President’s Report – May 2014
Winter is now here, although I have to say that Autumn was much kinder weather for driving a Triumph than I’d normally expect. The weekender had great weather for a trip over to the Copper Coast region of Yorke Peninsula, and Mallala track days have not seen any rain as yet. Regardless of rain, cold or not, I still enjoy getting in my car and going on a Club run or to a Club event throughout winter. I believe it is good for my windscreen wipers which otherwise would seize up!
My TR7 will be having a short stint off the track as I undertake a gearbox removal to fix a 3rd gear synchro problem that resulted in my completing many laps of Mallala in 3rd gear only. I am certainly impressed by the way those 5 speed boxes can handle some hard labour behind not only the TR7 4 cyl, but the Rover V8. Of course, eventually something had to wear out or break, I do my best to ensure the longevity of the parts (too dear to replace them too often) but I surely take my hat off to the team at the Leyland Motor works back in the 70’s for developing and fitting a great gearbox. I still drove the TR7 home and took it on the weekender, occasionally forgetting to be at the right speed or revs to change into 3rd. Ouch….
I really love telling new people how my Spitfire gearbox has overdrive (albeit not currently working), again, another credit to someone from many years ago. Despite it’s lack of synchros, oil changes and age, it still lives on and manages to survive, as do so many parts fitted to these old triumphs. I have no fear in jumping into an old Triumph and driving it anywhere.
One thing that has not lasted as long though, is our Club’s constitution. Next year is our clubs 50th Birthday (Yay!) and the constitution was originally written in 1965, before TR7’s or Stag’s were even dreamt of. Despite an update since, it is now time again for an overhaul to accommodate the parts and pieces of our Club that we now all love and enjoy. The aims will be the same, of ensuring the Triumph marque lives on for many, many years to come, and that as a community we support anyone who loves Triumph cars and their passion for historic motoring but with some timely updates to ensure it is politically correct and reflects how we have historically seemed to operate to ensure that we look after the members and the marque, and how we believe we will need to operate over the coming years.
t is not an easy task, and thank you to Roger Lange for agreeing to take over as the Club’s Public Officer, and to Mike Temby for all the research and development he is putting into it. There is consultation with other groups and departments to be had but we expect to have a draft out to you all soon. Perhaps removing a gearbox is not that hard a task at all in comparison?
Duane Kaak