By Richard Truett

By now probably everyone is home safely from the VTR convention. It may be over, but it won’t be forgotten.

The Delaware Valley Triumph club raised the bar this year, putting on a first class event by any and every standard of measurement. More than 300 Triumphs turned out this year, making it the largest VTR since 1994. I saw tags from Colorado, California and a dozen other states.

The VTR convention could get even bigger next year in Detroit.

The planning for the Detroit show is still underway. I can’t speak for the organizers, but I do know that the Detroit Triumph Sports Car Club is loaded with motivated, dedicated people who are determined to make the 2008 show the best ever.

Because Detroit is centrally located, it’s possible that a large number of Canadian Triumph owners will attend. Detroit is just 4 hours or so from Toronto, which has a very large club. The Indiana, Ohio and Illinois clubs also could send a lot of cars.

While the 2008 VTR is still 12 months away, I am still thinking about this year’s event. This was my first VTR, and I have no excuse for that, since I have been a Triumph enthusiast since 1985. After attending this year’s VTR it occurred to me that a VTR isn’t just about the cars. It’s about the people. Making new friends and seeing old ones, sharing tech tips, talking about the cars we love, learning new things from people like Ted Schumaker and others.

I’ve always believed that Triumph owners are unique among the classic car crowd, friendly, willing to lend a part of a tool, share knowledge or pull over to help fix your car at a moment’s notice.

Meeting people like Joe Pawlak, Glenn Merrell, Tony Rhodes, Dave Hutchison, Graham Robson, Mike Cook, Obin Hamrick, Darrell Floyd and many others confirmed that for me.

And then there were the old friends I hadn’t seen in years. Back in the 1980s, I was a member of The Central Florida Triumph Register. Several members who I hadn’t seen in years came to Valley Forge.

Walking in the hotel lobby, I spotted Bill Lowery, who I can never forget. Sometime around 1987, Bill built a powerful Ford 351 (I think it was a 351) V-8 engine and dropped it into a pristine TR3. Now you might wonder why someone would do something like that to a TR3. Well, this was no backyard hatchet job. Bill, a pilot, carried out the conversion to the highest professional standards. I asked Bill for a ride shortly after he got the car running.

That was the first time, I think, I truly knew the definition of fear. You see, Bill had the engine in and sorted, but he hadn’t yet gotten around to upgrading the brakes.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, he turned down a deserted country lane in Orlando called Hanging Moss Road. He hammered the accelerator. Needless to say, the TR3 took off like the space shuttle. We were deep — and I do mean very deep — into the triple digits when the end of the road started coming up fast.

Bill stepped on the brakes. I could smell all sorts of things of burning, but the TR wasn’t slowing down very quickly. I know there was a look of concern on my face and I know that my knuckles were white from squeezing whatever I was holding onto. But the TR somehow slowed just enough to keep us out of danger.

Anyway, when I saw Bill at VTR, that moment came rushing back. He still has the car, and it is faster than ever. Now it has a Paxton supercharger, a Mopar rear end and other upgrades. It was just featured in Classic Motor Sports magazine.

Bill perfectly demonstrates the spirit of Triumph people I was talking about earlier. He took Blake Discher for a ride in his airplane so Blake could photograph VTR from the air.

The stable of cars at the big show on Friday was truly impressive. A white TR250 scored 398 points in the concours judging. And deserved it. Sue Snyder’s awesome 1973 GT6 again bagged “Best in Show” in People’s Choice voting. And deserved it. Joe Pawlak took home some hardware for his gorgeous blue 1973 Stag. And deserved it.

As for me and my car, I could not be happier with the Dolomite Sprint. I’ve had nearly 20 TRs, a Stag and a 2500 sedan. But the Sprint is the complete package, a car that does more things well than all other Triumphs I have driven.

I put 1,300 miles going to and from VTR. On the highway, the Sprint got 32 mpg in the mountains of Pennsylvania and an incredible 37 mpg on the flat roads of Ohio. It didn’t miss a beat the whole week. In a very tough “Special Interest” category, my car came in third, scoring 385 points out of 400. With a little work and not much money, I should be able to get it into the 390s for next year.

In the first blog, I wondered which car I should bring to VTR, my Dolomite Sprint or my TR7 Sprint. I know I made the right choice. A lot of veteran Triumph fans had never seen a Dolomite Sprint up close. I spent many hours answering questions about the car and especially the 16-valve engine that fits right into a TR7.

