TR Action 236
It is that time of the year again. By the time you read this, the International will be with us again and a few of the hardy souls from the North are heading down to Malvern whatever the weather. It is amazing how quickly it comes around again but this year does call for a special effort, especially if you are a TR6 owner.
A number of members have been getting to grips with some of the challenges of TR maintenance. Gordon Murdoch looks like he is getting the hang of hauling his gearbox in and out of his TR6 as an overdrive gremlin struck again and Steve Smith, our group leader, figured out that he was carrying more ballast than usual in the form of a ballasted coil which had him inadvertently going through points and condensors at a rate of knots.
Meanwhile, the Group had another really good run out on the last Sunday in May. As it happens, we had switched the date a few times and ended up going for what turned out to be almost tropical temperatures for this part of the world (well mid 20s anyway). It was a great run, though I say it myself, going over a few roads I had not done since my days of night navigation rallies. If any of you ever get up to this part of the world, I can recommend the route that takes you past Drynachan Lodge and then on round Lochindorb. It was just excellent driving and I had the car bottoming out a few times on the route. We all finished up at Revack for an excellent lunch and then headed back by various routes north and west.
It is the start of the local car shows up here and Crathes has already been and gone, whilst the main North event takes place at Tain on 21st June. There is always a good representation from the Register at each of the events up here and we now have our first two TR7s in the group - owned by Kevin Horner and Tom Milligan - so welcome both and enjoy your TR ownership.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the summer and see you in Malvern.
TR Action 228
We had our first run out of the season on 17 May when a group of us headed across to the west to the Aultbea area for an overnight at Drumchork Lodge Hotel. For those of you familiar with this part of the world, you will know that we are totally spoiled for fabulous driving roads. Our route out took in the run to the north of the Torridons via Loch Maree and into Gairloch for a coffee break. Glorious weather all the way across made the trip a memorable one, as the photo shows.
For those who are partial to a dram or two, the Drumchork Lodge has over 700 to choose from and also has the smallest working still in the country. We took the opportunity to raise a glass to Tom Currie, our great friend and local group member who sadly passed away earlier this year. Few will match Tom’s love for just getting in his TR and heading out for a hard drive and he is sadly missed by all.
With sore heads from a few of us on the Sunday morning, we set off and headed north round the foot of An Teallach and headed for a short lunch break at Ullapool. Again it was a lovely sunny day, if a bit cooler, but we all enjoyed the run nevertheless. All in all it was a great trip and we hope to try and tee up a few other day runs during the course of the year, weather permitting.
The show season has started with the Crathes Rally just outside Aberdeen being the first event of the year. I headed across on the Saturday only to find myself in a convoy of about ten open topped Bentley tourers who were heading over to Braemar area. I take my hat off to these guys, they held a steady 60 on some fairly challenging roads and the noise from their engines was incredible, putting my not too quiet 6 into the shade.
Next local show is a new one at Tain which replaces the previously successful and now defunct Alness Rally and then it’s the trek to Malvern. I’m sure a few of us will make it down again and hopefully the weather will be more than a bit kinder than it was last year. See you there.
TR Action 222
So the summer’s run and shows are drawing to a close and the clock’s change soon signaling time to hibernate in the garage tinkering with the car. It’s been a while since I wrote a report for TR Action, not because nothing’s been happening, quite the reverse, but I’ve also been adding to our group section on the TR Website. I’m going to try and keep it bang up to date so if you really want to know what’s going on in the Group as it happens, go and check out: http://www.groups.tr-register.co.uk/highlands-islands/.
For the first time, we held an organized run to Applecross in June, which, for those in the know, involves heading up a fairly severe mountain pass before descending to the coast and the wonderful Applecross Inn for lunch. The return trip via Torridon took in some of the finest of Highland scenery and I’m sure that this will be the first of many trips in future years.
Then TS2 arrived on the scene (typically just as I’d gone off on holiday) but the guys did a sterling job in getting her up to John O’Groats, turning on the weather and arranging for the sign to be changed to mark the occasion.
Then there was the International and full marks go to Gordon Murdoch for being the only Group Member to make his way there and somehow managing to get to the showground… one of the few. His TR5 made the journey there and back relatively unscathed except for a bit of drying out.
On the Show front, we’ve been well represented at Forres Theme Day in July, Historic Wheels at Brodie in August and Grantown Motormania in September and amazingly we had fine weather for the most part on all three days. Steve, Gordon and Andy made it down to Scone today but as I write, I have no idea how the day went. We have one more main event to attend towards the end of the month at Roseisle and that will finally wrap up the show season.
Plans for next season will be another early season run out, possibly with an overnight this time and this will be discussed at the next Group Meeting. Keep an eye out on the website for details as they happen. Finally, if any of you have digital photos of your cars that you’d like posted up on the website, just e-mail them to me.
