The NSW national rally is over and 18 weary South Aussies who attended, are now adjusting back into normal life patterns again. This year’s event was held in Kangaroo Valley just inland from Nowra on the picturesque NSW coast. This was a tremendous event and the NSW committee should be proud of their efforts, as there were activities to suit every taste from motor sport to a guided tour of a Buddhist temple, or a visit to the Bradman Museum in Bowral, but I am sure full reports will be published, if not in this month’s magazine then in next months.

While on the subject, next years national rally is to be held in S.A. in October, with 4 nights in Mt Gambier and 3 nights in Victor Harbor, with an after rally option on Kangaroo Island at an additional cost. We invite you to attend and meet new like minded friends and renew old friendships.Our rally committee is currently working hard fine tuning our event in an endeavour  to satisfy every Triumph enthusiast. The registration forms are now available on this web site.

I would like to remind you of the combined run with the Austin Healy Sprite club to the Greenock Aviation Museum on the 14th November.  For catering purposes I will need to confirm our booking numbers with the venue by 5/11/10. There will be a $10 cost to cover the BBQ lunch and entry to the museum, details of the run are shown later in this mag.

I believe a lot of members have heard of Bundy tube, but how many people know what Bundy tube is, what makes it unique, why it is specified for automotive brake lines and what safety issues should you be aware of when using it. Since I retired from TI Automotive (formally Bundy Tubing Aust.) a couple of years ago, I had heard some worrying stories from individuals and even Brake industry outlets that they were advising and or supplying unsuitable product to the public, to my knowledge this has now been rectified.

While it is not specifically a Triumph issue, I am proposing to make a technical presentation and answer any questions that members may have during our informal January 2011 meeting while the ladies are away enjoying a cup of coffee or ice cream. Don’t get me wrong if any ladies are interested they will be more than welcome to stay for the presentation, if it all comes together in time for the meeting. I will keep you informed over the next few meetings.

I hope to see you soon
John Sampson

The VRROOOM REPORT (a.k.a. Competition Report)

Rev Trev returns from touring Europe at the end of September, and I am sure that he and Steph will have plenty of news regarding Triumphs and motor sport to share with us all in due course. In the meantime, there has been some activity locally, but not enough to engage our members.

The MSCA sprint on 19th Sept clashed with the NSW Nationals, so Neil Martin and I were otherwise engaged. Trev’s away, Rod Carey needs a new engine . . . . anyone else??

The Nationals on the other hand were a hoot. The programme included two track days, Wakefield Park on the Monday, and Marulen Driver Training Centre on the Wednesday. The events held at Wakefield Park included a Super Sprint in the morning, and a hillclimb in the afternoon.

I had intended to take my GT6 to the Nationals, as it is so much fun to drive at Wakefield Park. Unfortunately, my last outing at Mallala resulted in a drivetrain vibration and problems engaging 2nd and 3rd gears – I suspect the gearbox needs repair again. So Cherri and I drove the TR8 across to NSW. As the TR8 does not have roll over protection, it did not qualify for the competition events, but I took my helmet just in case . . . .

Neil Martin entered all events in his TR7V8 and came home with a number of awards and a huge grin on his face. Needless to say, the competition events were excellent fun. On hearing that my GT6 had been left home, the NSW Nationals competition events organiser Ken Peters insisted that I drive his TR7 – who was I to refuse such a generous offer?

Ken’s TR7 has been modestly improved with some suspension tweaks, better brakes, a torquey cam and track tyres. But it remains an 8 valve TR7 on standard 13” wheels. What a surprising little package this car proved to be. It was such a nicely balanced package that went well, turned in, stopped and was quite forgiving. I had so much fun thanks to Ken’s generosity.

It wasn’t until we got to Gary Wilmington’s Marulen Park facility that the true spirit of TSOA Nationals started to emerge though. This day was to be a fun day, low key, and untimed. The track was reasonably short but testing nevertheless, and as the day wore on, the more fun the participants would have. Drivers swapped cars, took passengers, got other drivers to take the owners around in their own cars, compared notes, tried to learn better lines and techniques etc.

