Saturday, February 19, 2005

Fighting the law of Sod

Over the last couple of weeks I have been pretty much "marooned" out at the gold mine whilst Del my lovely wife has been running in the "new" 2000.
Now this car was the meant to be the last word in Triumph super-dependability ie. no overheating and good air-con on the hottest day of summer. In other words the perfect excuse not to have to buy my wife a new bloody car which would just not be right in my Triumph biased world!!!
However the last couple of weeks have also proved to be a bit of a heat wave and my credibility rating has dropped several big bloody notches!!
Her mustard coloured 2000/2500 hybrid now has a new engine, new radiator, 14" thermo fan + locked original viscous unit, BUT unfortunately a 45 minute stationary uphill traffic jam in 42deg heat (108F) did push the envelope a bit with a still tight engine with aircon full on and the waterpump burped about 1/2 a pint out of it's seal convincing Del the car had popped it's cork. Anyway after a 20min cool off the car drove home and I was heartily abused over a satellite phone to my room at the mine :-)
Now my efforts will be directed to an even heavier duty cooling system... I am amazed that modern cars don't fry when so much is under the hood + aircon... maybe a different approach is called for in the fan and radiator department

Monday, February 14, 2005

Where the obsession began...........


The car that started it all Mk1 2000 Estate 2 years old ....Wales 1971 Posted by Hello

Where the obsession began...........


Dad plus boys + favourite Triumph Posted by Hello


A full complement of Thompson boys + mum Crofton Beam engines 1976 Posted by Hello

This is how I remember Triumphs in my formative years.... A nice cheese and pickle sandwich, a couple of dogs scrounging for some extra lunch, sitting in the boot at some interesting ancient monument or key Victorian example of engineering (in this case the Crofton Beam engines on the K&A canal) Doug has his back to the camera.