A hard day's night

Now I know what Ringo meant - hard work on BRP when I should be relaxing at the weekend but it was worth it.

Must have been 5 hours work on the car today but I have completed a service and fitted the sumpguard and ducting I made for the radiator. Tomorrow ace tuner Steve will be working his magic on the carbs etc.

In addition I have swapped the wheels over so that I have Michelins back on for La Carrera and re- fitted the driver's competition seat. All of this isn't visible in the pics although she does look great.

And finally I have taken the alternator off my spares car to keep in the boot for La Carrera - no idea if it's OK but after the RBRR experience I might as well have the option of fitting it if I have trouble (or loaning it someone else).

Goodbye old friend

This is "my"Vitesse being loaded onto a trailer to go to it's new home.

It was my first Triumph and has given me lots of pleasure and experiences over the years. If it wasn't for this car I wouldn't have joined Club Triumph and made lots of new friends.

I have also done 2 Round Britain Runs in it and it has taken me to Germany and back for a trip round the Nurburgring.

Buying a TR7 tho and then re-awakening my rallying plans meant that the Vitesse has had to go.

Stuart, the guy that has bought it tho knows his Triumphs so I am sure it will be saved and I look forward to seeing it again in the years to come.


Meanwhile, back to the TR7 and those exhaust manifold bolts - patience has finally paid off as it is bolted up as it should be and there's no blowing by the manifold so it sounds much better. A quick run this morning was great although the dawdler in a Golf suddenly speeded up when I overtook her - 4500RPM in top was what I had to get up to to get past.

I have also replaced the "emergency" fan belt fitted on the RBRR and the next job will be a carb gasket which should result in much better running. I can then ask Steve to come back and set up the carbs again and look forward to more perfromance again.

Enjoying the TR7 with Sprint power will help me get over missing the Vitesse.

4 out 5 isn't good

The exhaust manifold gasket has been blowing so I replaced it this evening.

But, of course, only 4 out of 5 bolts will go in. An hour's fannying about is enough for one night so I have walked away in the hope that when I come back to this job it will go straight in.

I am worried it only wants to go in cross threaded though which is not a good plan.


In the meantime though it looks like it's goodbye to my Vitesse which I ahve owned for 12 years now - sad but it had to go. I have been finding all the spares out as well this evening so that it can all go on Saturday.

The car has taken me round Britain twice, round the Nurburging and on many other adventures as well as teaching me alot about patience etc - never seem to learn tho.

Sprint power at last

200 miles in BRP today down to the Triumph event at Crich tramway museum.

Keeping to a maximum 4500 revs the car was just fine - by 'eck it's got some go now.

Fettling is needed of course but La Carrera here we come.

I should point out I was in the company of messrs Flexney and Darbyshire all day, including joining them for a meal in a curry house in Morley to finish off.

Great day chaps, thanks for the bacon rolls, the cornish pastie and Old Speckled Hen at lunchtime was good too. Sounds like a gastronimic event doesn't it?

Still, the said gents got up to some antics on a tram and here is the evidence.

Flying the flag or hanging the banner for Club Triumph in Crich, Derbyshire not Vienna, Austria!

That's better - at least for now!

Ace tuner Steve has made a huge difference to BRP.

I did manage to get it running myself but Steve spotted that the advance/retard mechanism wasn't working so we swapped in a spare dizzy.

Then work on the carb jets and linkages and a short test drive proved the car is the best it's ever been.

Combined with me re-torqueing the head I feel much more confident about it all.

But - confidence will grow with more miles and lots of "tidying" done.

Crich tomorrow though - hopefully in BRP so see you at breckie Burnerboy!

That just sums it up

Fed up with the car not co-operating I said I would go down the pub as part of the "3 Amigos" team.

So, we arrived (without sombreros, ponchos and moustaches on this occasion) to find the quiz was off this week as the quizmaster was ill.


Yup - that just sums it up

It's at times like these ........

I have ordered a new exhaust manifold gasket and a timing disc so that I can cure the blowing from the exhaust manifold and be ready if necessary to "time the cam in" which sounds like another voyage of discovery for me.

I also noticed the vacuum pipe had come adrift so I put that back as after all, it certainly won't have been helping.

Having had a little time to reflect I have also re-torqued the cylinder head tonight after advice from friends on the Club Triumph forum.

I then confidently turned the key to fire the car up and, of course, it rewarded me by refusing to start! Now it won't run at all.

It is at times like these that the only sensible thing to do is to go to the local hostelry in my role as part of the "3 Amigos" pub quiz team and forget about TR7s for a while.