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Longest TR trip?

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Bought my 75 TR6 in Seattle WA in 2005. It had 14,666 miles on the clock. My brother and I left Seattle on Saturday morning. Headed to the west coast of Oregon and California. After a couple of days along the coast we headed across Californis on the best road I've ever driven to Redding. From there went south. Headed east through AZ, NM, OK ?, TX.... Arkansas. Stopped in Memphis to see the Art of The Motor Cycle show. Then on home to Huntsville alabama. Arrived on Friday evening. 3330 miles. The only problem we encountered was in CA at an overlook on the Pacific Coast Hwy. The new rotor we installed ( to ensure reliability! ) cracked and the engine shut down. Initially we suspected a failure of the Pertronix we installed along with plugs, air filters, and rotor. After removing the Pertronix and replacing the points (gapped to the shade tree standard thickness of a dime) it still failed to fire. Went back to the original 30+ year old rotor and it fired up. Never missed a beat for the rest of the trip. I reinstalled the Pertronix when I got home and it's been running fine ever since. Closing in on 24K miles now.

The picture in my sig is from the cross country trip. Right rear tire at speed in the Southwest. Yea, we were on the original tires.

BOBH
 
In 1962, I drove my 1958 TR3A from Tucson, Arizona, to Chicago, then to
upstate New York, then down to Virginia, and then back to Tucson, with many side trips. Total mileage was somewhere in the 7000 to 8000 mile range.

The only problem I had was a problem that "came with the car." I bought it used, and the ring gear had some teeth missing. Which mean that whenever went to start the car, I had to use the crank to position the ring gear where the starter would engate the remaining undamaged teeth. I had the ring gear replaced when I returned to Tucson.

And... oh yes... in those days the car overheated easily. I now have an aluminum radiator, a better fan, and an electric fan. No more overheating.
 
As a teenager in the mid-seventies, I used a '69 GT6 for a daily driver. That car endured several "roadtrips". a few of the "shorter" ones include Albany to Philadelphia(concert) Albany to Plattsburgh(st. patty's day) Albany to Watkins Glen(more than once for the races[parties]), almost lost the car in the BOG once...
Longer trips include one to Virginia Beach and 2 roundtrips to Miami.

the car was mostly reliable(i'm sure 35+ yrs clouds my memory)
But I do remember breaking a u-joint in Plattsburgh, and returning from somewhere with NO second gear AT ALL. Oh, and the rearend was replaced after returning from Florida the second time.
 
Downingtown, PA to Watkins Glenn, NY and return - total of 522 miles, in the TR250. There I met Banjo, Two Sheds (RIP), Randy (TR4nut), Kas Kasner and many others. :yesnod:
 
Two times in the TR4a and twice in the AH100, Lincoln NE to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Road America, to see the vintage races (Edit: about 600 miles each way). Wonderful experience, both the drive and the race, the 4A made it fine both times with nary a hiccup except one flat tire (loose spokes), and was a fine touring car, the choppy ride smoothed out on the highway, and the O/D kept the revs down and MPG up, I got 30 mpg on one leg of the trip in the 4A, usual was more like 27-28.

Also found some original Triumph seatbelts when my brother's TR3 lost a wheel bearing outside of Dubuque, IA, and a helpful motorist told us about a shop that worked on "those little cars just up the road" Turned out to be a loosely run shop/hangout run by some biker looking dudes, lucky for us because a regular shop would have been closed at 8:0 PM on Friday night. I had been searching Triumph boneyards for Triumph emblem seatbelts for a year or two (long before the net and E-bay), so my brother's misfortune with the TR3 was to my benefit.
 
Longest trip in 64 tr4 was nj to fl.and back in 1970.Well almost back.Crank journal delaminated after weld repair and had to tow home from N.C.
But the most memorable was 3 hour trip in tr3a in 1969 ,just after I turned 18,to a music festival in Woodstock,NY.
Memorable because I had three friends as passengers tallest 6'4 in the rear passenger side ,and because when I got back to my car ,someone had stolen my taillight lenses. My rear seat friends found more comftorable rides home.
Made it all the way home with no hassles,until I got back to my little suburb,and the local law snagged me for a no rear light ticket.Ah the 60's
Tom
 
Sorry guys - Healey person here. Just want to add to the list cell phone. Taking a trip is not about the destination but all about the adventure. If you have a Triumph national club, such as our Healey club does, they put together a directory of all members. This might be true for Triumphs. It will act like a chain letter of friends who will always be there to help you should you have a problem.
 
I have a TR3A friend Malcolm Taylor who hitched a tent trailer to the back of his brown 3A about 10 years ago and went for a drive with his wife Brenda. From Southern Ontario, they drove to Vancouver to start a cross-Canada convoy-type fun Rally with all sorts of antique cars. When they arrived in Vancouver, they still had two weeks to kill before the start of the rally, so they drove down to San Diago and then back to Vancouver.

