Triumph Sports Owners Association Victoria

TSOAvictoria

The Triumph Sports Owners Association, South Australia hosted the National Rallye in Sep 2001. Participants from 5 states travelled up to 1400 miles (plus 1400 back!) to attend the events. Here is Andy Ansell's experience.

A week before this year's Nationals, I went for a run with the Central Victorian Triumph Tourers, and found that the gearbox suddenly started to fall out of third gear. So three days before we were to go, I decided to pull out the gearbox and repair it, which was an easy fix really, once I had the box out. It turned out to be the thrust washers on the main shaft. So with the car back together, and a quick wash all over, we were away, with the car going extremely well; smooth, economical and sounding well.

We decided to stop overnight a Nhill, as we got away from Bendigo late. As a small child, I could remember that there were always roadworks in the area. Umpteen years later, this trip was no exception, except for the fact that a hideous great water tanker was waiting for us, and as we drove up, he not only settled the dust, but turned the road into a quagmire. Fortunately, we did manage to come out of the other end without getting bogged, however so much for a clean car. It was now putrid.

We were up early the next morning, and after a walk around town, a light breakfast, and a quick check of the Spitty, we were off again. After negotiating some more road works in Nhill, we decided to have a look at the historic railway station at Serviceton, just off the highway. Following a quick stickybeak at the railway station, we took a delightful back road to Bordertown, with the car still going brilliantly. With the new state, we had a new driver, in the form of my wife Anne, allowing me to kick back and enjoy the countryside. The Spitty was faultless, running smoothly, so well in fact, that we were discussing where our next stop would be, as our fuel consumption was so good (40 mpg at 100 kph) (where would we be without Optimax?), it left us with quite a few options.

Without warning, 20 kilometres out of Tailem Bend, Anne found that the car was losing power. As soon as I listened to the motor, I knew what had happened. This motor had seized pistons before, for no apparent reason and without warning, and it was one of these moments again. I can remember staying fairly calm, using mildly harsh words only once or twice. This left us with the dilemma of whether to potter along to Adelaide on 3 cylinders, or to go all the way back home and jump into the Mk III, the resulting decision being to continue on. I jumped back behind the wheel, and nursed the thing along, and as we were caught at traffic lights in Murray Bridge, the heavens opened up, and as you can probably guess, the roof was down, and both us and the interior received a surprise shower. Fortunately, the rain was only on and off for the rest of the day, and the missing, clanging and vibrating that had cursed us from outside Tailem Bend diminished some as the rings started to free up.

After a tedious journey, we finally arrived at the Novatel. We found that their entrance road less than perfect, so we added to our mud collection a little more, but at this point we were not really concerned about our mud stockpile. Our accommodation was terrific, and the SA TSOA had everything well organised, including a food parcel.

The next day greeted us with perfect weather, a great backdrop for the high standard of cars at Concours at Birdwood. Because the S.A. Concours was mixed in with the National Concours it was a bit difficult to distinguish who belonged to what, but I guess it didn't matter. A geat day anyway with Melanie taking out the Spitfire/GT6 class.

Collingrove was on the following day, which I was looking forward to greatly, and even contemplated risking a complete blow-up just to go up there. As it happened, it rained yet again, and I went as a spectator in a new and exciting Triumph model - a rental Corolla.

Once we outstayed our welcome at the Novatel, it was up to ourselves to organise on our own accommodation. Anne and I settled on Glenelg, which was the best thing we could have done, as we could park our laid-up Spitty under cover, as well as the MX5 we hired for the rest of the rally.

The next day was at Mallala, where I was lucky enough to be given the job of assisting on the start/finish line, being able to enjoy both the perfect weather and great racing. The GT6 of Bob Anderson being the most impressive - it is an absolute rocket ship! Apart from the entertainment of the car racing, the only real exciting moment was a Vitesse heading toward us at the start/finish line at about 60 mph in reverse, obviously com-pletely out of control. It was a little hairy at the time, but the outcome was ok.

Our next day was spent visiting the relations and touring around, so nothing exciting to report there!

McLaren Vale was the last major run with the rally. It was run over some magnificent roads, with car and driver swapping, ending up at a magnificent winery for lunch.

The following morning, I gave back the MX5, and quite frankly, not sorry to see it go, Anne thought it was ok, however I thought it was unnecessarily difficult to drive smoothly. That evening was the presentation at the Lakes Resort. It was a great evening, with great company, and some great speeches, but Mike Bindon undoubtedly stole the show. His rendition of a limerick sung to the Melbourne Football Club theme song will, without a doubt, stick in my mind for a very long time.

For our last morning, we had to get up early and make the decision to either leave early to get home in the sick Spitty, or to go to the breakfast that has been organised. We reluctantly decided to leave early, due to a cold front pushing some storms through our route from Adelaide to home. Using only half throttle to save the motor, we crept through the Lofty Ranges in third gear, keeping the revs to 3500, where the motor seemed happiest. It was a relief to get to the top of the ranges and into top gear. By the time we got to Tailem Bend, the change was starting to catch us, so a quick refuel and check under the bonnet and we were off again. John and Carol passed us in their TR8 somewhere before Keith. Still only using half throttle the motor would wind up to 4000 rpm. With the help of a strong tail wind we arrived at Nhill by about 11.30 am (Vic. time). You will all be pleased to know that the Nhill roadworks were still continuing, but we found dust instead of mud this time.

Stopping at Kaniva for lunch, John and Carol passed us again, then through to Horsham which was completely uneventful. After stopping at Horsham and topping up with Optimax we headed off again and the day was get-ting very hot, windy and the sky behind us was very black. The noises coming out of the motor were now quite alarming, but the miss had gone completely, so the rings had started to seal again. From Horsham we turned off the highway and headed towards St. Arnaud. Nearly out of St Arnaud, Roger Mannett rang to see if we were still motoring and to let us know that there was a storm coming, as they had got caught at Bordertown around about midday. We stopped at St Arnaud to take another layer of clothes off, the motor was still running cool.

We were now on the last leg towards home with a force 9 gale blowing us along. We ended up reaching home 10 minutes before the storm hit, lightning to the ground, thunder all around and very heavy rain.we were home at last 5.00 pm

A great big thanks to all those who kept a look out for us on the way home with tow ropes at the ready. The volunteer tow vehicles included a TR8, Spitfire and Stag (yes, a Stag). And as for the Spitty, the girls parked the car the night we got home, and I haven't looked at it since ...

Yours in Spittys (both those mechanically sound and not so sound)

Andy, CH2465

TSOA NATIONAL RALLYE 2001

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SPITFIRE TIPS

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TRIUMPHANT

RECOLLECTIONS

NATIONAL RALLYE 2001)

OTWAY CLASSIC 1997

SURREY TASMANIA 1997