Interesting Vehicles
I
became enamored with interesting automobiles early on, in about 1962. I read car magazines, but had no real appreciation of the differences until I got my second car, an Austin Healey Sprite.
I discovered early on that cars made in the United States weren't for me. They seemed poorly made, heavy, and laden down with too much ornamentation. Except for the original Cobra and the Trihawk—both made in California—American cars seemed to blend into one another. In contrast, European automobiles were often crafted to a single vision with far more style—in many cases almost quirky.
As used cars, they were relatively inexpensive, and fit my budget.
My first car, purchased for $300 before I could legally drive. I did everything to it I could (which wasn't much). It had a two-tone horn, and I got the bright idea to separate the two tones, wire them to an on-off switch on the dash, and then through an on-on button. So I could flip the switch to turn the horn on, then use the on-on button to flip between the two tones. And yes, I sounded just like the French police. Lots of fun. I bent the rear axel while learning how to drive it on two wheels on a street behind our house. I traded it in on the Bugeye.
My first true sportscar. English, very unique, and totally underpowered with a 948 cc. four-banger engine. Cost: $800. This photo doesn't show everything. I had wire stone guards on the headlamps, leather straps to hold down the bonnet, a cloisonné Union Jack badge on the driver's side front mudguard, and a straight-pipe exhaust which I fashioned from a discarded swimming pool skimmer (quite loud). I also removed the standard windscreen and installed a Brooklands racing windscreen on the driver's side along with a Monza mirror. Whenever I got a "fixit" ticket for having a non-standard vehicle, I'd swap the windscreens, get it signed off by the local police, then swap them right back.
When the clutch gave out I pulled the engine—Tom Duncan and I literally lifted it out of the engine bay—and rebuilt everything I could. I honed the cylinders, put on new piston rings, refurbished the valves, and had an automotive shop mill the head 10 thousands of an inch to even it up and provide slightly higher compression. The head gasket was a copper-asbestos-copper sandwich, and I had no idea I was supposed to soak it overnight in a basin of water prior to installation, so I blew two headgaskets before I figured out what I was doing wrong.
I did all the major work during a rather wet winter, and the gas tank was empty. It rusted. After reassembling everything the carberettors kept getting clogged with brown gunk (rust). I installed an electric fuel pump and an in-line glass fuel filter and kept cleaning it until all the rust was gone, which took months. I also installed a set of Pirelli tyres, and picked out the lettering with yellow crayon.
An interesting car. Sort of a poor guy's XKE, with a similar engine|body configuration. I took the front bumper off and painted the mounting stubs bright yellow. I removed the Triumph badge on the front and back and installed a placque that said "Effiñg" in the back, and an Auto Union four circle badge on the front. This is the car I sold to finance the motorcycle trip. It had a Laycock de Normanville electric overdrive on both 3rd and 4th gears. In effect this added only one ratio as overdrive 3rd was identical to 4th without overdrive, which was interesting. I once got a ticket for speeding, and the cop put "Effiñg" for the type of car. He didn't know what it was.
Travis was passed from person to person with a small group of my friends as collateral from whoever needed money. The price paid was based on who had the right amount of cash. By the time I got it, the choke wire was no longer attached to the dash, the passenger seat was no longer attached to the floorpan, and the paint job was matte. The owner after me parked it near the top of the drive on Christmas Hill without setting the brake properly and it ended up bouncing its way down through the undergrowth until it fetched up against a massive deodar cedar and had to be hauled out with somebody's winch. Not sure who had it last.
The white one. Purchased from Jennifer Wade's older sister, who'd gone off to college and needed money. I had vanity plates that said: BDYLAN. On a ski trip with Mark Mattenberger we were mistaken by a carload of teenagers for Dylan and friend, and Mark pulled out his harmonica and played them a tune at 70 MPH.
I owned three TDs in the early years, the first two were British Racing Green. The MGTC and TD were arguably the most significant sports cars of all time, given that they were brought back by service men after World War II and introduced our continent to the joy of such interesting and delightful vehicles. Vicky drove clear to Los Angeles with her dad to buy the first one, and barely got it over the Grapevine coming back. The original interior carpeting was cut pile with jute backing, which got a bit niffy when wet. All English sports cars smelled a bit like dogs just in from a walk in the rain, but none more than these.
The last of my three TDs. Named after Team Cream Cracker,
the famous English MG racing club.
Incredible car. Colin Chapman's seventh effort was built as a kit car, and shipped in pieces to the purchaser in wooden crates. Many installed the Coventry Climax four-banger, with two dual-throat Weber DCOE carburettors. The car was very light at 725 pounds, making the power-to-weight ratio extreme, and I clocked it with Tom Duncan at 0-60 at less than 4 seconds. I was once moving it by hand and ran over my own foot. The car was so light, it didn't hurt.
Tom once walked away from a whale-tail Porsche on the old Soda Springs Road above Los Gatos in this Lotus. The Porsche just couldn't keep up (and Tom was an excellent driver). I once took it on Highway 17, between Campbell and Los Gatos. The road had always seemed flat and smooth in other cars, but with such a low mass, the Lotus transmitted every single bump. I had to hold my arm across my chest to get home because the shaking was impossible to deal with. Quickest car I ever owned; I sold it out of self-preservation.
I always kept a bottle of Grey Poupon (Dijon mustard) in the glove box. Surprisingly inexpensive to buy, shockingly expensive to maintain, and as quiet as a house. You sit tall in a Roller, and it drives like a majestic ship.
Current vehicle. Very quick, with a low center of gravity, the Trihawk has a flat-four Citroën engine and three wheels. Only 96 cars were manufactured (in Dana Point, California) before the company ran out of funds. There aren't many three-wheeled cars on the road, and this one gets lots of attention, particularly from little kids, who may see it as something that looks like a toy.
🔹