Next year at Detroit I won’t have the problem of deciding which car to bring. The 2008 VTR convention is just 35 miles down the road from where I live. I’m bringing both cars.

I will see you next year. Until then, you can reach me on e-mail at Rover827@aol.com

Clark Nicholls has a fantastic collection of digital images from this year’s VTR convention in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Check them out when you can at http://www.cwnicholls.net/vtr/.

He also has photos of several past conventions. It’s definitely worth having a look!

By Richard Truett

VALLEY FORGE, Penn. — Today was the day that many VTR attendees were waiting for.

Just down the road from the host hotel, members of The Delaware Valley Triumph club set up a huge autocross course in an empty parking lot. All day long you could hear the distinctive growl of 4-, 6-, and 8-cylinder Triumph engines as Spitfires, Stags and assorted TRs burned through the course.

It was hot out there, but that didn’t affect the enthusiasm. Watching the TR6s and Spitfires cutting corners and accelerating out of tight bends made me remember that our cars were built for more than just the usual daily driving chores. With a change of wheels and tires, it’s play time.

The highlight of the day had to be Dave Hutchinson, of Ragtops and Roadsters, driving the Triumph TRS LeMans car around the course. He wasn’t trying for speed, so he didn’t drive th ecar nearly as fast as it could go. It was more a demonstration. Hutchinson got a hearty round of applause for his efforts. That TRS sounds great, with a very nasty bark.

Hats off to Glenn Merrell for autocrossing his Rover-powered Stag. Another red Stag, from Texas, also autocrossed.

Since tomorrow, Friday, is the day of the big show, many attendees spent Thursday washing, waxing, polishing and buffing their cars. I did the same to the Dolomite Sprint. She looks pretty good, but I am in the Special Interest class and that’s like running up against a buzz saw. I’ll be competing against a nice prewar car, two Italias and some other weird and rare Triumphs. I don’t care if I win anything or not. It’s been a blast letting Triumph fans see a Dolomite Sprint up close. I have enjoyed answering questions about the car, too.

I’m going to be judging at the show. I attended a class taught by Triumph expert Darrell Floyd. Based on the cars I’ve seen in the parking lot, the competition is going to be tough in every class. The amount of money and effort spent on these Triumphs — by people who clearly have enough money to buy far more expensive and exotic cars — is nothing short of amazing.

Other stuff: I did a video interview with noted Triumph historian Graham Robson, who will give the keynote speech at the banquet Friday night. I asked Graham why nearly every model of Triumph ever built is now being collected and restored, even the sedans such as the 2000 and 2500 have found a home among the classics. He said it comes down to character.

Robson said Triumphs are loved so today because they are ruggedly honest in their design and construction and relatively easy to restore and maintain.

By the way, I asked which Triumph Robson would most like to own right now. He said a clean, low mileage TR8 convertible. Surprised? Don’t be. After more than three decades, the wedge is finally coming into its own as a collectible classic. With a few inexpensive modifications here and there to the brakes and suspension, the TR7 and TR8 are wonderful sports cars, comfortable, quick and fully able to cut it in the 21st century.

Anyway, VTR plans to post the entire Robson interview on its’ website in a few weeks. It will be the first in a series of video interviews with former employees of Triumph. Look for interviews with Mike Cook, Chris Holbrook and others. It’s an effort to make a collection of living archives from the people who were there. You will enjoy what Robson has to say.

The atmosphere in the parking lot is lively. And cars are still arriving. A blue right-hand drive Herald estate pulled into today, powered by a GT6 engine. It is an immaculate car, one of the best Triumphs I have ever seen. More TRs arrived, too.

There are some repairs going on. A dude in a TR4 changed a transmission! And he did it in a few hours working by himself. Let’s see the owner of any modern sports car do that.

Happy Endings: You may have read in the Vintage Triumph about Wayne Simpson’s recent accident in his TR8, a car he owned for many years. The car was totalled. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The wreck didn’t stop Wayne from coming to VTR this year. He rolled into the VTR convention Wednesday in a bright yellow 1980 TR7 convertible with just 8,000 original miles. The car looks new.

By Richard Truett

VALLEY FORGE, Penn. — Day two of the VTR convention started at 7:30 a.m. with me washing from the Dolomite Sprint a nifty collection of splattered bugs and other assorted road crud from Monday’s 620-mile drive from Detroit.

It ended 13 hours later with me laying under the car in the hotel parking lot with a coat hangar, wire cutters and pair of oversized pliers.

