What a TRiumphant weekender 40 plus members enjoyed on the 21st and 22nd of May in the Clare valley, lower Flinders rangers, Pt Pirie and Bute. There will be a report later in the magazine so I will not go into any details here, but it would be remiss of me not to give a huge vote of thanks to Margie and Bill for planning a pleasant scenic drive, interesting stops and a great evening on Saturday night, not to mention a BUTE day on Sunday. (sorry, I resisted but in the end I could not stop myself from saying it)

Some members went back to the motel early on Saturday night and missed an exciting new range of talent that was exposed to the population of Pt Pirie at the karaoke night held at the Broken Hill Club, I have had it on good authority that the talent scouts have been alerted and are waiting in the wings for next year’s weekender so they can see them and sign them up.

On a more serious note our club along with all other clubs associated with the Federation of Historic Motor Clubs have received advice from the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (DTEI) of impending proposed changes to the concessional Historic Registration scheme, which may impact on those vehicles registered under the scheme.

The proposed changes will be reported in more detail later in this magazine, and over the next couple of months we will pass on more details of the current scheme and include a copy of the “Code of Practice“ applicable to the scheme.

Briefly the proposed changes involve the deletion of the rolling 30 year date for historic vehicles and a retrospective final effective date of the 1st January 1979 introduced, as advised at our last general meeting.

We have sent a letter to DTEI and the Federation of Historic Motor Clubs expressing our concerns in relation to the introduction of the proposed retrospective date, and the significance of the 1981 date to the Triumph marque.
In a conversation I had with a representative of DTEI, I understand that any vehicles of 1979, 1980 and 1981 vintage that are currently registered on the scheme will be able to be on sold and the historic eligibility carried over to the new owner with the appropriate sign off and paperwork as would normally apply.

The second proposal is for a yearly sign off of each concession registered vehicle to ensure the integrity of the historic vehicles, and the alignment of the LHD concessional vehicles from the current date of 1974 to the 1979 proposed date.

It is my understanding that a range of concerns have been registered by various clubs and these will need to be worked through before the legislation is approved, and therefore it won’t be finalised until next year.

This time frame will allow us to discuss internally, plan what we have to do and how we implement the proposed revisions, but it looks as though we will have a couple of days set aside next year to conduct the yearly inspection.

We will keep you informed as the proposed revisions to the scheme are finalised.

At the last General meeting it was decided that the general meeting planned for October will be cancelled as it clashes with the National Rally.

I would like to remind members who have registered for the National rally in October that the next instalment of your entry fee is required by the end of May.

While we are on the subject of dates here are two important club events to put in your diary and plan to attend before other commitments in your activities are locked in.

The 2011 DAY OF TRIUMPH, Pride of Ownership and Concours Day at the TTG Civic park opposite the TTP to be held on Sunday the 11th of September.

The Annual club Christmas dinner and trophy presentation night at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club Seaton to be held on Saturday the 10th of December.

Look forward to catching up soon,

‘Til we meet again
John Sampson