Interesting postcript to Stoneleigh!

I had wondered why we had had a noticeable welcome increase in business from Ireland over the past couple of years (particularly Southern Ireland). Someone explained to Karl at the show that the reason is simple. Some years ago as a result of some wacky probably EEC funded scheme a bounty was placed on all old cars of approximately £150 in an attempt to clear the country of this 'environmental' problem. As a consequence all old cars (classic or not) were traded in for this bounty and crushed! As a result there are no old car parts, or project cars, to be had over there. Is this true? If so god forbid it ever happens here, imagine!

Did you go to Stoneleigh?

We did and very good it was to! Still one of the best Triumph show's in the calender. The public obviously think so to as they continue to attend in reasurringly large numbers unlike some other shows which seem to be going backwards. Got to chew the cud with some old aquaintance's from the trade and compare notes about what's happening out there. I was chatting to an old face from Rimmers when an overpowering sence of dejavu came over me, it's only at times like this that you realise how long we have all been doing this. Not bad for a car manufacturer that has been out of production for over 20 years, and cars that had a life expectancy of less than 10, there must be something special about these Triumph's! The consensus amongst the major traders seems to be that as a trade we will all be attending far fewer (cherry picking) Triumph events. Most shows are percieved as being purely a PR exersise from the larger traders (apart from Stoneleigh which continues to be a money spinner). Unfortunately for the smaller club shows this PR is seen as poor value for money as against other mediums, so attendance by the hard core traders is set to continue to dwindle. One show in particular this coming year was highlighted by several traders as being likely to suffer from poor attendance by potential customers (and as a consequence traders), part of a year on year noticable decline. It's a shame but the market moves on, fashions change, and we all find other things to do with our summer weekends and our Triumphs.

Alloy Cylinder Heads

Some early questions regarding our alloy cylinder head revelation need answering.

"What's the weight saving?"

In simple terms an aluminium equivelant to a cast iron head (bare) is a third of the weight. This holds true for any like for like aluminium replacement anywhere in the engine bay, water pump housing, water pump, etc. A worthwhile weight lose you will agree. Allthough our head's will be outwardly similar to the original cast iron ones we are taking advantage of this opportunity to improve them in several respects, in ways that aren't possible with the original iron head. This however will not affect that simple weight saving equation.

"Any performance & economy improvements as a result?"

See above. We have looked long and hard at where things could be improved as a result of starting from scratch with new patterns. We have sought extra advice from respected Triumph head modifyers of standing. We have not undertaken this process lightly bearing in mind the costs incured that would be foolhardy. Several interesting inherent weakness's came to light in the original head as a result of sectioning and sampling original cast iron heads, hopefully now removed for good.
By far the greatest improvements will be for the 2ltr Vitesse and GT6, simply removing all of that weight from ahead of the front axle will bring huge benefits in handling if nothing else!

" What models will your heads fit?"

Allthough we see our biggest potential market amongst the TR6 boys, we intend to have heads to suit every application on the shelf as soon as feasable. The first off head will be fitted to a 2.5 engine in the next couple of weeks, full production follows after that has been extensively tested.

A Typical Tuesday?

Craig (our web bloke) tells me this is supposed to be a daily diary of the going's on at CC, so here is what happened yesterday (Tuesday). Out of the house at 5.45am as usual, fire up the current mode of transport our 13/60 Estate 'hack', and hit the road. Thought I might wash the screen as I venture out into the empty dark country roads, pump the washer and nothing, empty water bottle or blocked valve on the end of the pipe? Could be either, or the hand pump thing itself, never mind add it to the 'to do list'. The 'to do list' has now grown to a non operational speedo, a fuel gauge that lies, a heater that dosn't (heat!), and a crank on the very margin of life. It takes forever for the oil light to go out in the morning, and if you drive much above 60mph (I'm guessing here because the speedo has packed up as mentioned above)the noise of the crank growling swamps the puny output from the radio of the dulcit tones of JK and Joel (or whatever) on Radio1!
Anyway safely ensconsed in the office, and a nice brew in my mitt, I start to run the reports ready to do some purchasing, only the printer ribbon has run out, and I can't find another. Never mind I can use the puters and printers in despatch, whilst answering a few emails in the nice warm office (it's cold in despatch as the heaters aren't due to come on till 7am). A couple of quite hours later it's time to exit the office sharpish as the other workers turn up, and I'm in the way. I have marked my territory though with a couple of carefully placed coffee mugs, and a bin full of discarded reports, oh and Iv'e managed to spend X £ thousands whilst they have all been tucked up with their teddies.
I wonder over to the workshop and talk with Karl about the forthcoming day, or I talk and he cough's like a horse that smokes 60 a day (he has a cold, he dosn't smoke!).
We load up the Herald with wheels and tyres that need swapping over in Coventry whils't I do the rounds with the suppliers. It's amazing what you can get in the back of an estate, 8 wheels with tyres, 5 tyres on there own, and one other loose wheel! Drop the wheel's off at the tyre people, after having 3 of the tyre taken off, and take them and the loose wheel round to the blasters, leaving the rest to collect later. After the blasters I pop round to my mate the pattern maker to see how the alloy head patterns are doing. What a skilled chap he is, they are nearly finished and they are a thing of beauty. He tells me that if all go's to plan he should have set up the core box's by mid week next week and we should have our first casting to display at Stoneleigh.
On the way back to work I pop into our local MOT station, they managed to transpose some of the digits in the Herald's registration at the last MOT, the woman at the post office noticed this and wouldn't issue a tax disc. All sorted with one of the new style print out MOT's I pop round to the PO and get the road rent disc.
When I finally get back its mid afternoon, just time to finish off that 13/60 engine that's on a sales order before heading off home.
Dull ain't it!