My mission: Do a quick, but effective repair of a broken rubber muffler hangar. Never in almost 25 years of Triumph motoring have I needed a coat hangar. That streak is over. But at least the Sprint’s muffler should stay put until I can fix it properly at home.

That minor annoyance aside, Day two was action-packed. Pat Barber, my friend from the Detroit Triumph Sports Car Club, did back-to-back rallies. Barber’s wife Tamara served as navigator for the first run, I rode shotgun on the second one.

Pat’s 1970 Spitfire was the subject of a very cool project not long ago. Pat invited a number of DTSC members and other knowledgeable Spitfire fanatics to his suburban Detroit home one weekend late last summer. Their mission was to build the Spitfire from a bare painted shell in 48 hours. And they did.

The car turned out so superb that Pat shipped it to England last fall and drove it in the Round Britain Reliability Run with friend Blake Discher.

So that’s the car we drove the Time/Speed/Distance Rally in today. Pat, an engineer who works for Ford Motor Co., doesn’t believe in treating his cars gently. He drove the Spitfire hard all day and the car ran superbly.

In other business: More Triumphs filtered in today. The parking lot has more than 325 Triumphs now. People are sitting outside in lawn chairs talking Triumph. It’s a great atmosphere.

I was little disappointed in the TR7 and TR8 showing earlier in the week, but a couple of nice TR8s came in today.

The vendor area is small, but there are plenty of great parts for sale. Ted Schumacher from TSI Imports out of Pandora, Ohio is, as usual, a popular guy. Ted knows about how to make TRs of all models handle better. His performance parts are first rate. I used them on my TR7 Sprint and they totally transformed the car.

The person whom I most looked forward to meet, Mike Cook, Triumph’s former PR man, is here. And he is absolutely wonderful to talk to. He worked for Triumph during the company’s best years in the USA. If you haven’t read his book, Triumph Cars in America, what are you waiting for? Every Triumph fan should have a copy.

More photos…

By Richard Truett

VALLEY FORGE, Penn. — Exactly one year ago today, I could be found in Coventry, England realizing a 25-year dream: To visit the place where Triumph cars were built.

The factory at Canley is long gone. In its place is large industrial park. In spending an afternoon walking around this large complex, I could see only three buildings with any connection to Triumph: A small ivy covered cottage near the train station with yellow sign over the gate that said “Triumph House,” a huge warehouse with UNIPART on the sign and the Triumph factory’s social and recreation club, still with the original sign over the doorway. It’s now a bingo hall, and there is not even a picture of a Triumph car on any of the walls.

There were other reminders of activities that took place on those grounds — hallowed grounds, to me — from 1923-1980, the years Triumph cars were built on the site. In front of a daycare center, there was the bright silver Standard-Triumph monument, and the streets were named after cars. There was Herald Avenue, Spitfire Close, Vanguard Way, Dolomite Avenue and others.

I stayed at a small bed-and breakfast not far from Canley. The proprietor, a youngish lady from a different part of England, asked why in the world would an American want to spend a week in Coventry. I explained that I collect and restore Triumph cars, which used to be built there. She probably thought I was a bit odd, but, she never let on.

In walking around the old Triumph grounds, it occurred to me that the thousands of employees who built our TRs and Spitfires, Stags and Heralds, likely had no idea they were doing anything special. They were just going to work and doing their jobs. They could not know that decades later, people in other parts of the world would give up weeks of their lives and drive hundreds of miles to convene in far away hotel parking lots to celebrate their work.

But that’s what we are doing here this week in Valley Forge. I look out at a parking lot and see nearly 300 Triumphs, some in pristine, concours condition, some daily drivers, and others pretty beat up. But they are all loved.

You can’t say that about 99 percent of all Toyotas ever built.

Here at the VTR are some of the most gorgeous TR6s I’ve ever seen, including a blue 1972 car with Lucas fuel injection. There’s a museum quality red TR5, left-hand drive, a stunning laurel green 1970 Spitfire, two mint condition Triumph Italias, two prewar Triumphs, a Gloria and a Southern Cross, a red Herald wagon, 20 Stags, a pair of race-prepared GT6s and numerous TR3s that look so clean they could have been transported through time directly from a 1960 showroom.

I listen to the Triumphs driving by and hear the unmistakable rasp of a TR6 or the rumble of a Triumph-powered Stag. I think of the dads and sons in their garages all over the U.K. and USA restoring their Triumphs. I see the enthusiasm of the people here at the VTR convention. Once again, I think of the workers who built our cars. They should be proud for building a brand of cars that move people in so many ways today.