Neil offered me a drive in his TR7V8 which I was happy to accept, The sound of that V8 is just lovely. Ken’s TR7 got a run as well, and Greg Grist from WA threw me the keys to his silver Mk II GT6 to see what I thought of it. Most excellent fun! Even the Stig turned up to entertain us!

Congratulations must go the NSW Nationals committee for running such a great rally and especially Ken Peters and Co for the fun everyone had at the competition events.

Coming up locally, we have :

Australian Hillclimb Championships at Collingrove on Oct. 16-17th
Round 4 and the final MSCA sprint for the year at Mallala on Oct 24th
Round 4 of the SA State Circuit Racing Championships at Mallala on Oct 30-31
Modern Regularity at Mallala on 7th Nov

And a final mention, the Legends of the Lakes hillclimb at Mt Gambier being held over the weekend of Nov 6-7th. The entry list for the main event was filled a long time ago, however, there is an opportunity to enter the Historic (and Invited Cars) being run for the first time on the Friday preceding the main event Nov 5th. If you are interested, the South East Auto Club are currently accepting entries for pre 1975 cars of suitable heritage. If interested, go to the website www.seacsa.com and follow the links.

That’s all for now – I hope to see you soon

Roger

For those who may be interested, this year’s event is being run over the weekend of 6-7th November. The entry list was filled many months ago, but there remains an opportunity to be involved through an additional day being offered this year. This day has been created primarily for owners of Historic race vehicles, but is open to “invited” cars of suitable heritage  and a manufacture date preceding 1975. Fit’s right in for most Triumphs, doesn’t it?

If interested, you had better get moving – contact the South East Auto Club or go to their website www.seacsa.com and follow the links.

Roger

We have just returned from 3 weeks away taking in Sydney, Canberra and the NSW Nationals so I am unable to make any comments on the mid week run on 1st September organised by Jack or the run on Sunday 19th September organised by Bill & Margie.  However I am sure both these runs were successful and thanks to the organisers.

The next event on the social calendar is the ladies technical session on Tuesday 12th October at Cafe Buongiorno Mtcham at 12 noon.   If you are not doing anything on that day ladies, come along and join us, we would love to see you.

Sunday 17th October is the annual Tony Esau Memorial Trophy Run being set this year by last year’s winner Ian Rigby.   I am sure Ian will have set a challenging run, so get along to Castle Plaza Shopping Centre at 9.00am bringing with you chairs, table, drinks and a clipboard and pen.   Also put the brain and  the Triumph into gear and join in the fun.   A club sponsored BBQ will be held at the destination (a secret at this stage) and we hope to see many Triumphs in attendance.  The winner on the day must be driving a Triumph.

The Technical Meeting on Thursday 28th October is at Performance Alloy Wheels at 60 Kinkaid Avenue North Plympton at 12.45pm.   Bob will need an indication of numbers attending at the October meeting.

Sunday November 14th John is organising a run heading up to Greenock Aviation Museum for a visit and BBQ lunch (cost $10p/h) joining with the Austin Healey Sprite Club.  The cars will be displayed on the lawn so come along on the day.  We will require an indication of numbers at the October meeting for catering purposes.

The Christmas Dinner and Trophy Presentation on Saturday 4th December is being held at the same venue as last year, The Royal Adelaide Golf Club.  Payment in full is required by the November meeting and is the same cost for members as last year ($40p/h) with non members $55.00p/h.

Sue Gibson

GT6’s ready for battle! Rod Carey, Roger Lange and Trevor Lindsay – Wakefield Park

The AGM has been conducted and the new committee formed, some new faces along with several carry over members make up the new committee.  The names and positions are shown in the minutes of the AGM which you will find included in this magazine.  My thanks to both the new and continuing committee members for making this commitment for another year.

After a lot of thought, and discussion with others, I finally decided to stand for the position of president.  For those members who do not know me, and with a membership of approx 300, there will be many, here are some brief details.

