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So once more we travelled the short distance from South Leicester
to Stoneleigh in Warwickshire - only this time it was an earlier
start than normal as TRisha TR was making an appearance on the
TR Drivers Club stand, alongside Chris Turner's quite fabulous
'Coca-Cola' liveried TR7.
After a Saturday of polishing the car - actually that's a lie....
the polishing was done on Friday having taken a day off work!!!
Well the car is used over winter and there was a fair bit of dirt
to clean off. Thankfully Friday & Saturday were bright dry
days - unlike Sunday when I awoke to a constant drizzle. So Sunday
- and what a bad start. Some muppet had left the interior light
on! Meaning I may as well tried starting her with a 1.5v AAA battery
from the TV remote. After a little shuffling of cars  I
was able to jump start her. And 20mins behind schedule set off
for the show.
Having stook rigidly to the speed limit all the way - the 90mph
mark was not passed at any time officer, it's delimted to 70mph.
With the Rain-X on the screen allowing the window-wipers to remain
parked we were soon ushered through the gates and directed to
the hall. Thankfully the rain had ceased which allowed some cleaning
to be done outside whilst the rest of those doing the stand manning
completed the initial set up. We then did a bit of manouvering
to get all 4 cars (2xFHC and 2xDHC) on the stand - hats off to
Phil Humphries from 'creeping' the stand size!!
With a final rub down (the cars, not the owners), t-shirt changes
for Chris & myself (!) and with the club flag held in place
by TRisha we were ready to rock n roll. The TR Drivers stand was
next to Club Triumph which was great as it made it easier for
me to chat a few of the guys I know, through being a member of
that club... I still missed the 12:00 o'clock gathering which
had been arranged on-line, but more of that later! The proximity
of their stand also made it easier to get in some early shots
in the GT6 vs TR7 friendly fire ribbing, as I suggested that Tim
(GT6) would now have some decent cars to look at all day. I should
also point out the Club Triumph, who had a fine selection of vehicles,
carried off the 'best club stand' award - a worthy award, well
done to all those who helped in that success. Unfortunately my
camera card was full when I went to take a snap of their stand
at the end of the day.... though looking at most of the images
I took the photo probably wouldn't be usable.
The day itself was a huge success - Club Triumph looked very
busy all day and we were certainly very busy on the TR Drivers
stand. I don't know how many new members were signed up but at
one point there was a queue! The cars on the stand did attract
a lot of interest - with Steve's DHC having travelled over from
Norway. In my opinion the cars on the standard worked well - with
two metallic DHCs and the primary colours of TRisha and the Coca-Cola
car. From the time the doors opened there really wasn't a great
deal of time to chat with the other guys doing the stand-manning
- indeed it wasn't until the 'Show will be closing in 30 minutes'
warning went out that I had chance to talk to Steve and find out
just why his DHC had got the early single-bump bonnet. With a
steady flow of enthusiasts to the stand I didn't notice that the
noon had come and long since gone. I was vaguely aware that Club
Triumph had a small gathering but really such was the pace of
things and number of visiters to their stand that the gathering
was not out-of-place.
With hardly a break from the start of the show I finally grabbed
my lunch at a little after 13:00, another hour and a half later
I eventually managed to sneak off to eat them! Yes we really were
that busy.
It was great to meet people I've corresponded with through the
forums or via e-mail, though a shame that we didn't have much
time to chat n some instances - I also saw a few others drfit
past who I have met before but on this occasion was otherwise
engaged.
By the time I made it to the Triumph parking there were only
a handful of cars left - with just a few TR7's dotted around.
So I missed the Cosworth powered wedge which had been there earlier
in the day. As I wasn't really after buying anything (that makes
a change in itself) I wandered around the show but had no need
to really look in at the auto-jumble - the co-pilot would have
been pleased about that had she been in attendance! There were
a couple of TR7's for sale both, I thought, a little on the high-side
but maybe prices of TR7's are increasing? If they are then it
is aided by the coverage the car is getting recently - most notably
in Retro Cars magazine.
The general feeling was that despite the poor weather initially
the day had
been a, errr well a Triumph I guess. The weather was good enough
to push the sun roof back for the journey home, and I had opportunity
to hold the camera up and snap Chris who was in front... yes to
make room on the memory card I did delete an image whilst on the
hoof tsk tsk.
So after a successful start to the 2005 shows we'll look for
an increase in attendance at the nationals, and club meetings
(especially those new areas!).
Cheers,
Jay
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