TR6 passion through the generations; how did you get here?

[dantortorici]

Moved this from thoughts on Randall Young's passing to a new topic Did not know Randall personally but certainly did see how great a contributor he was to the community. His passing reminds me of one thing that many of us share, and that is we are 'older' and remember the TR6 from its glory days in the 70s. I myself bought my first TR6 in the early 70s, a 71 that was 3 or 4 years old.

The challenge I find myself thinking about is how we pass this along to another generation. Forgive me for forgetting who it is, but the idea of 'taking a young person for a ride' is a very positive effort in this direction. I myself have been grooming a nephew, hoping that I can convey the excitement that this car brings to all of us.

Curious as to others' thoughts on how we 'pass it on' and enable the next generation of Randall Yough's to enjoy the timelessness of this car and continue to bring new innovation to how to enjoy them.

For some additional thought, I have added a poll that seeks to gauge whether your car, or just the fever to get one comes from another generation.

The second choice, which applies to me, looks to uncover how many of us are into this passion because we have a long-standing connection to it.

You should be able to see the results as you vote, so have at it. Additionally, thanks in advance for any thoughts on how to pass this passion to a new generation.

Dan

[oppositelocksmith]

I've discussed it many times here before, but I'm a 3rd generation TR guy. My grandfather was a dealer, and my dad owned a BRG '74 similar to my '73 when I was a small child. I'm now in my mid-40's and have had my '73 for 30 years. Dad now has a pimento '74 that he is enjoying again as well.

We're trying to get my son to be the 4th generation to have an interest.

[dantortorici]

Great story and TR6 lineage!

[wemattson]

This discussion is a great reminder to share the experience and passion with younger generations. I myself am a third generation British car enthusiast. My grandfather had a TR-3 and then a late 60's MGB. My dad had an Austin Healy Sprite and my mom had a TR-3. It was her daily driver in New Jersey when I was a baby while my dad served overseas in the air force. The first car to really catch my attention though was my grandfather's MGB. He took me for a ride in it with the roof down when I was 5 and I still remember that feeling driving down the road with the trees and telephone wires wizzing overhead but especially going by this very tall imposing water tower that used to along side route 6 in Fairhaven. I'll have to remember to offer rides to my young nieces and nephews.

[dantortorici]

Wayne,
So interesting how the memory of the wind in your hair was the LBC imprint that you could never forget.

[phil73]

I think I've told this story before.

When I was around 13 years there was a guy named Mr Carr who lived on our street. He was restoring a TR4 in his garage. Every night after dinner I'd run out the door and down to Mr Carr's house to hang out with him in his garage while he worked on the car.

Not sure if he thought I was a pain in the butt to have hanging around asking questions night after night but...hey I was 13 years old.

In any case, hanging out with Mr Carr in his garage while he working on that TR4 is what got me hooked on LBCs. As to being generally hooked on cars...I was born that way.

[dantortorici]

When I was that age, there was a guy across the street, Sid that worked on Kaisers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Motors
I thought they were ugly.... so no interest really there. Now is Sid was instead working on a TR4.....

[phil73]

Years later Mr Carr finished the TR4 and started on an Arnolt-Bristol. That car was the most exotic thing I'd ever seen. Not sure where that project ended up as Mr Carr moved away and I went away to college.

[dicta]

It wasn't a TR6 that was my first Triumph, but a TR4. I had a friend of a friend who owned a TR2, that had a couple of jump seats in the back. That is where he stuffed his two youngsters when traveling about. How neat, I thought! At the time, I had a '54 Corvette and thought it was something special. I couldn't believe it when his auto-x time was so much better than mine. With young ones of my own on the horizon, having a sports car with room in the back was what I wanted (along with a real family car. (A '62 Ford 500) So that's how the TR bug started with me. Sorry, I can't post photos of the car. Yet.

Dick

[tr6ed]

Went looking for an mgb at my local Leyland dealer and saw a TR6 in an unlit backroom off the showroom. It was traded in by a college girl who couldnt handle the clutch and they hadnt had the chance to prep for resale as of yet. I bought it right then and have owned it since. That was the fall of 1974.

