Kas Kastner -- Vintage Triumph Racing Parts and Systems

Kas Kastner -- Vintage Triumph Racing Parts and Systems

Good to see Kas and Dave Pearson in league :-) Here's Canley Classics ali 6 pot head, sat on an interesting car bonnet - it's a "bumpy bonnet" developement car, part of the still born Saloon Mk3 program.

Wheels and tyres

Anyone want some cruddy Spitfire wheels, some with tyres, some without (can't say I;d trust the tyres on there although one is brand new. Also some loose tyres of varying tread depth, all just about legal. A few beer tokens secures them, collection only - photo when I can be bothered :-)

Sod Off!

Yes it was that timeof year again, the annual Sod Off Graham Reeks Run to commemorate the day we finally got rid of Reeksy to the colonies :-) In 2005 Graham left the UK to seek fame and fortune down under and he's still there, thank God. A 400 mile round trip for me and well worth a run out to Southwold on the East coast. I gave James Carruthers a lift, as I did last year. Also Tim Bancroft's car was a bit sick so he dropped it off at Moordale Motors (Dale was out with us too) and he came with James and I in the Vitesse. 

Never seen one of these before - have you?

Clocked this on eBay the other day, it sold over my budget - I am tight fisted when it comes to this sort of stuff :-) It's quite a nice sticker, as stickers go.
I might be less mean the next time one comes up. The thing I;d really like to get hold of, wither original or just a copy is a set of rules and regulations for the rally - would be good reading. I did see a set on eBay a few years ago but they were withdrawn from sale and the vendor wouldn't enter into correspondence about whether they sold privately or for how much. Shame really.
I have to go into London next week and thought I might try and take a look in the British Library to see if I can find the newspapers of the time or at least understand how I can find them! It all depends on whether I have the time or not. 

I wonder......

In early 1970 the Abingdon Competitions Dept were developing a Rover P6 racer, the idea was that they'd run a Repco 4.3 litre V8 in a modified P6 shell and compete in the Marathon de la Route at Nurburgring - an 86 hour race. The car was prepared by Bill Shaw and finished off at Abingdon, aparently 1 car was completed to this spec. There were 2 or maybe 3 spare engines bought from Repco. It has to be said this car was a monster :-)
Why am I concerned with this? Well whilst at the Nurburgring the Abingdon closure was announced, the team returned and that was that. Sat in Abingdon were the works World Cup cars, the Marathon de la Route cars, some Repco spare engines and Bobby Buchanan-Michaelson's World Cup 2.5PI. This car had worn race number 1 in the event and had returned in disgrace having run like a dog from the start only to retire in Italy with failed suspension. One of the snippets of info I have is that this car, crewed by ex-Works driver Roy Fidler, had been breaking rear shockers, it turned out that a protection plate on the bottom of the shocker had been attached wrongly and effectively caused the thing to self destruct. The car was described as "privately prepared" by one of the works mechanics - go figure :-)
Anyway, back to the theory - fast forward 35 years and Car No 1 is rescued from oblivion by Dave Pearson. The story is that it used to have a drag strip v8 in it - the work done on the car to accomodate this is of an impressive quality. Could it have been the product of the end fo Abingdon? Spare monster V8 engine plus unloved World Cup Car multiplied by cheap disposals of kit by the works = Triumph V8 drag car?

UPDATE - was it Reco or Traco? I've seen both names quoted.

Russian World Cup team - start 'em young!

Whilst trawling for info I stumbled across this photo of the start of the 1970 World Cup Rally - not a Triumph in sight but nevertheless worth a blog :-) These were the works Moskvitch team cars, god knows who the kids are!