President’s Message – March 2022

President’s Message – March 2022

Good day everyone and welcome to March … and not a moment too soon as February has felt like a proper winter here in S. Ontario.  

First of all, I’m pleased to report we have a new date for John McCarney’s presentation:

John Macartney presents Sir John Black – the man who saved Triumph

DATE:           Tuesday 15th March

TIME:             6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (11 p.m. for John in the UK!)

FORMAT:      Virtual Meeting via Zoom.

Join Zoom Meeting:    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7092439786?pwd=WXo0UlI1MDBnTDBvUnNWWFpkSkxFdz09

SYNOPSIS:

This time last year John Macartney made an excellent presentation to our club reviewing his epic “Turn Left at the Pacific” journey of some 18,000 miles across the US in a Triumph Stag.  He’s also entertained us with a number of in-depth and humorous articles in Ragtop.   I’m delighted to report that John has kindly agreed to come back and talk to us again, this time his subject is Sir. John Black – the man who saved Triumph.   John has now retired from a motor industry manufacturing career and spends some of his time writing extensively on the history of his former work environment.   As a result, he has become widely recognised as a reliable information resource to British sports car enthusiasts around the world whose interests lie in the products of Jaguar, MG and Standard-Triumph. When writing about his chosen subject, John’s key interest is not so much the finished products, or the many technical aspects of automotive manufacturing but more on the people who designed, made, sold and serviced the cars in question.  John is also a strong advocate for addressing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in civilians.  It is popularly and mistakenly believed to be only the military environment where PTSD is experienced and suffered.  I do hope you will join us for John’s presentation and I’ll be sure to send a reminder a little before the 15th.

I’m delighted to report that 30 of us sent pictures of our 32 Triumphs to “Drive Your Triumph Day” on 10th February to celebrate Sir John Black’s 127th birthday.   Here’s a great pic of Barry and Dianne O’Rourke’s TR3A together with a pair of snow shoes.

Details are shown in the below chart and here’s the URL if you want to take a look at the over 600 photos on the web site that were sent from all over the world  https://driveyourtriumphday.shutterfly.com/   I took a number of runs through this website and transferred club member’s pics to our own web site at https://torontotriumph.com/photos-of-toronto-triumph-events/    If I missed any please let me know.

The British Car Council’s 2021 long distance awards have just been mailed.  These are awarded to club members who have driven their Triumphs more than 1,000 miles in the calendar year.    Special mentions go to 3 club members who drove their Triumphs over 5K miles; new member Ed Capelin in his Spitfire (Ed was featured in our last Ragtop), Richard Tisdale in his TR250 and Marg Edwardson in her TR6.  For 2022 the minimum distance travelled to earn an award will be back to 3,000 miles.

After a 2-year absence the Ancaster British Car Show, Sale and Flea Market will be returning to Ancaster Fairgrounds located at 630 Trinity Road, Ancaster.   It will be held on Easter Sunday 17th April with the doors opening to the public at 9:00 am and closing at 2:30 pm.  For all the details please go to http://www.ancasterbritish.ca/?main=page5.html    Toronto Triumph Club will – as always – have a table at Ancaster so please drop by to say “Hi!”.

I was over at J.D. Auto on Saturday to pick-up my TR250 following some work that Joe and his team performed on my gearbox, half shafts and rear bearings.   I had the TR shipped back to my house on a flat bed so she is now tucked up in her garage and looking forward to the spring.  I can’t wait to go for a blast but I have to be patient!  Joe and I chatted about an upcoming event at his shop for our club and with the recent positive signs that COVID restrictions could be ended soon we figured that April would be good start for our first in-person meeting of the year.  I’ll let you know the exact date closer to the time but if you have something specific that you would like Joe to discuss please let me know.

We got a very positive response to the request sent out to all TTC and MGCCT club members on Spring Fling so it’s definitely a go for 27th to 29th May in Cambridge (barring any further government intervention!).  Dianne & Barry O’Rourke together with Dianne & André Fleury have now booked the hotel and banquet space and are full speed ahead in preparing for this great weekend.   We’ll let you know when you can start to register and book the hotel, but in the meantime please make a note of this important date in your diary.  To check on this and all other upcoming events, please keep an eye on the club calendar at https://torontotriumph.com/calendar_of_events/

Take care and I look forward to seeing you – either virtually or in-person – over the coming months.

Cheers; Dave

Dave Sims
President, Toronto Triumph Club

905-331-1496