I am 64 years of age and along with my wife Barb have retired from the workforce. I have always had an interest in cars and for most of my working life I was involved with the automotive industry.  From the mid sixties I had a soft spot for the Triumph TR’s and it was only nearing retirement that I took the plunge and bought my pride and joy, a white 1972 TR6.

Barb and I have both been members of the TSOA for approx 9 years and participate in many of the club runs and events, including National Rallies in both South Australia and Queensland.  In my new role we look forward to attending more regularly than in the past.

Most of our participation has been in the social events, which are successfully run by a group of dedicated people.  I would propose that this feature of our club continue to develop and grow as it has over the past few years.  As well as satisfying the social need of club members, these runs allow participants to enjoy driving their vehicles and also in its own way promotes the club and exposes the general public to our vehicles.  From my point of view there is nothing better than seeing a procession of Triumph TR’s, saloons and Stags winding their way through the Adelaide hills on a sunny Sunday or Wednesday morning, although I acknowledge that this may not necessarily be what everybody enjoys.

In recent months there has been some healthy discussion that should not be ignored as it is important that we try to provide for members what they are looking for in our club.  Quite rightly some members feel we should put more emphasis on our marque and revive other activities associated with the promotion of our vehicles.  I would encourage members to put forward ideas to achieve this end.

I understand that one technical meeting has been arranged in late October to learn about the manufacture of Alloy wheels, and we have also organised a joint run with the Healy Sprite club which has been scheduled for November.  Both events are planned with the intention of developing, learning about and promoting the use of our vehicles.  This is a first small step but hopefully one in the right direction.  I know that these events only scratch the surface of the discussion points that have been raised but we need to start somewhere.
I look forward to being inundated with ideas and the members willing to develop them.You can forward your thoughts to bjyale@bigpond.com

See you soon John Sampson.

Racing with the MG’s – What fun!

Usually when there is a race meeting locally at Mallala, I am restricted to the Sports Car category if I was interested in entering. This would mean that I was in the same category as the big V8’s like Lyn Punshon’s Cobra, the late and older model Porsche’s, turbo this and that etc. So my little GT6 feels somewhat intimidated.  It was good news then when I heard that a round of the Victorian State Series for MG’s was to come to Mallala over the weekend of 21st and 22nd August for a two day race meeting.

You see nowadays, the MG fraternity have opened up their racing to include “Invited British Marques” that fit with the period and style of their racing. So Triumph, Austin Healey, Jaguar, Lotus etc can all get a race amongst friends and where we feel a sense of belonging.  Tom Hutchinson has been joining the MG’s when he competes in Victoria in their State Series for sports cars for the past year or so. Tom’s TR8 is clearly one of the quickest sports cars around, but he does get some strong competition from time to time against a couple of very fast Victorian V8 MG’s. I have also noticed a couple of other Victorian based Triumph race cars have been entered in the MG category from time to time, so felt it was an opportune time for me to give the GT6 a run and see how it shapes up against the MG competition.

What a pity Trevor Lindsay wasn’t here to join in the fun. And fun we had! Once the local MG racers had combined with the Victorian’s who had travelled across for this event, plus Tom and myself in our Triumphs, and a local Lotus Elise, we had a field of cars totalling around 30. I also joined Tom Hutchinson and Ian Wilson (TVR Tuscan) in the Sports Car category just for the hell of it, even though I knew I would be rear of field.

We were very fortunate with the weather – the days leading up to the race weekend were cold and wet, but Saturday turned out cool but fine and Sunday just beautiful with the sun shining down on Mallala and no wind, no flies and no rain. The Interstate competitors were very impressed. We had qualifying first thing Saturday morning, and things were going well for me until I forgot about cold tyres and cold track and went in too deep under brakes at the entry to the esses and after locking the front left wheel and much tyre smoke, ended up with the front wheels just inside the sand trap. This brought me much embarrassment as the session had to be halted whilst the recovery vehicle was activated to extract my GT6 from the beach. Notwithstanding this hiccough, I was pleased to have achieved P3 on the grid for the first race in MG’s & Invited British, behind Tom Hutchinson in pole and Rob Whitwell’s MGB GTV8 in P2.

