TR2/3/3A My New Car!

[60TR3A]

This amazingly original car was in storage for 38 years before being brought back to life in 2006. Everything is original except one respray and new carpets. That's it. Everything else is not only original but in fantastic condition. The side curtains look new and unused. The interior is all original and in excellent condition. The colors are exactly as she was born with because nothing has changed and I promise, nothing will change on my watch. A car is only original once. You'll see what I mean if you watch the short video. I just bought it today and now have to arrange to import it from Canada all the way diagonally cross-country to Sanibel, Florida. I can't wait to see her!

 

[NutmegCT]

And a hearty congratulations on the victory!

Hopefully you've investigated the in's and out's of importing from Canada. Even tho' the transport company did all the paperwork, Ontario has strict rules on vintage machines (!) leaving the province. Hope you don't run into that brick wall.

Best wishes!
Tom M.
Connecticut

 

[charlie74]

Those are British Columbia Collector license plates so hopefully the export process will be painless.

Congratulations! That looks to be a beautiful car!

 

[60TR3A]

Indeed: it lives in Victoria, B.C. The seller restored about 10% of the world's 300SL Gullwing coupes and recently sold his business to Mercedes Classics. He has a large collection of Mercedes but also has a small British sports car collection. He found a Morgan he fell in love with that he's trading the TR3A for so technically I am buying this car from a Morgan dealer in California, but it lives with a very successful and very interesting car aficionado, restorer, and racer.

 

[BarryO]

What a beautiful looking TR3A , Congratulations!
You will love driving your new car on the island roads but avoid Periwinkle Way when it busy, it can be crazy slow. We have spent the last 6 winters on Sanibel ( missed this year unfortunately, boarder closed ) and have thought it would really fun to drive my car there. Maybe see you next winter if you go to the Sunday Cruise at Traders

 

[60TR3A]

I had a white '61 TR3A with red guts on Sanibel for a few years and people would ask if they could get their picture taken sitting in it! We don't spend January thru March on the island because we rent our house out as it is high season and we don't want to be there with all that traffic and crowds. The rest of the year it's pretty laid back and a nice place to relax so I'll go back and forth between my condo in Ft. Lauderdale and my house in Sanibel where I'll garage my car. I want to take her to as many shows as I can because she's quite a remarkable car so I may have to get a trailer hitch on y wife's Audi Q8 so I can trailer the car to Miami and Naples for car shows. It doesn't have overdrive so I really wouldn't want to drive o I-75 with everyone going 80+ and me puttering along. So, if the Sunday Cruise at Traders happens outside the months of Jan/Feb?Mar, I'll see you there!

 

[DavidApp]

That is a great looking TR3A

When you get it home I would be interested in a measurement on the grill slots width. The reason being I was having hot engine issues at one point and ran across an article that said original radiator grills had wider slots than later repro ones. The view in the video defiantly makes them look wider.
I made a tool to widen mine and it did make a bit of an improvement.

David

 

[60TR3A]

That is a great looking TR3A

When you get it home I would be interested in a measurement on the grill slots width. The reason being I was having hot engine issues at one point and ran across an article that said original radiator grills had wider slots than later repro ones. The view in the video defiantly makes them look wider.
I made a tool to widen mine and it did make a bit of an improvement.

David

I'll be happy to. But if I forget and you see me posting stuff about the car then feel free to remind me!

 

[Basil]

Wow! I say wow!!

 

[Graham H]

Yes that is a nice looking car, I also noticed the wide grill slots very original.

Graham

 

[60TR3A]

Here's a closeup of the grill. This is my third TR3 and I never noticed the size of the grill slots but looking at it now that it's been brought to my attention, I notice I can see more of the wheel wells and the radiator than I've ever noticed in the past so there is an obvious difference. That's good because this car is now officially a snowbird in that it spent its life in the Pacific Northwest and is retiring to sunny South Florida so the radiator will need all the airflow it can get!

 

[karls59tr]

I wonder how much the larger grill openings actually affect cooling? Would not the incoming air flow speed up behind the slots once it hits them rather than block the flow? Maybe someone with a knowledge of thermal dynamics could chime in here? The issue with the TR3 in regard to cooling is that the bumper and bodywork behind it block 30 percent of the rads cooling capacity not to mention the lost capacity from the crank handle hole in the rad. On TR3 race cars you can see the square or 4 hole cutouts in the body and the bumper removed for more airflow. Of course everybody dosn't want to do this as they are not happy with the stripped down look for street use. Adding "water wetter" and distilled water to the coolant in the correct proportions helped a lot in keeping my TR3 cool. I also added an electric fan on a toggle switch to use when I get stuck in traffic on a 100 degree day. The best thing you can do for cooling other than a modern rad is to replace the useless four blade stock fan with the yellow one from a TR6 or install the multi bladed fan Triumph made for the hot countries.
And that is one fine looking TR3A.

 

[Geo Hahn]

Here is a comparison (same car different grilles) of the repro and original grilles:

Difference is especially noticeable in the corners.

Air flow does matter... for one TRA meet-up Bob Schaller drove his TR3A pulling a TRailer from Phoenix to Ohio. Somewhere in Texas he hacked a hole in the grille to get enough air & cooling to make it through the heat.

 

[DavidApp]

When I was working on the grill I calculated that the difference in slot width could be as much as 20%. At least that is the number I remember.

David

Modified grill. I did not do the slots next to the crank handle hole.

 

[Basil]

Hmm..is it just me? I can; only see about the first 1/5th of that picture, David.

 

[60TR3A]

I am able to see the entire Triumph name plus 4 or so inches on either side.
There's definitely a considerable difference in the openings so 20% seems about right.

 

[DavidApp]

The file is 307 KB.
Should I reduce them more as the new site seems to handle photos slightly differently?

David