This is a fun thread, I feel inspired to spill my life story, too.
Born in 1962, I grew up with steam engines. My father, an electric
engineer, built live steam locomotive models as a hobby, I was taught how
to work a lathe at the age of twelve and as an adolescent, I regularly
drove full-size steam rollers and locomotives. I was fed on nuts and
bolts, so to speak. Meccano was my favourite toy - got up to set nr. 9!
In secondary school I started dreaming of classic British sports cars. I
bought every British classic car magazine I could lay my hands on and
dreamed. Regular holiday visits to England, the cradle of steam power,
also helped a lot. In the late seventies, there was a British Leyland
dealership not far from our school. We used to go there on our bicycles
and gaze at the shiny new Spitfire 1500 in the showroom.
When I went to university, a friend of a friend had a white Spitfire mk3,
which was quite something for a student to have in those days. Then, when
I had my first job, one of my colleagues also had a Mk3, in true British
Racing Green, with overdrive. I kept dreaming. In fact, I kept dreaming of
a TR3A, but realised a good one would be way beyond my means.
My first car was a 1980 Suzuki SC100GX, a tiny little Japanese pocket
rocket with a 1 litre engine in the back, which was slanted forward,
making it almost mid-engined. I bought it while still in university, using
a small inheritance from my grandfather. Changing plugs and setting valves
could only be done from inside the car, through a small hatch in the rear
bulkhead, the choke cable was longer than the car itself and there was a
solid, 2" steel bar behind the chrome front bumper, for better weight
distribution. I took it apart, put it back together again and was amazed
by its clever but complicated engineering. It drove like a go-kart and I
totalled it twice, the first time in a full frontal at 40Mph with a much
bigger car. That solid steel bar and the seat belts really saved my life.
After the second crash, I had run out of money to have it fixed. I
subsequentily drove (and sometimes crashed) various small but
uninteresting Japanese cars.
I met my wife in '89 and in '94 we had a house built with a single garage.
The dream of owning a Triumph was still there. In the spring of '95, I
casually strolled into my local Daihatsu dealership to enquire about a
towbar for the Daihatsu Charade I drove then. The towbar cost too much,
but my eye was caught by what looked like a 1976 Triumph Spitfire in
glorious Java Green. It seemed one of the previous owners of this
particular specimen had been quite good to it, adding improvements like
halogen headlights, an oil pressure gauge and a stainless steel exhaust. I
figured I could have as much fun in this as in a much more expensive TR3A,
which was still beyond my means. After I persuaded my wife to have a test
drive in it, she persuaded me to buy it. She'd probably divorce me if I
ever let the Spitfire go.
In 2003, we replaced the single, dark, cold and damp garage with an
insulated, heated garage, big enough for four cars.
Last year I ran into a beautiful '57 TR3A at another car dealer. It had
been traded in on an Audi TT convertible (...) by a man who had spent an
awful lot of money on it (the bills add up to a nice new Mercedes) to have
it restored to as new condition over a period of ten years. He had no
technical abilities whatsoever, and believed that as long as the car was
'new', with as many new parts as possible, owning it would be just like
owning a modern car. Predictably, he had to give up after two years, when
the car had left him standing helplessly by the roadside too many times.
He was a fanatical polisher, but hardly knew how to open the bonnet. I
bought it after some haggling and spent three enjoyable weeks rectifying
faults and catching up on maintenance. I'm happiest with a spanner in my
hand.
The TR came just in time, as by now the Spitfire's engine is somewhat
tired. It rattles loudly on startup, oil pressure is low and power is
down. Tomorrow, my Spitfire-owning friend Jacob and I will extract the
engine, so it can be rebuilt. See http://www.intuh.net/motor/ for
pictures.
I borrowed a huge engine hoist, at least half a century old, from the body
shop that repaired my first cars more than twenty years ago. The shop is
five times bigger now and run by the founder's son. The hoist was
delivered and will be collected free of charge, because the old man
remembered me and the cars I used to bring in. He happens to own an Austin
7, a Rosengart and a big Healey, still being restored.
Even though I love everything with an engine in it, I didn't end up in a
technical profession. I wasn't good enough at maths and physics to become
an engineer, so I started out as a journalist (for technical publications)
and now I'm a lawyer working as a legal adviser - for a decidedly
technical government agency.
Now, if any of you have read this far and know where there's a cheap
Stanley Steamer for sale, I want to know about it. I know how to drive and
maintain one and I still have some room in the garage! ;-)
Eric
--
'57 TR3A TS23315L
'76 Spit FH88257L - engine almost out
http://triumphspitfire.nl/
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