VTR National Convention and
North American Challenge XIV
July 26-30, 1989
Albany, New York
The Great Spifire Giveaway
by Andrew Mace
Reprinted from The Vintage Triumph , Number 44
Each year at the VTR convention / North American Triumph Challenge, there seems to be at least one scheduled (or unscheduled) event or happenstance that lingers fondly in one's memory long after the event is history. For me in Long Island (1983), it was the awe of my first VTR convention. In Detroit (1984), I took my first two trophies from the North American Triumph Challenge. Chicago (1985) featured the sight of both a TRS LeMans race car and a Dolomite saloon, among others. Greensburg, PA (1986) saw, if nothing else, one of the best picnics ever hosted by anyone (thanks to Runyan & Co.). Gainesville, GA (1987) saw the dual attraction of track time at Road Atlanta and attendance at the convention by one Ken Richardson, who now makes this an annual trek.
We felt it wouldn't hurt to have some sort of "hook" for NATC 14 . However, we reallly couldn't control who would bring what cars, we couldn't even dream of hosting a picnic on such a scale as the one in Armagh, and the closest track is about 75 miles from Albany (if you don't count dirt ovals!) What could we do to make our convention even more memorable?
Shucks, folks, let's give away a car! Heck, Rick and I had all these Spitfire 1500s just sitting around waiting (for us to find the time to nurse them and, therefore, our bank accounts back to life). Why not sell one to the club and get (con?) the members into doing what was necessary to get it running and looking like a Spitfire ought to run and look? (Sort of the old Mickey Rooney / Judy Garland "let's get the kids together and put on a show!" philosophy.) Why not, indeed!
Finding the car and talking the members into the idea was surprisingly easy. (Like we needed another way to occupy too much time for too many members already committed to too many other aspects of convention planning, not to mention little things like jobs, family, etc.) What followed in the 9-10 months after we made the committment was not always quite so easy, but it was worth the effort -- not only in the end product, but in the way it, along with the rest of the convention planning, helped pull together dozens of members of ATA.
As in any restoration or rebuild, things got worse before they got better. There were -- as one might expect from a 14-year-old, once-daily-driven-and-always-neglected car probably serviced at least once, at the local Agway farm store -- broken bits, missing parts, sins of commission hiding sins of omission, mediocre paint hiding the rest, etc. Thanks, though, to the help of over 30 members and friends of the club, some of whose generosity, devotion, and/or incredible talent in various aspects of the repair was overwhelming, the car was ready (just!) in time to be driven into the hotel for display during the convention. Just as important, we came in fairly close to our original budget.
Would we do it again? Considering what we all learned about cars, about ourselves, and about each other -- yes. Next time, though, we'll look for a clean, original, low-mileage car, driven summers only, never driven in rain, or in traffic, or in sunlight, or never sat in, or...
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