Where do you keep (at least?) 14 cars?


--
Dan D.



..
"Token" wrote in message news:mZQUb.107230$U%5.552289@attbi_s03...

"Jim Weir" wrote in message
...
My lady has just informed me that she would consider a complementary
Triumph TR3
to our classic '58 Cessna 182 a good idea. She's willing to cash in her
old
Chevy on the Triumph...oil leaks and all...for a TR-3 of that era.

Anybody got a lead on one of those old rascals?

Jim


Woooo weeee.....lots of negativity here concerning British cars...lol Some
of it is tongue in check, some is not. Take the negative with a grain of
salt, and consider that most of the problems stated have indeed happened,
but far less frequently than one is lead to believe.

I currently own a few British cars, most of them Triumph. The short list of
road worthy (although not necessarily on the road at this time): 3 1962
Triumph TR-4's, one silver, one red, one blue, one each of the following,
1962, 1965, 1967, 1973, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 Triumph Spitfires, stretching
the roadworthy bit on the 1965 a little. Other than that is a couple Jags,
only one is road worthy at this time, 1958 Jag Mk IX Saloon.

The carbs on these things should not be anything like the flaky nature
people are presenting here. I normally adjust on any given vehicle roughly
twice a year, at the major seasonal changes. Plugs do seem to get eaten up
pretty rapidly, with replacement in the 6000 mile range not uncommon. My
Powder Blue 1962 TR-4 has given me something over 130,000 trouble free miles
(no telling how many miles it had on it when I got the car) in the past 7
years with only normal maintenance, leaving me stranded on the side of the
road one time, bad points. The points had been telling me for weeks (hard
starts, rough idle) that I needed to replace them, I kept thinking "next
weekend". I converted it to electronic ignition right after that, since it
was my daily driver, and never had another issue. The carbs do get rebuilt
every three years or so, takes maybe two hours tops.

If you do get a TR-3, do yourself a big favor and make sure to get one with
overdrive. Without OD the car is a bit too "buzy" at highway speeds, and it
really is not fun on longer (say more than 30 minutes) runs. The OD turns
it into a very different ride.

Someone else mentioned Hemmings, that is a good source, but be prepared to
spend a bit more, most people who list there expect the car to fall in the
book value ranges. I have had good luck with things like
www.traderonline.com and www.autotrader.com and local swap sheets /
classified adds. Most of my cars were located within about 75 miles of my
house.

Someone else put the link of www.vtr.org up, there is some good info on
there concerning buying these cars and what to look for. Specifically
http://www.vtr.org/TR3/index.html is a place to start, with
http://www.vtr.org/buyers-guide/index.html being something to read also.

T!

Triumph_TR4 (at) hotmail (dot) com