1989 Savannah Regional Behind Me
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- <" The Georgia Triumph Association ft150 Horth Park Drive . Tucker, Gli 30084 1.------1* First Class Mail 0009 Bob Ragan 2611 Willow Green Dr. Duluth GA 30136 The 'Georgia Triumph Association is a proud Chapter of the Vintage Triumph Register. ............. 1..01 •• I''''' .... ~"' ...... I I...,. Ow ... 11 ..... "" ' .L ..... " ........... ...,,, .. ........ '" '" 'oJ .lo.J .... I ::::t • ....- .............. .................. ...... ... ...... ~ ... exhaust ports behind the front wheels. The interior is more luxurious and the chassis has undergone some improvement as well. The 3500 gets it name from He//o There that same 3.5 litre V-8 that is being used for the MG-B. This engine was also By Hal Doby, used in the TR8 and the Rover 3500 in the States during the "Good ole Days" Well once again it's late. As I stated in the quick note that I sent out a few weeks and is presently being used in the Range Rover. ago, Action Awards (My employer) was hit by lightning. It took over two weeks to bring our computer network back from the brink, but it is together again at last. The Ultimate Rust Repair Unforntunately, half of this newletter was stuck on one of my dead netservers. Bring the MG-B back into production was made possible by the production of Now that it has come out of it's coma, I can finally get this out. Sorry for the entire uni-bodies of the 1967 vintage MG. Problems in hanging the doors and Idelay. deck lids have been solved, and production is underway. It is now standard fare that at large MG events in the mother country, BMH shows up with a body shell Oh, what a feeling I Well its been over a month, and I'm finally about to put the and builds a new MG-B on the spot during the event. Thoroughbred and ClassiCI 1989 Savannah Regional behind me. It was quite hectic putting it together, but it Cars magazine is giving one away with a contest for the home market. In the July 31, 1989 edition of AutoWeek magazine, there is an article about both the new / was a blast. Every little thing that I could put off until after the regional has come back to haunt me, but I think I've just about got it under control. Healey and this body shell. They state that soon the body shell will be available to MG fans in the states for about $3995.00 delivered. Where can one be had? Steve and Lori have written up a report in this issue about the regional for you. It They will be available from Moss Motors, British Victoria, MG Parts Center, and was a fun fiI./ed weekend. Everybody who drove at the track had a wonderful of course from The Roadster Factory. time. I hope that we can go back someday. , Can you say "Wover"? Congratulations to Tom Horvat and Johnna Yarborough. By the time you read For the past few years, the Rover Group has been developing close ties with this, they will have become Husband and Wife. Tom and Johnna were wed in Honda of Japan. The first result of this was what we know as the Sterling and the 'Texas where Johnna's family is at. Tom has been a long time member of the Acura Legend. Rover developed the suspension and basic body structure while GTA, and has a super TR6. Johnna has been with Tom for many GTA events. Honda developed the drivetrain. since that time, they have developed more cars Congratulations you two. together. One of which will appear at your local Sterling dealer with an MG badge no less. Well Honda has signed a letter of intent to purchase 20% of the Rover On a sadder note, Kathy McAleer was under the weather. She was in the hospi Group. Rover in return will purchase 20% of Honda U.K. Manufacturing (HUM). tal for about a while suffering from Menengitis. Kathy's Husband Hugh was Honda is building a $490 million assembly plant in Swindon, England to manu planning to go to the VTR 1989 convention, but was not able to go due to this. facture both Hondas and Rover/Sterlings. HUM intends to purchase 80% of the Kathy is doing better and should be up and around in short order. Get well soon componentry used at the plant from within England. Once it come to fu!1 produc Kathy. tion, HUM plans to build 300,000 car per year. Speaking of the convention, to my knowledge, we only had two members of the Hello Federal .•• GTA attend the event. Steve McMath decided to fly up on the Friday of the meet Jaguar and Business Logistics Services, a division of Federal Express have to be with his fellow Triumph compatriots. Dennis Riley, the ever daring GTA formed a partnership to reduce the time it takes the carmaker to send a part from Assi~tant Director, drove his new 1981 TR8 all the way to Albany. At the Savan an English warehouse to a US dealership from 11 to just 4 days. nah meet, Dennis heard of this TR8. It "only" had 13 miles on it! Not any more Dennis. Hopefully we will hear from' these two intrepid voyagers soon, and we will Following Up give you a report on the convention next time. Remember when I got on my soap box about the Suzuki Samauri and the Consumer's Union claiming the Samauri was a dangerous car? In my article I mentioned about the controversy surrounding the Audi 5000/100 and its "unin News tended acceleration" problems. The NTSA has officially ended its investigation of by Hal Doby the Audi. The agency determined that this problem was due to "Pedal Misappli It's Back, Part II cation" (I just love those official terms). During the whole controversy, Audi Remember a while back that I told you that the MG-B was being put back into claimed that it was this problem of people mashing on the gas instead of the production by British Motor Heritage? Well another legendary British sports car is brakes and thinking that they were stepping on the right pedal. Audi sales fell back as well. the Healey Motor Company (That's right, Healey!) has introduced through the basement during all this. They have yet to recover from it. the Healey 3500. The new Healey is based' on the body work of the famous registrants, and the celebrating finally stopped around 12. I might add that this Finally was a long day for Lori and me since we had gotten up at 4:30 that morning to You might be interested in noting that CBS television will air a program entitled appear on "Coastal Sunrise,· a local morning TV show to promote the event. It "America's Driving Test" on August 29. This program, sponsored by Valvoline, was a lot of fun, and we have a video of the show if anyone would like to see it. will test and educate people on driving safety. The program will run for an hour. If A new Savannah member of the GTA, Jim Davis, works for WSAV-TV and set you are interested, please check you television schedules for the air time . Watch the whole thing up. Thanks again, Jim! WAGA replace this show with a "Waltons" special or something. At about 7 a.m. Friday morning, about 60 Triumphs headed out to Roebling Road for the track day. The track time was divided between touring laps, sports runs The Savannah Regional with some competition cars getting to run as well. Overall, the track portion of by Steve Conway the event went smoothly and a good time was had by It is very hard to believe that over 7 months of planning, hard work, and countless all. Only one person went ba-ha all day, and he only bent his wheel rims. meetings came to a climax that went by so quickly. The 1989 Savannah Triumph Gathering was a success and for this a few thanks are in order. Around 8:30 that night, the beer party, sponsored by the Roadster Factory, cranked up around the pool, and car discussions got well underway. ,At 10 p.m., As Regional Chairman, I would like to start by recognizing my nucleus of work the door prizes were given away, and registrants prepared for the show and ers. First was Hal Doby, who handled awards, t-shirts, and registration. Next in rallye on Saturday. line was Rob Dick, who was the track captain and coordinator as well as the M.C. at the banquet. Finally, there was my wife, Lori, who handled all the initial At 8:30 Saturday, Tom Horvat and I set up the show at the Visitor's Center and , preparations for the event centering especially around the motel and track, and the show event went until 12 noon. Again, the quality of the cars cannot be who also kept us all in line for the last 2 months. She is much better at planning overstated. There was a French blue TR6 that positively looked better than than I am; I know that. showroom quality. Also present was a red TR250 of the same calibre. I promise you will read about these two cars again from the national. Two GT A cars won Some other key helpers for the event were DenniS Riley and Scott Hotton. awards at the show: Lori's TR250 took 1st place Participant's Choice in her Dennis and Scott did the tech Inspections at the track as well as keeping things class, and Hal Doby's aerodynamic, vermillion red TR7 also took a 1st place running throught the day.