MOTOR-BLOG from Coventry

Yes I know it may seem crazy to travel almost 300 miles round trip to go to a classic car show, but hey, that’s what lifes all about isn’t it? I jumped in Susan (with repaired gearbox - see staff car sagas in the upcoming October 08 issue of Practical Classics) and headed on my merry way.

Now I’m not one usually to praise the hellish road that can be the A14, but first thing on a Sunday morning it isn’t all that bad. So with a four speed 1596cc Vitesse at my disposal and a large straight empty path of tarmac ahead of me, I thought I would see what she could do.

Now I’m not recommending that anyone ever breaks the speed limit, but eh, what the hell - no-one was around and it was perfect conditions. Having taken a Triumph Acclaim (manufacturers claimed top speed 92 mph) to over a hundred on the de-restricted autobahns of er, France, I was keen to beat Triumph’s claim of 89 MPH top speed for the Vit 6.

Mission accomplished. I have no idea of how fast I was actually going officer, as Susan’s speedo gives what can be best described as an approximate indication of velocity between two given speeds - i.e. ‘How fast are we going Neil?’ Answer? ‘ Well between 55 and 75 mph according to the speedo.’ You get the picture.

Anyhow, obviously I didn’t maintain such heady speeds for long. This is beacuse of many reasons. Firstly, the rapidly rising temp gauge, secondly, the obvious danger to my personal health and thirdly, speeding tickets and all of that boring legal stuff that the constabulary seem to be so interested in these days.  

So what have I learnt from this experience? Well not much really, except that Triumphs PR men were obviously gentlemen, or blind, or not very good at their jobs. While every other manufacturers at the time my Vitesse was built were giving wildly innaccurate claims about their products (Jaguar, I’m looking at you. 150 mph out of a standard production E-Type? I don’t think so…), those lovely folks at Fletchampstead Highway were being all coy about the performance of their cars.

Oh and one more thing - the 1600cc Triumph straight six sounds great when you get it over 5500 RPM. Grin!

The Boston Classic car show was good too - if you’re around the area for the next one - or if you’re not like me - I can heartily recommend it. Roll on next year…

It was my Birthday last week, so I took a couple of days off work to go camping down in the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds are so close to us here in Coventry, that I hadn’t thought to go there for a fews days R and R before. Silly isn’t it?

The thought of going away but only driving for around an hour was both a blessing and a curse. I like driving you see, and the journey is an integral part of the holiday experience for me - how would I cope knowing that if I’d left something important behind rather than just doing without, I could comfortably jump in the car and go home to retrieve it?

Well very well as it turns out, despite it feeling a little strange at first. So Helen and I loaded up Susan the Vitesse, and off we went - but not before I’d removed most of the tools and spares that I routinely carry around with me to make room for sleeping bags, a modest tent and a fine selection of tinned comestables. 

Oops. Not a good move as it turns out, as I was soon pulled over on the side of the road between Stow On the Wold and Bourton on the Water with no gears…

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!