705)357-3433 E.of Newmarket. More pictures available upon request.

1980 TR7 Spider60,000 miles. Rebuilt carbs, spin-on oil filter adapter. Runs and drives. Seat covers ripped. Included is a rebuilt 1980 Buick V6 and John’s of Dallas Conversion Kit (minus springs). $2,500.00 or BO. Located in Buffalo, NY area. Buyer is respon-sible for shipping. Email if interested at lancer2101@hotmail.com

1974 TR66 cyl-4 spd. /dual Stromberg’s; Signal Red ext. with blk. int.; new paint, tires, msc. trim; exc. body with no rust on frame and body; exc. mech. and running cond.; all instruments functional; good oil pres-sure; original South USA car; needs carpet and top. Asking $ 9500.00 O.B.O Call 519-367-3108

1962 TR4Complete car, unfinished project. Indoor stored for 20 years. Much work done including sandblasted frame, rebuilt suspension, many other parts new in box: wiring harness, brake discs, moss stand-ard carpet kit etc etc. Body is solid but panel fit is very poor. Has a TR3 rear axle and TR6 rims. Last started engine 6 years ago. Spare engine long block. Growing family means I have no time to work on it. Car is located in Dundas, Ontario. $2,500 OBO. Will not part out. Email dougtammy@hotmail.com for questions or more pictures.

1972 TR-6 Sapphire blue on shadow blue ( very rare colour)new carpet by Diamond Trim new tonneau cover by Diamond Trim new front Pirelli tyres new gas lines 2005 complete tune up stored indoors (will keep until spring of 2006 mileage around 46,000 original (the car is covered for the winter so exact is n/a) good solid car top in good shape Call Brent @ 416-676-3013 or office @ 905-953-9995 x 102 or email brent@skate-mate.com

1979 Spit-6Please be kind to my baby..........1979 Spitfire. This car is a cross breed... 79 Spit & 73 GT-6. The body is a Spit and the frame and drive train is a GT-6. Once featured in the Ragtop magazine. Red on black, approx. 60,000 miles . Boxes and boxes of spares...doors, engine block, carbs, manuals, gauges, etc..... I have owned the Spit 6 for approx. 12 years. It has been a great car and everyone in the T.T.C. have been great too . I have just lost inter-est. Will sell cert., or uncert. I will store until nice weather too . I am open to all offers. Please call Ken 705-737-0069 (Barrie)

1980 Triumph TR7 Convertible 106,983 kms - 3rd owner - never winter driven 5 speed - new tires - cd player - mechanically sound No rust but needs a paint job to be really nice Fun to drive and runs well. More pics available - car in Montreal area Asking $5500.00Call Joe (514) 808-7105 or email jofas@videotron.ca 1965 TR4A Complete for Restoration Stored inside last 10 years, partially stripped down. Brand new convert-able hood, 4 extra wheels and replacement hood. Body and Chassis in fair condition. All brightwork present. Engine running when it went into storage. $2500.call Trevor @ 905 727 4009

1975 TR-6Good condition 60,000 miles,red/black interiornew CD. player installedasking $12,000. obo.Call Peter White (905) 732-0058

The Classified section is provided FREE to all members or non members for PRIVATE sales only. Ads will run for 2 issues only, if you wish to renew it will have to be re-listed. To place an ad send all the details to the Ragtop mailing address or via e-mail to the Ragtop

address at the front of the magazine. Regular adveristing rates apply to larger submissions.

1970 Spitfire MkIII Triumph Spitfire MaroonThe car is finished and ready to go $5800.00 Cdn certified.1300 cc engine, original configuration Twin SU carbs Rebuilt brake and clutch master cyl-inder and rear trunions New tires and brakes 75500 miles Call 519-421-9045 or email cjmcallister@canada.com

1974 TR-6 Turn key beauty ready to drive. New body paint and interior, detailed engine, red line tires, rebuilt carbs, new exhaust and lots more. This car runs and drives exceptionally well, check this one out before buying any other. Bright red, asking $16,500. Call 416-658-6408 or e-mail mrcookieman@hotmail.com

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For Sale: Rover V8 Carbureted in excellent running condition. Mayinclude transmission. Reasonable offer.Don Turnbull 416-652-1785 Toronto.

Items for a TR3:-Transmission - $275-Rear axle - $100-Clutches - $100 -Also, an engine stand - $100 -Contact : clairebaby@yahoo.ca

1959 Triumph TR3A*BRG, red interior, great condition, fully restored 10 years ago, all original drive train, will send appraisal and pictures on request. $16,000 obo. Located near Lindsay, Ontario. Contact John (705)-357-3565 or email jgalle@interhop.net

1967 (Late) TR4ARed with black interior. Rebuilt engine, transmission, overdrive, SU’s. new body panels, doors, rocker panels, gas tank, upholstery, wiring, electronic ignition, chroming, and newly polished grill. New drive line, bearings, seals, universals, brakes, stainless steel pistons in callipers. Many upgrades. Widened original spoke wheels with BFG 215X15 tires.$15,500.Tel:905-356-0566 or Fax: 905-356-1281.

Small truck load of TR-6 parts-excellent hood, rt.frt. fender, 2 non OD.trans.-2 driveshafts,2 steering racks,2 front susp.w/brks-2 complete rear susp.with brks & drive-shafts-2 prs. blk.seats, eng. block, head miscel eng. parts -box early OD.parts, 2 pr strmbrg w/man.&linkage -exht. man, gauges, wrg.harness, blk boot cover-new air dam,tail & park lights some lenses-rad & some hoses,2 rockershaft assembly. -call Murray Schreder 519-336-1743 Sarnia-$600.00 prefer to sell as one lot

1975 Triumph TR6. It is Burgundy, has a roll bar, am/fm Pioneerstereo as well as original radio, Very good mechanical condition, solidframe, vinyl roof perfect. Has 122,000 miles. Third owner have allrecords. Call 905-985-0989 Ask for John. *Price $8,500.

Heritage Coach Trimming9659 Winston Churchill Blvd.

Brampton OntarioL6X0A4

call John for an appointment905-456-7575

SPRING 2007