As a competitor, the start of any race is exciting. I knew the importance of a good start, but just couldn’t get the GT6 off the line smoothly – lots of wheel spin and not much movement. Subsequently, I got swamped by several cars from behind and found myself in about 7th or 8th by the first corner. Bugger! I rounded up most of those that had passed me within a lap or two and had improved to 4th position with just a white MG midget in the distance. So I set off after him hoping to round him up by the end of the 5 lap race. This proved to be a forlorn hope, as I did it again – went in too deep under brakes into the esses and found the flat spot caused by the earlier mistake in qualifying, and spun  the car. Then the starter wouldn’t engage until the whole field had passed. More embarrassment! Arrggghhh! So I ended up last.

This meant that I was rear of field for Race 2 in the afternoon. I took Tom Hutchinson’s advice and exchanged my front tyres with the rears, hopefully to avoid that flat spot causing further pain. This proved to be good advice as the GT6 felt much better and I regained some confidence under brakes. I must say though that my starts for the whole weekend were poor.  Nevertheless, Race 2 gave me 6 laps to try to improve from my disaster in Race 1. And improve I did. What a hoot! Over 6 laps, I was able to progress from 27th on the grid to finish 10th – this was the most fun I have had on the track for some time – it is always feels much better when you are the one doing the overtaking, rather than being overtaken yourself.

Race 3 on Sunday morning therefore meant that I started from P10 with the potential to progress further up the ranks if I kept my cool. I got a poor start again, but started working through the cars in front until I was in 5th position and chasing down a quick MG ZR but to no avail, as I ran out of laps to rein him in. I was able to dispose of this ZR within the first lap of Race 4 however, and then had 9 more laps to see if I could catch the white MG Midget. But no, this didn’t prove possible as we were doing almost identical times. So 4th place wasn’t so bad and I went home very happy with my experience racing with the MG’s.

Tom Hutchinson remained at the front of the field all weekend, taking a couple of wins and two seconds, but letting the fastest MG win a couple as well. Tom says he doesn’t want to win all their races (which he probably could do!) as the MG boys might not invite him anymore.

The Sports Car races were another story altogether. Ian Wilson had entered his relatively new TVR Tuscan, painted up in Ian’s trademark tinter yellow, but with big black headlight covers that make it look just like a big wasp. And sting it does! This is a very impressive race car that Ian drives very well – on a set of old tyres that Ian wasn’t overly happy with, he scored a couple of second places in the Saturday races behind Keith Wong’s turbo GT3 Porsche racer, but kept Keith behind him on Sunday to score two very impressive wins and a best lap time of 1:11.44 – I can’t wait to see this thing perform when Ian gets it fully sorted!

Tom’s experience in the Sports Car category saw his TR8 place consistently 5th amongst quality opposition, but competing on a set of old tyres, Tom was happy with his results. My thanks to Tom for sharing garage space at Mallala – the GT6 didn’t look totally out of place alongside Tom’s TR8 although my spare wheels and tyres did look a little “toy-ish” against the huge things that Tom runs on his TR8.

My only downside is that I came home with a gearbox that once again will need to be repaired, given the drive train vibration that developed over the weekend, and the synchro’s on 2nd and 3rd gear seemingly not wanting to do their job. Still, it was a wonderful weekend and I came home Sunday evening with a big smile across my face.

It was good to see a few supporters from TSOA out and about at Mallala, including Rod Carey, Richard Sutherland, Arrand Ellery, Tony Case, Dave Wilson amongst others. Also Ian’s partner Jahmeil and 13 month old daughter Iyla came up on the Sunday for a look see. I am not embarrassed to say that Iyla seemed to rate the orange GT6 as her favourite, and looked so cute when she adopted her driving position.