The factory may be gone. The name may be owned and forever mothballed by BMW. And two generations of drivers may have never even heard of our cars. But that doesn’t matter.

As Triumph owners and enthusiasts, we are the custodians of the Triumph brand, not BMW. As long as we keep our cars running and use them and show them off, we honor the workers that built them, and, more importantly, Triumph lives.

By Richard Truett

VALLEY FORGE, Penn. — After a dozen hours and 620 miles, our small caravan of Triumphs pulled into the Sheraton Park Ridge here tired, happy and ready for what looks like an awesome VTR.

It was the night before festivities begin and already the parking lot had at least two dozen of the expected 291 registered cars. And there were some neat ones, too. Mr. Charles Runyan of The Roadster Factory kindly lent his Lemans TRS to be used as a display in the hotel lobby. How cool is that?

But wait…Before I get into those details. Let me talk for a few minutes about the drive from Detroit to Valley Forge.

All last week and over the weekend I treated both of my cars, a 1977 Dolomite Sprint and a 1981 TR7 Sprint to numerous reparations and preparations. I decided I wasn’t going to decide which car to take until a final test drive Sunday evening. It was not an easy choice.

Both cars are running perfectly and have zero mechanical or cosmetic issues. Both cars would stand out at any British car show. But in the end, Dolomite Sprint got the nod. Its uniqueness here in the USA and its awesome carrying capacity tipped the scales in its favor. And yet, driving through the curving roads in the mountains of Pennsylvania is perfect TR7 territory.

I met VTR president Blake Discher and his family at their home and then we drove to Patrick Barber’s house and got ready to go. The Barbers brought two of their cars, a restored 1970 Spitfire and a 1973 Stag. Blake drove his TR6 while his wife and young son kept an eye on us in a chase vehicle.

Except for one very minor issue, wherein we had to add some water to the overflow bottle in Pat’s Spitfire, all the cars breezed into Valley Forge.

Blake, Pat and I took a midnight tour of the parking lot to survey the early arrivals. There were several awesome Stags, a spotless green TR250, some terrific TR6s and a few very clean TR8s.

This is going to be a great VTR. If you can’t make, just check here everyday, I will keep you filled in.

By Richard Truett

DETROIT — With a week to go before my first ever VTR, I’m still not 100 percent certain which car I will take on the 550-mile trek from Detroit to Valley Forge.

Last night, I drove both my 1981 TR7 Sprint convertible and my 1977 Dolomite Sprint. Both are running perfectly. Both are completely restored and should be competitive in their classes.

And both are likely to be the only ones at VTR.

I wish I could take them both.

Likely, I will make the trip in the Dolomite Sprint. The car is amazing on the road. In overdrive 4^th, fuel economy is around 32 mpg…not bad for a car using carburetors and a distributor. Some modern 2-liter cars don’t even do that well. The Sprint’s suspension and interior room are also likely to take less of a toll on my 46-year old body.

The Sprint, in Leyland white with a black cloth interior, was restored in England in the 1990s. After some minor mechanical refurbishment on my part over the last two years, the car is close to showroom condition. The Dolomite Sprint is rare sight here in the States. I bet a lot of Triumph fans at Valley Forge would like to see a Dolomite Sprint up close.

But then I’ve just finished the restoration on my silverleaf TR7. Not only did that include an engine bay respray, but also a new Sprint engine cranking out about 180-horsepower.

The car has about 700 break-in miles and all the kinks are worked out. I’m dying to show off the car. With its upgraded suspension and brakes and rev-happy 16-valve engine, it’s proof that the TR7 would have been a world beater, if only British Leyland would have used the performance hardware already in the corporate parts bin.

So, with a week to go, I am weighing the pros and cons of each car. I love the idea of hitting the road in a Triumph two-seater, top down and radio blasting. But there will be a bunch of TR7s and TR8s at Valley Forge. My car might just get lost in the crowd.

That makes me think that it should be the Dolomite Sprint that goes to Valley Forge. But Triumph sedans were never popular in the USA.

Decisions…decisions…

Got any suggestions or comments? Leave them here and I will check them out.

This is a test post of the blog for the NATC in Valley Forge, PA. Richard Truett has volunteered to make periodic updates throughout the convention. If you would like to be able to post comments about your convention experiences, please send an email to bdischer@vtr.org.