MOTOR-BLOG from Coventry

I have a working classic car again - at last. Yep, Susan my Triumph Vitesse 6 aced her MoT again. Well I say aced, there were one or two little issues. Some welding to the sills is on the cards but they’re not structural anyway, being held on by self tapping screws.

Good old Triumph. The lack of development cash that forced them into using the old fashioned idea of a separate chassis in the first place, meant that the Herald platform could spawn a wide range of models quite cheaply. Good on them. This is why you can’t get heritage bodyshells for Vitesses unlike the MGB, we don’t need them. Ha ha! Not so clever now Mr rotbox MG are we?

Since the pass early yesterday morning, I’ve done about 60 miles in the old girl, a summer fete (see http://www.helenwoodward.co.uk ) and a car show. Brilliant. I’ve burned about a quarter of a tank of juice too, but don’t fret you environmentalists out there, the Vitesse tank is tiny, so the fuel always goes down quickly. It’s been far too long, and I intend to do a lot of driving in the old girl this year. Hooray for old cars!

Consumerism. You could argue that the act of purchasing items is simply the side effect of an unhappy and uninspired population - I am unsatisfied with my lot, therefore I will crave and will purchase items that I don’t really need, with money I do not have, to make me feel more fulfilled and give my life a little meaning for a short period of time.

The high experienced after ‘improving’ your life with another piece of overpriced consumer tat unfortunately does not last long - and within a very short space of time the hardened consumer will again find themselves in their local Currys - credit agreement in one hand, and £1200 worth of Smeg fridge freezer being bungee strapped to the roofrack of the Cayenne Turbo by spotty, squeaky voiced, slightly smelly teenage boys wearing bright red Curry T-shirts, that are ever-so-slightly too large for them.

The reason for this unplanned and uneeded purchase? Well it was on offer and was a pastelly shade that would look good in the kitchen, and although the current fridge freezer was bought only 18 months ago, holds more food, is more energy effcient and still has a good 12 years of life left in it - it is white, and not a fancy pastelly shade, so it is destined for the tip - after all, that’s why we need a Porsche 4×4 for jobs like this isn’t it? Couldn’t have done this in the old 5 series, oh isn’t life good? Aren’t we great?…

By the time said consumer has got home, the high will be already wearing off. Within a week, the unhappy soul will already be on the vodka by midday again, surrounded by beautiful, expensive, pointless things, with the faint whiff of despair in the air again, and a tear in the eye - so out comes the Freemans catalogue - oo! Buy now pay next year! - just sign up for a ‘Loyalty’ card - and it’s only 39.8% interest, it’s so simple, and we DO need a new widescreen TV - that 42 inch LCD TV we bought last year is so, well it’s so last year don’t you think,? Besides, our ‘old’ TV one doesn’t have a built in Blue-ray player like this one, does it? We must keep up with technology… And so it goes on.

Thank goodness for consumersism, without it over the last twenty years or so, our nation would have fallen to its knees, as we now has very little in the way of manufacturing industry to prop up the economy. Yes factories pollute. Yes they don’t look very pretty (well I think they do but I know I’m in the minority). What factories do, and do well is to provide people with good honest work, and keep our economy bouyant. Call centres do not do this. 

So what the hell am I going on about? Well I’ve just been up to Canley Classics to buy a new power steering belt for my project triumph 2000 estate - and guess what? It appears I’m one of about 3 people in the Coventry area who have a power steeringed 2000 (if you see what I mean). The other two are Dave (the owner of Canley’s) and his wife. Subsequently, they don’t hold them in stock - preferring to order them in as and when required. Oh well, so I bought a new oil filter and some new oil for the Vitesse instead.

Then I got talking to Dave and the question came up about what cars I’d like to own. It’s no secret that I’d like to own a prototype Triumph (many of which survive), and especially one from the experimental department (commission numbers start with an X). My ultimate goal would be to find a Herald Coupe prototype. That would be great. Dave is quite an X car man and has plenty of prototype vehicles as well as first and last cars. He owns the earliest known Herald for example. I’d like an early Herald too, and a Courier van.

