michalotti_tr
Jedi Knight
Offline
The other day someone here a BCF was asking how to find out their car's past history. Several people here gave good advice on trying to track it down, along with warnings that the 'trail' would probably go cold at some point.
I did the same with my TR4A, with only sketchy information on the original owner. Just by coincidence I received the following email from Fletch Veitch and just had to pass it along:
I know your SAH tuned TR4A - In fact I drove it the day I was married. The car belonged to my uncle, E. Crawford Morton and he purchased it new in England tuned by SAH. The car was not raced in England. Crawford never raced it, but he was a very fast and skilled driver who used all of the cars capabilities on those lovely New York Adirondack roads. He was a fanatic about car care, so if it was damaged or not maintained it was by someone other than him. When I say fanatic, I mean just that - you had to see it to believe it. My TR3 which I got from him when it was 7 years of age looked and drove like a new car. It was a real screamer, I had a stock TR4A-IRS and his ran circles around it. The SAH was what the TR4A should have been - My 3 ran circles around my TR4A-IRS untill I ripped out the polution control crap and rejetted the carbs properly. Milage went back up to 27-28 MPG from about 23. Performance greatly enhanced. He always loved performance cars and the Triumph string began with a Peerless GT, TR-3, Herald (side car) TR4A (SAH) and then a string of Mercedes. He worked for International Paper Co in Ticonderoga NY. He followed racing avidly, used to go to Europe to watch the GPs, and on one of these trips he picked the TR up, having ordered it prior to leaving. Original color was BRG, and it had Laycock OD. I do have some original photos of the vehicle, both exterior and under the hood. If you finish the beast and wish to sell it to someone who will care for it as it deserves, please let me know before putting it on the market.
Additionally if you know the whereabouts of a TR3-A S/N TS53537-LO or know how to see if it still exists, I would love to know where it is. That was my first TR, also owned by Crawford. I did autocross that one, and it was a world beater! The fastest damned TR I ever drove, and I have had 5.
Crawford also had Peerless GT (TR engined) and Herald 1200 (POS). His daughter Christine Morton Smith also had a Spitfire. A real TR family! <font color="blue"> </font>
I did the same with my TR4A, with only sketchy information on the original owner. Just by coincidence I received the following email from Fletch Veitch and just had to pass it along:
I know your SAH tuned TR4A - In fact I drove it the day I was married. The car belonged to my uncle, E. Crawford Morton and he purchased it new in England tuned by SAH. The car was not raced in England. Crawford never raced it, but he was a very fast and skilled driver who used all of the cars capabilities on those lovely New York Adirondack roads. He was a fanatic about car care, so if it was damaged or not maintained it was by someone other than him. When I say fanatic, I mean just that - you had to see it to believe it. My TR3 which I got from him when it was 7 years of age looked and drove like a new car. It was a real screamer, I had a stock TR4A-IRS and his ran circles around it. The SAH was what the TR4A should have been - My 3 ran circles around my TR4A-IRS untill I ripped out the polution control crap and rejetted the carbs properly. Milage went back up to 27-28 MPG from about 23. Performance greatly enhanced. He always loved performance cars and the Triumph string began with a Peerless GT, TR-3, Herald (side car) TR4A (SAH) and then a string of Mercedes. He worked for International Paper Co in Ticonderoga NY. He followed racing avidly, used to go to Europe to watch the GPs, and on one of these trips he picked the TR up, having ordered it prior to leaving. Original color was BRG, and it had Laycock OD. I do have some original photos of the vehicle, both exterior and under the hood. If you finish the beast and wish to sell it to someone who will care for it as it deserves, please let me know before putting it on the market.
Additionally if you know the whereabouts of a TR3-A S/N TS53537-LO or know how to see if it still exists, I would love to know where it is. That was my first TR, also owned by Crawford. I did autocross that one, and it was a world beater! The fastest damned TR I ever drove, and I have had 5.
Crawford also had Peerless GT (TR engined) and Herald 1200 (POS). His daughter Christine Morton Smith also had a Spitfire. A real TR family! <font color="blue"> </font>