Very cool...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/automobiles/collectibles/17contest.html
GAVIN RHODES was surprised that his black 1959
Triumph TR3A won the Collectible Car of the Year contest on nytimes.com.
At a time when American muscle cars have become
treasured icons and Italian sports cars are,
well, Italian sports cars, Mr. Rhodes, 33, didnt
think his froggish little roadster stood a chance.
I was up against a Ferrari, he said, adding
that the contest really represented the whole
spectrum of classic cars. Some people use them
every day. Other people have several
million-dollar cars that are trucked around from show to show. I was amazed.
A total of 558 cars were entered in the contest,
and 4,500 votes were cast by readers of
nytimes.com for the 30 finalists, which had been
chosen by the staff of the Automobiles section in
November. As winner, Mr. Rhodes will receive
$5,000 and a trophy; the other finalists will
receive a prize package valued at $50 and passes
to the New York International Auto Show in March.
The outcome of the competition revealed an
automotive counterculture of sorts: the enduring
affection for classic British sports cars, warts and all.
And there were warts, including a weakness for
rust and glitchy electronics. Like all but a
handful of British carmakers, Triumph passed
through several owners; ultimately, it kicked the
can in 1984. Today, BMW owns the rights to build
cars under the Triumph name, while a private
company with no relationship to BMW or the
original owner sells Triumph sport motorcycles that look like anime robots.
The TR3A, built from 1957 to 1961, was the most
elegant of Triumphs, before they became boxy and,
later, wedgelike. Mr. Rhodes got his more than 15
years ago for $4,200. It was his second.
His first was a 16th-birthday gift from his
father, Jim, a gearhead with his own crazy way of
souping up old cars. Past projects included a
1959 Jaguar Mark I sedan that used a Buick V-6,
and a 1932 Ford pickup with a Corvette engine.
Mr. Rhodes recalls that the first car he drove to
high school was a Sunbeam Tiger, a British
roadster powered by a factory-installed Ford V-8.
There was a coolness factor, Mr. Rhodes said
about driving his fathers cars, but his birthday
present was, he felt, more of a loaded present.
It was a wrecked car, he explained. It had like mice in the trunk.
It meant so many weekends with my dad, working
on it. As a teenager, you have some tension with
your father - it was a bittersweet gift.
It took them two years to restore the car. They
painted it a bright canary yellow and even
installed a few aftermarket parts, including a
racing seat with a four-point safety harness. It
ended up keeping Mr. Rhodes from being seriously injured.
Four months after finishing the car, Mr. Rhodes
collided with a drunken driver. I T-boned him,
luckily, he said. Had he arrived at the
intersection a second later, the drunken driver
would have hit the TR3s flimsy drivers side
door. The seat kept him from being thrown around inside the car.
Mr. Rhodes and his father found a replacement TR3
that was in better condition than the yellow car.
A year and a few setbacks later, they finished
the second car, the summer before Mr. Rhodess senior year of high school.
Today he lives in Brooklyn, where he and his
wife, Michelle McDevitt, own Audible Treats, a
music promotion and marketing company.
But the heady price of nearby garages - around
$300 a month, Mr. Rhodes said - means that the
Triumph is still at his fathers house in New
Mexico. He said he returned two or three times a
year to drive the car and keep it in running
order, but he was looking for an affordable way
to keep the TR3A closer to home.
Recently, he made a post on Craigslist. Looking
for classic car philanthropist or enthusiast who
has an extra garage, he said he wrote. So far, Ive gotten no reply.
_______________________________________________
http://www.team.net/donate.html
Fot mailing list
Fot@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/fot
|