I always thought that Couriers were rare, but apparently there are plenty still about - but most are incomplete projects. Canley Classics currently have five Couriers, four of which are in bits and were found that way. However, Dave has been restoring one of them and it’s due for an MoT next week. It’s lovely. I still want one. There are currently two on eBay. Yikes. Watch this space…

I then bought four 14″ Stag steel wheels off him for my 2000. The tyres are shagged, but they were only £50. That may sound steep, especially as I have a set of five waiting for me in Preston - price? Free. But get this - with the price of petrol as it is, and the fact I’d take the M6 Toll road to get there (£4.50 each way), I’d probably be spending about that to get them anyway - plus the best part of a day. So these wheels made financial sense. But the best part about these steel wheels is this - they’ve already been blasted, powder coated, and lacquered. This is exactly what I would have done to the free wheels anyway, only at a cost of at least £50 per wheel.

So I pop into my local specialist to buy a sundry item costing a couple of quid, and end up leaving almost £70 lighter, without the item i went to buy in the first place and my head full of Courier ideas and an itchy eBay bidding finger. Isn’t consumerism great???ÂÂ

Yes where the hell have I been and what the hell have I been doing? Almost a month since my last post? Disgraceful. What the hell am I playing at? Now I’ve got all the swearing out of the way I can tell you - I’ve been redesigning my website at www.neilcampbell.co.uk . It’s still not quite finished yet but as it’s Bank Holiday Monday and the weather is bloody awful, I’ll get the rest of the pages sorted out today.

I’ve also finished my girlfriends site at www.helenwoodward.co.uk and have added an online shop so you can buy as much jewellery off her as you like - and it’s been working too, so thanks to all who have ordered from it. And I’ve also been on holiday - thrice. The first one was a long weekend away for Helen’s Birthday in Wales and very nice it was too - apart from the Volvo playing up - more of that on another post though - there’s a lot to cover believe me.

Last bank holiday, we went down to the Lizard in Cornwall to vist our good friends Thurstan and Tracey and finally we got back last weekend from a week in Malaga - this is why I couldn’t attend the Beaulieu Autojumble on the Practical Classics stand - which was a dammned shame as I was itching to go to that one I can tell you (although it probably saved me from myself as I have an overwhelming desire to buy yet more cars).

The trip down to Cornwall was particulary nice as we don’t get to see T&T that often, and it’s always amusing to see how many more cars Thurstan has acquired. Since I saw them last Tracey has passed her driving test and as a result Thurstan has transformed one of their cars from this:

:

I.e. £250 worth of rusty, floorless, moss covered, MoT failed Herald 12/50 - to this:

I.e. about £450 of rusty, stuffed full of filler, moss covered, white rattle can sprayed MoT passed Herald 12/50.

Yes Phoebe is back on the road! I nearly bought this car a few years ago when I lived in London, but Thurstan bought it instead which was a good thing, as if I’d bought it would have been scrapped a long time ago. I only wanted it for the webasto roof you see, and would have sold it straight on to fate unknown, although it was such a state it would have more than likely become a spares car.

So it might not look pretty (although I’d argue that it does) and it might be as rough as a (insert your own simile here), but another old Triumph has been saved and pressed into almost daily use. As my collegue Keith Adams says - all Triumphs seem to look rough, an he’s right of course. For the very few Triumphs that don’t look rough, they just don’t look right (in my opinion anyway). Perhaps this is why I’ve just never got the Stag? I just don’t get it. I know the V8 is sweet, I know it wears a sharp Italian suit, but it’s about the only Standard-Triumph product that I’ve never harboured any desire for - and I was seriously considering buying a Standard Pennant lately so that’s saying something… 

So we had a great time down in Cornwall. Thurstan and I in his convertible Mark 2 Vitesse, and Helen and Tracey following on in her 12/50 Herald. What fun! If there is anything more enjoyable than blatting around the lanes of Cornwall in the blazing sun in old triumphs with good friends, I do not know what it is. So sitting here with the wind rattling the sashes, and the rain beating down on this bank holiday Monday in May, I can only hope for one thing - please can we have a good summer this year? Please?