[Coyote]

My Dad brought home a non-running TR4 in 1973 ( I was 14). He and I worked on that car every weekend, and finally got it running. I took my first driving test at 16 in that car. The picture shows me with it during high school. I traded it for a Datsun when I went off to college. Fast forward to the mid 80's, I got my first TR6. My Son loved to go for rides in it. He's between 1-2 years old in the picture, He'll be 30 in two weeks. I sold the TR6 and bought a 3 series BMW, more practical for a family guy. Fast forward again to 2014, now being empty nesters I started looking and found a nice Mallard 74 TR6. Once in your blood, this hobby never leaves.

[dantortorici]

Great story, I am sure you have many memories of working on the car together. Nice looking cars. I agree, once in your blood, it never leaves

[Tush]

Whenever I’m at a show, and anyone that (pretty much at any age but especially the younger ones) shows an interest in the car, I ask them if they would like to sit in it. You never know, it might spark some memory and some desire in later years for them to get one...

Cheers
Tush

[dantortorici]

Great idea! I like how that makes a physical connection!

[skootch13]

I grew up in oxford, Ohio, site of a TRials a few years back and walked uphill both ways in blazing heat and 3 feet of snow to Kramer Elementary. The college students had some neat cars and i was a car freak from birth. One block from my house was a pimento TR6 with rubber bumpers, a leaking top and faded paint. This would've been around 80-82. Across the street was a blue Spitfire 1500 and I also passed a green TR7. I have no idea why, but the name Triumph just resonated with me. I liked the 6 the best of the three.

In the late 80s Road and Track ran an article about what cars will be collectors in the future. One was a DB5, one a TR6 and I can't remember the others. I stared at the pages and drove a cousin of mine nuts about the TR6.

5 years ago I bought mine.

How things change: The Miami students would bring neat cars in to town at the start of every year, mustang convertibles, BMWs, a few porsches. Miami has actively recruited students from China. They drive Ferraris, maserattis, Mclarens and lambobrghinis.

A friend of mine sent this picture of a snowplow a few years ago.

[TRick6]

I lived in England 1953-1955 during very informative years. I fell in love with MG's. Returning to the states for high school in the mid to late 50's, and my interest in cars growing, there was only US iron and I had my full. I loved cars, I raced American cars. However, my interest in the English sports car never waned. I drove and maintained my friends TR3. I admired the Big Healey from afar. I grew old for racing and sold my race Vega and bought the Six. Happiness is 71Six.

[TRick6]

The truth of it is whilst living on a manor farm in Huntingdonshire, England, one day as my sister and I were playing on a single axle farm trailer as a see-saw, I badly twisted an ankle. Whilst I'am in the air with legs hanging off the edge my sister stands to get off. The trailer comes down under my weight pinning and twisting my foot beneath. I felt a warm sensation and nothing else. My mom fearing it broken, recruits a neighbor friend to carry me to hospital. The two of them in front, they packed me in the space behind the passenger seat of a 1948 ish MG. I remember it as green with large narrow spoke wheels. As small as I was then I remember being squished in. Top down, cloudy wintry day. I was in love from there.

[skootch13]

Al, How did you come to live on a manor farm in England in 1953? That sounds interesting/fascinating.

[TRick6]

I am a military (Air Force) brat. My family joined our dad's 2 year deployment and was in Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire (Huntingdon annexed into Cambridgeshire) for one year and then Margate, Kent for the next year. I was enrolled in public form school, and not military base schools; the smartest thing my parents did for me. We were there to witness Queen Elizabeth's Coronation. I have school memorabilia. I recently returned with my wife to visit Margate and encountered a woman that remembered us, the "Yanks" living up the street on the corner. She remembers her mother speaking of my mother, their being garden friends. It was funny running into her at the corner church.

[bartman]

I was a kid growing up in South 'Joisey' in the 1950s. That makes me a 'piney' from around the pine barrens of NJ. All of us were car-nuts. We waited eagerly each fall for the new iron from Detroit (a local Chevy dealer would store his new cars on a farm near us before they were allowed to be shown to the public).

When I went to college in California in 1959 - 1961, the car group on campus at MSAC was the Sports Car Club, which I joined. It was all about Healeys, TR2s and TR3s, MG's (T type and the new "A"). We looked down on Detroit iron, and attended local SCCA races at the Pomona Fairgrounds, and big race events at Riverside. Loved to see the Jags of the day eat the Corvettes for lunch on the twistys at Pomona. I could never afford a sports car at that point, but rode with friends in a lot of them, including my best friend's XK120 coupe (which would overheat on the way to the beach every time if there was traffic).

