Anyone remember Fantastic Something? They were two Greek born
brothers that were based in the UK (no Wham! references please). In the early 80s they had a hit with If She Doesn't Smile (It'll Rain) on Cherry Red and then disappeared after a couple of other releases.
Here's the long forgotten video for their hit. It stars a TR3A plus some walk-on parts for a Mini, Triumph Herald, Ford Zodiac MK1 and a Ford Zodiac Lowline all very twee...The world has moved on a bit in the meantime. Thanks to @tracey_thorn for the reminder.
During a recent visit to the Ikon gallery in Birmingham I came across an art film featuring a Triumph TR4 and a very peculiar niche interest, Pedal Pumping. The artist Matias Faldbakken has an exhibition running until the 28 January. As they say...
'Untitled (Pedal Pumping) (2009, with Lars Brekke), one of a
number of video pieces in the exhibition, shows a girl’s flip-flop-clad
foot repeatedly depressing the accelerator pedal of a car. Having
uploaded it to YouTube, the video was quickly viewed thousands of
times, appealing particularly to the car-pedal-fetishist underground.
Faldbakken’s interest lies in transforming defnitions of what is normative and what is marginal, subcultural or rebellious, reducing the distance between them.'
I never knew there was a 'car-pedal-fetishist underground' it takes all sorts...I hope you enjoy it.
What a great idea for a day out this was…bring a group of cars along to a local rolling road, we were at Enginuity (the TR and TVR specialist), and run them through the rev range to see what they’ve got. Rolling road shootouts are a new thing to me but apparently they are quite common in the hot-hatch community. From this experience I’m sure they would go down well with the classic crowd just as well.
All you need to do is find a suitable and willing rolling road owner, and get the owners to run it, then gather a few like minded car club members with their cars. Each car is put through its paces and the results noted and collated, it's that easy. We had 23 TRs attending, there was a good mixture of engine types; fifteen six cylinder cars, seven early four cylinder cars plus a four cylinder TR7; all in various states of tune, and it was wonderful to see 4 VC in the four cylinder group. To add a little spice there was a sweep-stake organised to see who could guess their cars ‘at-the-wheels’ bhp most accurately.
I took my TR4 to get its MOT recently and was embarrassed to see that we had only done 50 miles in the last year so was hoping to stretch its legs, it can’t be a good thing for the car to get out so little. The MOT did result in a couple of new Avon CR6ZZ tyres and I needed a little excuse to run the stickers off.
The interesting thing about a shootout like this is that you are comparing cars under the same conditions. It’s very surprising how different the results can be when you take the same car on different rolling roads. Everyone seemed to think that the Enginuity rolling road was giving low results, which I’m sure is normal! Here's the range of results;
I’m please to say the 7455 KX managed to record the top bhp figure of all the club cars on the day with133 bhp. This was way down on previous sessions but in line with everyone's experience on this set-up. It was certainly good to see a 4 cylinder car coming out on top for a change, even though I’m sure some 6 cylinder cars were being conservative with their red line. It took the newly restored Enginuity project car to bring back the 6 cylinder pride! It managed a very health 142 bhp - it has a new cam profile that they have been working on recently and this was it's first time on the rolling road. They are hoping for more power in the future with some further development and tweaks.
The range of outputs was large with considerable overlap between 4 and 6 cylinders. Overall the average for the 6 cylinders came out on top if you include the Enginuity car.
Max
Min
Average
6 Cylinder
142
93
116
4 Cylinder
133
76
104
But, of course, just remember that a good flat, and wide, torque curve is the thing you want for a drivable road car not just maximum bhp. Here's the chart for 7455 KX, not too bad I think (click for a full view).
Many thanks to everyone at Enginuity for letting us us their facilities for free, providing refreshments, and running the day, and also to Mike North from TR Register North London Group for organising the day. Overall it was a great day out and certainly a very good excuse to get the TR out the garage for a little shakedown.
An old clip here that I just rediscovered. Recorded from 5th Gear a few years ago it shows a very high spec TR5 from Racetorations being given a once over...
It was the TR Register International meeting this weekend. There's not much to report on the car front. All the usual suspects were there with all the usual concourse shenanigans.
On the product front there was someone selling power steering for TR6s so now you can have servo brakes, an all hydraulic clutch and power steering. Why not just buy a MX5 instead?
A couple of cars caught my eye;
A TR5 dragster - that has got to be a one-off!
and a very neatly finished TR4 sprint car in white and black, very well put together.
There did seem to be a greater emphasis on competition cars which was encouraging and there seems to be a move to change next years venue for this event, I think that would be a good idea as it all is getting a bit samey...
We had an enjoyable few hours at the Alexandra Place Classic Car show last week. It's a small show and has been having a bit of an identity crisis recently. This year was enjoyable, not as busy as usual but all the non-car related stuff seems to have gone and there was quite relaxed atmosphere.
A couple of nice Mercedes for sale, a tidy manual 280SE 3.5 Coupe here for £35k (!) the highest asking price I've seen for one of these. It looks like the market have realised what great cars they are to own and use. Also a very straight looking 230S for £10k a strong price but a very nice looking car.
On the TR front there was a very big TR Register stand and some decent looking cars. Star of the stand was a Blue TR4a modelled on Jack Drew's blue TR4 before he wrote it off. A nice fast road car was the result, some pictures below...
It always leaves me asking when will London get a show to rival Retromobile or Techno Classica??
I was in Shoreditch at the weekend and came across the Banksy adorned GT6. It's been in the same place now for several years (map here). This is what it looked like when it first appeared (it had the drivers window wound down at one point).
Experimenting with Google maps! Here's a view of all the circuits that we've driven with the TR4 over a number years of taking part in the MSA EuroClassic event. No wonder it needed a new engine...
I've had many problems with after market parts in the past, this is a good example...The TR has an overdrive conversion to the later J type. This needs a special mounting for the rear of the box, these can be bought from you friendly TR parts man off the shelf. The only trouble is that after you've driven the car a bit this happens...
This isn't ideal! The first time you notice is when the prop-shaft starts drumming against the gearbox tunnel as you go into a corner. The only solution it seems is to make up a heavy duty replacement. Racetorations made this one up for me. It uses an engine mounting and some heavy duty plate. They did talk about making a few and seeing if anyone was interested, I'm not sure if they did that in the end, but it does seem to be holding up well.
MBZ Servicing - Schmitt Automobiles Robert Schmitt offers a all round service for the classic Mercedes last time in was there he had 5 3.5 coupes in his workshop...
Tippers licence plates Fantasic quality aluminium plates, why put up with plastic digits?
W111 parts W111 parts from German independent family firm.
Good Car Books
Arno Michael Haslinger: Heuer Chronographen Great book from Germany documenting all Heuer watches from the 60's and 70's with loads of great period pictures. Text in German and English.
Richard Meaden: Classic Motorsport Routes Great introduction to a whole load of historic motorsport routes (all on public roads) that you can drive today. Start planning...