Now, to pull everything apart and get to that gearbox . . . . .  Roger Lange

The ladies technical session at Cafe Buongiorno Mitcham on 10th August was well attended with lots of discussion about the up coming NSW Nationals and other things Triumph.   The next meeting will be Tuesday 12th October at the same venue and we hope to see you there.

The run on Sunday 15th August took us up to the South Australian Company Store in Angaston for either morning tea or an early lunch depending on your choice.  The weather could have been kinder as the wind was wicked but the rain generally held off.  There were not too many Triumphs present but it was an excellent run through the hills which are looking their best at the moment, and the coffee and food was very good at the destination.  Thanks to Greg and Lorraine for organising this successful morning run

The next Sunday run is being organised by Bill and Margie and is on Sunday 19th September meeting at 10.00am at Burnside Townhall carpark and heading to Tenafeate Winery at One Tree Hill.

Bob and John are organising a Technical meeting which will be held on Thursday 28th October meeting at 12.45pm at Performance Alloy Wheels 50 Kinkaid Avenue North Plympton.  Please let Bob or John know if you are intending to attend.

Sue Gibson

Kevin McEnroe’s tough looking TR3 – real wind in the hair motoring! Provided you have some left of course!

With our President Roger gallivanting around the world at this time, the task of the normal Presidents report falls to me as Vice-President.  So here goes!!

There was a TRremendous roll up at the July meeting and I wanted to think that it was because word had got around that I was running the meeting, but unfortunately for me the great roll up was actually due to membership renewal and Logbook update.

Just as a reminder…. for those of you with historic registration please be aware that your Logbook requires updating by 15th August or your rego becomes invalid / illegal after that date, for more details refer to the reports from Tom Long in the last few magazines.

As you are all probably aware, the August meeting is our AGM, which means that another year is over, and I think you will all agree it has been another very successful year.  We have had many great Sunday and midweek runs, some very special premium events like the Tony Esau Memorial Run, the Weekender and Day of Triumph, and we have also had our loyal contingent representing the club on the track.

Thanks must go to all of the office bearers and other members who have in any way contributed to the running of the club and its events for the last year.  Without this loyal band of very capable people the club would not be as successful as it is.

Our membership is growing and participation at events is strong, and there is healthy discussion by members of the club as they endeavour to enhance, improve and support the TSOA with its current and upcoming activities.

The challenge for the incoming and ongoing committees is to continue to grow, improve, develop and support the membership and activities for all sections of our membership.

Again, I reiterate that it is not too late to help mould the future of your club by nominating for a position on the committee, or to offer help with other supporting activities. Constant rotation of committee and other ancillary positions has the potential to introduce new and different ideas to add to the already successful and established formula to which we have become accustomed. Let me assure you that it is not a daunting task and it can be very rewarding.

On  a more personal note and although this is not normally a forum for recommending other organisations, I would like to suggest that members give consideration to RAA Premium membership if they are travelling long distances, particularly when driving Classic vehicles.  A short version of a recent personal experience which leads me to make this suggestion is as follows:

Travelling with my caravan to Queensland in the past few weeks, I stopped my car (not my TR) whilst we had a short break, when I went to re-commence my journey I found that the vehicle would not start again.  We were approximately half way between Wilcannia and Cobar, in other words, in the middle of nowhere!  I contacted the NRMA/RAA who sent the Cobar representative out with a Tray top truck and a Nissan 4WD to rescue us.  With approx. 12 man hours and a total of 680Km to get my vehicle and van back to Cobar I was a little worried about the cost, but as it turned out , the cost was nil out of my pocket. The local NRMA/RAA representatives were great and I was very grateful that we had upgraded our RAA membership.

From my experience, if you are travelling long distances, I think it is worth giving serious consideration to what the RAA has to offer.  By the way…….we now have a new starter motor.

The TSOA Nationals are in about 6 weeks and those going should be starting to work on their car to ensure a smooth and safe run to Kangaroo Valley in NSW and back.

On a sadder note, we pass on our condolences to Kevin and Sue Foster for the lost of Kevin’s father who passed away in recent weeks, our thoughts are with you both at this time.
That all for now…………. John Sampson