On the rally convoy, they drove all across Canada to Newfoundland on the Atlantic coast - to the upper tip where the Vikings had set up a village about 500 years before Chistopher Columbus "discovered" North America.

They stopped in at my house near Montreal on their way back home to Southern Ontario. I seem to remember the total trip was about 17,000 miles over 6 or 8 weeks.
 
Well as I mentioned earlier, my longest trip was going to be this last weekend, about a 2 hour drive. The weather did hold out and the trip was great. Driving it in the parade was fun too. The trip back although was not so good, about 15 min into the trip my fan/generator belt broke. Unfortunately that was the one thing I didn't have in the boot...i know silly, and it was 9 o'clock at night on a country road. No hope of getting one at an auto store :p I ended up waiting 2 hours for a tow truck and had to leave it in my mother in laws garage. Well lessened learned to keep a spare belt.
 
Sorry that happened, Anthony, but couldn't help dragging this up once again:

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I drove my 8 from Pittsburgh to Huntington WV (Marshall University) to VMI (Lexington VA) back to Pittsburgh in three days, totally just over 1,600 mile. I drove in the day because my headlights were not, let's say, fully functioning.
 
Too many to mention just one.
Most enjoyable was in 2006,a loop thru Canada to the Bruce Peninsula a ferry ride across Georgian Bay, west over the top of Lake Huron into Michigan, across the top of Lake Michigan to Road America for the July Vintage Races, back through Chicago to Ohio. Took a week, maybe 2500 miles and most days it was 85 to 90 degrees. Traveled with 3 others, oldest car was a 1958 TR3A and my 1966 TR4A was the newest car. The Sunday we returned was a forced march across the Indiana and Ohio Turnpikes at 80mph most of the time. All I know is not many cars passed us and we passed a lot of cars who's passengers could not believe these 4 LBC's were going as fast as they were.

It was hot but we had no real issues. I'd do it again with my traveling buddies.

Just back from a weeks back roads trip to the Mitty including the Tail of the Dragon and the Blue Ridge Parkway thru most of VA and NC.

WPTA folks drive our cars.
 
Mickey Richaud said:
Sorry that happened, Anthony, but couldn't help dragging this up once again:
Click to expand...

That did not work when the fan belt in my TR4A broke on the Interstate. Guess my wife (girlfriend then) didn't have the right kind of panty hose! :frown:

Scott
 
Don,

I hear ya! At the rate I'm going, I might as well plant flowers in it!
 
Someday I hope to drive my Spitfire from Upstate NY (where I live) to southern California and up the coast to Washington then back home. I've always wanted to do a cross country road trip ever since I started working on the car a few years back. But so far the longest trip has been to Geneva NY, I plan to change that this year with a trip to Rhode Island!
 
Longest trips. Drove my TR3B from Buffalo, NY to Charlotte NC. Caught a ride up Friday before Memorial Day. Saturday pulled the TR from winter storage, did a tune-up and left Sunday 6 am. A little over 600 miles in 11 hours.

The other lengthy trip was in the TVR 2500M (Triumph powered). Left Charlotte on Friday at noon for Watkins Glen to meet up with friends and take in the vintage races. Drove the track and around Seneca Lake. Left Sunday about noon and arrived back in Charlotte around 10 pm. That added about 1400 miles in 60 hours.
 
DNK said:
One side of the garage ,to the other...???
Click to expand...

Either you have a very large garage....or I am sad for you :smile:

I drove my 1980 TR7 Conv from Milwaukee, WI to my summer job in Long Beach CA back in the 1980's.....drove back to Milwaukee...then drove out there & back once again before finally driving it out there to stay....So 5 times? Does that count or is there a statute of limitations on the claim????

That car never left me stranded. But I took care of it and did not beat on it. My buddy's 1977 TR7 could barely make it across campus without warping the head :smile:

EDIT: Hey! Look what I found! Me and the brown 1980 TR7 somewhere in Wyoming many moons ago...I had hair!!!! :smile:

RST_TR7_1985.jpg
 
The last couple of years I've attended the Santa Fe Concorso with a friend who enters a few of his very nice British cars. Unlike the other cars in that show, he never trailers, always drives. His wife doesn't want him out there alone so I get to be the 'sag wagon'. 1200 miles spread over a few days with a fabulous show in the middle... does it get any better?

2010Concorso.jpg


2011Concorso.jpg


Actually it does. Every October there is a 1000 mile tour around the Southwest for old British cars. Roadtrips are grand but the best are the ones where you can surround yourself with other LBCs on rural 2-lane highways and be transported back about 50 years:

The Arizona Roadrunner
 
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