Fast forward to 1971 in Connecticut; my 30th birthday and 'second childhood', I could afford a sports car. Buddy had a TR4a and I loved the sounds and the "brutish" nature of the car - no sissy scaled-down Buick there! Bought a brown TR6 new. It was my DD, and when we went back to NJ to visit, stuffed my infant daughter on the shelf behind the seats in a small bassinet, something I would probably get arrested for today. When my daughter started to grow - about 2 years old, wife insisted we sell the Triumph. Very sad to see it go, but frankly it was a maintenance nightmare, although really enjoyable to drive. Did OK in the snow also!

Jump again to 2012, just before my retirement; joined 6-Pack. This was a "third childhood" if you will, and a very unmolested '76 in Boston came to light. Looked at several around New England, but this one was right. Posted lots of pix on 6-Pack for advice, got lots of help. Even had surrogate buyers look at other cars available for sale. This one was ready to drive, needed TLC and some mechanical improvements, nothing major, and although it ran OK it was not really perfect. I was surprised how much Triumph improved the breed from my '71 to '76. Many fewer problems. Local 6-Packers like BobbyD, Ivan, and Al Gary were help in doing some things to improve the car - little things like alternate hood release, Boyd accelerator shaft bearings, etc. etc.

Some CT/NY 6-Pack guys started a "Boys n Toys" meeting a couple of times a year; attended them while they lasted and learned even more about the car. They were 6-Packers, of course, so adult beverages were always there, of course!

Thousands of dollars in mechanicals later (like hubs, dizzy, carbs by Poolboy, other maintenance items) it is running better than ever, although I have made very few cosmetic improvements. I haven't messed with it much mechanically this year; just occasional drives around the local area when the weather is right. I'm trying to swear off the tendency to fix things that aren't broken, and just drive and enjoy.

[dantortorici]

Early car passion turned British at college in California! Love the '3rd childhood' bit - that's one way to stay young
Interesting point about how Triumph had ironed out some of the kinks by 76.

[poolboy]

"I'm trying to swear off the tendency to fix things that aren't broken, and just drive and enjoy.".....Seriously, Bart ?

[bartman]

Ken - Honest, I'm REALLY trying.

[Elwood]

My friend came home from school 1 summer with a TR3 that he had bought, with a TR4 engine and transmission. I drove it and loved it. I bought and went through a succession of ****boxes (1 TR3, 2 TR4's) that were really parts cars, and then early in 1974 I came across a beautiful 67 4A solid axle car. Absolutely stunning car, white with seats from a 69 TR6, redline 185 tires, and wire wheels. It was my daily, and I loved it, then decided that I needed a new one before the safety regulations made them go away. I sold the 4A (still miss that car) and on September 20, 1974 I took delivery of CF22767U, Pimento with black interior. I still have it, and I still love it. My son loves it too.

[dantortorici]

Ah, one of the original owners crowd - That's awesome.
I couldn't afford the new version when these cars were made so have been a used car buyer ever since.

[frostr6]

I've been interested in cars as long as I can remember but my 2 most formative cars were my grandmother's '68 Camaro (for style and speed), and the VW Beetle (for it's weirdness and simplicity). My first car was a '73 Superbeetle, bought in '84, and that was my entry into fixing and improving cars. I generally knew Triumphs existed, but if there were many around northern Illinois in the mid '80s they didn't really register with me. But I've always loved small, unusual cars.

I got my TR6 through the family: I first drove when my dad had it for a few years and had a blast with it, loved the engine sound. Before him it belonged to his brother in law and before that one of that uncle's nephews on another side of the family, though the dates and info get hazy at that point. The car spent a few years at a cousin's house, and when she said it was free for whoever wanted to fix it, my brother had it trucked out as a project that we did together before he lost interest and now it's solely mine.

So I guess the TR6 fits neatly into my general car interests and mechanical abilities, and it happened to be a cheaply available car at a time when I was bored with working on bicycles and had a little extra cash for something more interesting. It's been a fun project to build and drive ever since. If I didn't have the TR6 as a fun car, I'd probably have looked for a something like a VW Squareback to tinker with.

[dantortorici]

Yeah, I can relate to going from working on bicycles to working on LBCs. For me, it was a 69 MG Midget
Sounds like the whole family was into TRs.

[UberXY]

My first car after university in 1975. Could hardly afford it, so that’s when I started to learn how to maintain and repair it on my own, which became a lifelong hobby.

[dicta]

....and you always knew who was behind you!

Dick