By Dominic Ruffalo When I was growing up, both of my grandpas instilled in me a love of classic cars. Outings with either of them often included attending local cruise nights and car shows. I learned from them at a young age to identify makes and models of vintage automobiles. I was hooked. One day…
by Joel Justin, Member of the Central Coast British Car Club When I was in high school in the mid-1970s, I was into cars like all my buddies. Most of them had American muscle cars, but my best friend and I were into sports cars. We read Road & Track instead of Hot Rod. We…
One fall day in my early childhood my father was readying his cars for an event. Usually, he would tinker on one or two at a time, but never all four at once. It turned out that my uncle requested the use of all the families’ classic cars in a brilliant and bold procession from…
IT’S THE REAL THING! As the owner of a 1966 TR4A that is in ongoing therapy and restoration, I have encountered many rusted and “lightened for life” nuts, bolts, and fittings which no amount of liquid wrench or lubricating oils were able to cope with. Working for a major airline, I often have discussions with…
by Graham Robson(written shortly before his passing in 2021) When talking to North American Triumph enthusiasts, the first thing I try to do is to remind them that the famous TRs were not the only sportscars the company had. If you total up the global sales figures, in fact, there were other models which did…
A Drive Through the Desert It started out as many driving adventures have – subject to precious little deliberation but with an ambitious goal to use a British sports car as regular transportation to get from one point to another just like occurred on a regular basis ‘back in the day.’ In this case, the…
By Charles Frick I met Andy Dunning in high school in 1970. We hit it off immediately, and we were both car obsessed. I was driving my folks’ Beetle to school and he was sporting an AMC Sportabout. We desperately needed something cool to drive. One afternoon he said he was going to look at…
By Forrest Struss Most of my high school years in Montana were spent driving a customized 1948 Chrysler. In 1960, I graduated, enlisted in the Army, and was soon stationed in Germany. My first appreciation for British sports cars developed in Germany in 1963 when my good Army friend purchased a new Triumph TR4. I…
Most automotive enthusiasts appreciate the innate differences between sports cars from America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom even if they are unable to articulate what makes them unique. Even the casual car guy can tell you that American muscle cars have large displacement engines; Italian engines make their power with lots of…
It never fails to surprise me how much real life is like high school. Back then we were typically identified with a group and that appellation likely stayed with us throughout our entire four years. Jock. Nerd. Slacker. Freak. Sometimes you were lucky enough to cut across such crass distinctions by creating a niche for…
