Age 36 to 45 ...Play
I mentioned on a previous page that I have been a life-long motor enthusiast, and away from work, car-related activities took up a huge chunk of my time for many years, most especially revolving around Triumph sports cars. I had owned a one Triumph TR7 in my late 20s, but when I was 36, I sought-out a nice red TR7 convertible, which I almost never drove with the roof up - a cap on the head and blanket over the knees being required in cold weather! Becky loved the car too, and drove my TR quite a bit before eventually buying a lovely blue TR7 convertible of her own.
Our enthusiasm for the cars, and a search for some social activity around them, first had us join the TR Driver's Club - a club whose membership is largely made up of TR7 owners. The club had local club nights, as well as more major national events, and we traveled about a good deal attending these. We were aware that a significant upgrade to the 2-litre, 4-cylinder TR7 was to install a Rover V8 3.5 litre engine, and I found sufficient funds for my TR to go off to a garage in Lancashire which specialised in such conversions. The brakes and suspension were upgraded as well, and when my car came back, it was transformed into a very rapid and fun sports machine with a wonderful growling exhaust note.
Another Triumph car club that we knew of was the TR Register. This club caters for owners of all varieties of TR sports cars, and having attended a few of their meetings, we found ourselves enjoying the wider variety of people and cars at the meetings, so we parted with the Driver's Club, and became active TR Register members.
It was about this time that Becky had her TR7 converted to V8 power, having a full refurbishment of the bodywork and interior at the same time, going for electric blue paintwork and a white leather interior. The car was a stunner, and with Becky at the wheel, turned heads where-ever she went. We traveled to meetings all over the country, usually in convoy, and became quite well-known members of the Register. Becky entered her car in a 'working car' class at the TR Register International weekend concours in about 19?? and duly won the top trophy.
Our local TR Register club was Kent Group, which then catered for some 200 TR owners across Kent. Classic car people like to show off their cars, and the group regularly booked display space at a number of classic car shows. I became the group's show co-ordinator, which meant I had the task of finding people who were willing to attend shows, and then set up the display stand at the show 'on the day'. Triumph made a range of different TR marques over the years from the mid-50s to the early 80s. We had examples of all the marques in Kent, and it was a fun challenge to get an example of each marque present at a show. I achieved this a few times.
My interest in computers developed along with the popularity of the machines themselves. While we had no PCs at my school - The James Street Centre - I did introduce little portable battery-powered notepad word-processor devices, which had a keyboard and a screen, but had to be plugged into a printer to print-out one's written work. I think they were Amstrad NC100s. The year would have been about 1992.