Hi Guest!
but were afraid to ask: 
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Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Apparently I’ve been a “lurking” member since 2009 (shy :rolleye
, but Basil has recently suggested I introduce myself. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts, and have been addicted to cars for as long as I can remember.
My intro to British cars was my friend’s mother’s Jag MK 2 when I was about 7. I can still remember the aroma and feel of leather the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] time I rode in the back seat. Then there was my soon-to-be brother-in-law’s MG Magnette—again, all that leather and polished wood. Too bad the thing never ran!
The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] British car of my own was a TR3 that was missing all sheet metal forward the bonnet, as well as reverse gear. My friend, the previous owner, had put Goodyear Blue Streak race tires on it, and it stuck so well he promptly broke the rear body-chassis mounts, as well as MANY spokes on several wheels. When he got fed up with sinking gobs of $ into it, and begging me to help him fix yet another problem, he gave the car to me. Being a poor college student, I drove it just a short time before passing it on to a gearhead friend, who drove it for years.
Soon I bought myself a MK 3 Spitfire that had been torched, and spent months rebuilding it. I drove that on the street till I got thru college and found a job, and had enough $ to go racing. Took it apart again and built it to SCCA F-Production spec, and raced it for several years in EMRA, mostly at Bridgehampton (what a great track that was!), Long Island, and Bryar Park, New Hampshire. My rule was I had to do all the race prep work myself, so the car was never as fast as the professionally prepared cars out there, but it almost never broke, so through attrition (of other cars) I often captured 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] or 3[SUP]rd[/SUP]! My first “date” with the woman who eventually became wife was a weekend at the track—my 1[SUP]st[/SUP] race after graduating from driver school. I managed to roll the thing dicing with an E-Production Alfa about 2 laps from the finish.
Racing was put on hold when the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] of our 4 children arrived. I always assumed that at least one of them would want to help me work on the car and maybe even race it themselves, but they didn’t, and it still sits forlorn on the trailer in the garage. And the kids are grown and gone--most of the time. Good news is now it’s a vintage racer!
I lucked into (is that good luck or bad luck?) a ’73 TR6 “basket case,” and parked it in the garage next to the Spitfire for a few years till I could get to it—great mid-life crisis project! I tell my wife that its better (and cheaper) than a mistress. The previous owner had taken it apart to repaint it, and never put it back together. He neglected to tell me that he had been having trouble with the clutch (that TR6 bugaboo of a sheered fork locating pin), that it took a while—and several removals/replacements of the clutch & transmission till I figured it out.
I’ve been driving it for about 20 years, now. It’s a daily driver as long as it’s not raining or snowing. The top is down and tonneau is always on, unless I get caught in a downpour. and am completing a “trickle restoration”—trying to fix things right & make the car better every time something breaks. Unfortunately I always have at least a dozen things to do on it at any given time. Stuff happens faster than I can fix it! Next big project—the previous owner had replaced the rusted fenders with fiberglass ones. When Roadster Factory put them on sale last year I bought 4 new ones. Now I just need to find the time to put them on and paint them! btw—the Spitfire rule applies to the TR6: I fix everything myself.
, but Basil has recently suggested I introduce myself. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts, and have been addicted to cars for as long as I can remember. My intro to British cars was my friend’s mother’s Jag MK 2 when I was about 7. I can still remember the aroma and feel of leather the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] time I rode in the back seat. Then there was my soon-to-be brother-in-law’s MG Magnette—again, all that leather and polished wood. Too bad the thing never ran!
The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] British car of my own was a TR3 that was missing all sheet metal forward the bonnet, as well as reverse gear. My friend, the previous owner, had put Goodyear Blue Streak race tires on it, and it stuck so well he promptly broke the rear body-chassis mounts, as well as MANY spokes on several wheels. When he got fed up with sinking gobs of $ into it, and begging me to help him fix yet another problem, he gave the car to me. Being a poor college student, I drove it just a short time before passing it on to a gearhead friend, who drove it for years.
Soon I bought myself a MK 3 Spitfire that had been torched, and spent months rebuilding it. I drove that on the street till I got thru college and found a job, and had enough $ to go racing. Took it apart again and built it to SCCA F-Production spec, and raced it for several years in EMRA, mostly at Bridgehampton (what a great track that was!), Long Island, and Bryar Park, New Hampshire. My rule was I had to do all the race prep work myself, so the car was never as fast as the professionally prepared cars out there, but it almost never broke, so through attrition (of other cars) I often captured 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] or 3[SUP]rd[/SUP]! My first “date” with the woman who eventually became wife was a weekend at the track—my 1[SUP]st[/SUP] race after graduating from driver school. I managed to roll the thing dicing with an E-Production Alfa about 2 laps from the finish.
Racing was put on hold when the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] of our 4 children arrived. I always assumed that at least one of them would want to help me work on the car and maybe even race it themselves, but they didn’t, and it still sits forlorn on the trailer in the garage. And the kids are grown and gone--most of the time. Good news is now it’s a vintage racer!
I lucked into (is that good luck or bad luck?) a ’73 TR6 “basket case,” and parked it in the garage next to the Spitfire for a few years till I could get to it—great mid-life crisis project! I tell my wife that its better (and cheaper) than a mistress. The previous owner had taken it apart to repaint it, and never put it back together. He neglected to tell me that he had been having trouble with the clutch (that TR6 bugaboo of a sheered fork locating pin), that it took a while—and several removals/replacements of the clutch & transmission till I figured it out.
I’ve been driving it for about 20 years, now. It’s a daily driver as long as it’s not raining or snowing. The top is down and tonneau is always on, unless I get caught in a downpour. and am completing a “trickle restoration”—trying to fix things right & make the car better every time something breaks. Unfortunately I always have at least a dozen things to do on it at any given time. Stuff happens faster than I can fix it! Next big project—the previous owner had replaced the rusted fenders with fiberglass ones. When Roadster Factory put them on sale last year I bought 4 new ones. Now I just need to find the time to put them on and paint them! btw—the Spitfire rule applies to the TR6: I fix everything myself.
