Hi, Jay. If you can get a scan of your article, I'd like to run it in our
club's newsletter here in Ottawa, and perhaps try to track down your
guardian clutch-angel. I have a suspicion who it might be (only so many who
can find a Spit clutch at 6 in the evening!).
Any Triumphisti who have been to Ottawa for our turn at co-hosting the
'Canadian Classic' with the Toronto Triumph Club (1991, 1996) knows of our
hospitality (especially that group from 'New Joizie'). Perhaps since our
5-year cycle is coming around again, it might be time for "2001: A Triumph
Odyssey" (Stanley Kubrick R.I.P.). Cheers, JD.
-----Original Message-----
From: JJ40@aol.com [SMTP:JJ40@aol.com]
Sent: March 7, 1999 12:57 PM
To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Belated thanks to a Canadian in Ottowa
Thought I'd share this story and at the same time say an extremely
belated
thanks to someone who's name I don't know; hoping maybe he checks
these
postings:
Around 1985 or 1986, I was driving my Spitfire in Ottowa when I got
stuck at a
light. Seems the clutch was blown. Behind me, I heard someone say,
"Trouble
with the Spit?"
My first instinct was, Oh no, some turkey who thinks he knows cars.
But we
stared at the car a while and he said he knew something about
Spitfires, and,
more importantly, where to get a clutch at 6 p.m. on a Saturday
night. We had
the car towed to a parking lot near his house, and he took me to a
shop where
the mechanic was still around -- tuning a muffler to get the right
pitch. I
had the feeling I was in the company of some people who knew what
they were
doing.
We bought the clutch and the fellow said he'd help me install it the
next
morning. A friend came from Ogdensburg, where my wife and I were
living at the
time, had a few beers, & went home.
Next morning we went back to Ottowa, and the guy met me with a pot
of coffee
and tools. Without a lift or anything elaborate, we got the clutch
out and the
new one in; took the better part of a morning and afternoon, but
finished
before dark.
He insisted on no payment; said it was just a favor and he liked
doing the
work. I was writing a column for a newspaper at the time and wrote
about the
episode, starting with a lead that went, "If you haven't gotten
around to
blowing your clutch this year, you must go to Ottowa and do it."
Anyway, if you're reading this, thanks whoever you were.
Jay Jochnowitz
'73 GT6 (still for sale if anyone's interested, send requests for
details and
pix to JJ40@aol.com)
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