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Trip to UK

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mabbott

mabbott

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So I went to the UK on business last week and never saw a Triumph...granted it was only three days. Two of the blokes in our office never heard of a Triumph.......I was shocked.

I was near Heathrow airport in the towns of Ashford and Stains and took a trip to London. We may be going back in July. Where would one find a Triumph collection in the UK?

Mark
73 TR6
 
mabbott said:
... Two of the blokes in our office never heard of a Triumph.......I was shocked.Mark
73 TR6
Click to expand...

What where they,12?
 
Not at all surprising. You'd need to run across enthusiasts with history knowledge. Or a bunch of old codgers. :wink:
 
Yeah, you'd get the same reaction from most people here if you asked about Studebakers!
 
I'll second the recommendation on the Heritage Motor Centre - not a bad drive from Heathrow, but probably 1 - 1.5 hours as a guess.

For history, there is Brooklands in Weybridge, but I've only been there when a car show was on.

If you are parts shopping, TRShop in London is reachable by Tube, and then close to Heathrow you have Moss London.

Now if you can control your schedule, the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Chichester would be a treat from July 3-5, and the ultimate in TR-dom would be the TR Register International weekend in Malvern July 24-26.
 
Check out the web site for the TR Register. They have about a thousand members across UK. They also have local groups all over. For example there is the North London group and another London group. The Kennett Valley group is not far away. Not too far from Heathrow is Hounslow and I visited a shop where they do fabulous polishing and porting of TR engines with measurements using flow instruments. In 1998, I spent 4 weeks touring England and visited 16 local group meetings and at the end, I attended the TR Register International weekend where there must have been 500 - 1000 TRs. I have been a paid-up memeber since 1987 and attended the unveiling of the monument in Canley in 2000 to commemorate the site of the former TR factory.

If you get to know them via their web site, they can help you a lot.

https://www.tr-register.co.uk/

They also have a forum much like this one.
 

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Don-

Unless I have my stories totally mixed up, I think you need to take more credit for that last photo even occurring - wasn't it your idea to make a monument at the Canley site?

Regards,
Randy
 
Randy - That is correct. When I heard that all the factory buildings had been demolished where our TRs and other Triumphs were "born", I thought, "Where will anyone from the US or Canada go to see where they all came from. There will be nothing there". All that remains is a superstore and a modern industial "estate" as they call it in England, So I wrote to the executive of the TR Register with the suggestion that they build a monument. About 3 years later it was ready for the unveiling and I was there.

To take the picture above, I had to wait more than an hour because everyone wanted a photo of themselves standing next to the monument. Which is exactly why I suggested it in the first place. Now when someone goes to the holy land (England) he or she can have a photo next to the monument on the former site where out Triumphs were assembled.
 

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And you were able to meet with Harry Webster too. Something certainly to be proud of!

Randy
 
I grew up in the UK and visit fairly regularly; I've always noticed more LBC's in North America than in the UK. The combination of poor weather, high taxes, annual MOT inspection and road salting likely have something to do with it also.
 
Mark...with the cast majority of these cars (80 - 90% in some cases?) being exported...mainly to the states...no wonder the boys over there don't know too much about our Triumphs! Gil
 
Was just about to mention the Coventry Transport Museum...sadly lacking a TR6 when I was there last year, but a great history of the region's auto manufacturing and some great examples of cars....and as I recall it was free admission...Very helpful if you're a starving grad student with an LBC infatuation!
 
Don...
Exactly where is the monument, I've just got to go and pay homage!
 
Was looking for this when the post was current. This was at the Portland ABFM a couple of years ago.
It was about 5-6 feet high.
PortlandABFMStatue.jpg
 
Graham - The Monument in England is in Canley on Herald Avenue about 200 yards from the huge statue of Gloria in the grassy center of a round-a-bout. The Monument is (or at least it was) right behind the Standard-Triumph Club on Tile Hill Lane for memebers who still go there for an ale or seven. In 2000, there were negociations with the owners of the new Industrial Estate who wanted to tear it down for more expansion. The delay had something to do with some clauses in the original contract when the land was sold to the new developers.

It is really a beautiful estate, tastefully done with wide avenues and grassy strips along the roads. The new buildings look like what you might see for headquarters or head offices with nice brick and stone-work and lots of huge glass windows.

On the front street (A-45) of this Estate is a McDonald's, a Blockbuster and a Sainsbury's Superstore which is about the size of a Walmart Superstore. Other streets are named Spitfire Close (Dead-end), Reknown Avenue, Toledo Close and Dolomite Avenue. The monument is where you can see the red circle on the map. Click on the link to see it.

https://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=canley&countryCode=GB#map=52.40317,-1.55191|16|4&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:52.40273:-1.55152:17|herald%20avenue,%20canley|Herald%20Avenue%20(B4101),%20Canley,%20Coventry,%20West%20Midlands,%20England,%20CV4
 
Thanks Don; I'm going to visit it next time I'm over in the UK
 
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