Triumph Car Day – a piece of history

All Triumph and Standard Car Day – Stirling Gardens, Guildford
An impressive array of vintage English Triumph and Standard cars was on display at Guildford last Sunday.
The Triumphs were definitely in the majority with a huge variety, ranging from Heralds, Stags and Spitfires to the always-popular TR4s, TR6s and TR7s.
Not to be outdone, the Standards also put on a good show, as did the Riley Club, which was the Guest Car Club for the day and provided quite a few models.
Music was provided by Celtic fusion band ‘The Rileys’, who felt quite at home amongst their namesake Riley cars.
The event also brought back a few memories for me as I was once the proud owner of a dark yellow (mustard-coloured) Triumph Stag in the days when they were a fairly frequently sight on Perth roads.
And they weren’t cheap.
In the early 1990s a pristine Stag could set you back up to $15000 – a lot of money in those days (and today, for that matter).
I purchased my beauty at the old Central Auctions in East Perth for the princely sum of $8000 – a relative steal by comparison to the average price.
Little did I know what I was in for though as after only a few weeks, Perth’s warm weather hit with a vengeance.
This caused the Stag’s radiator to boil on a regular basis and I tried many ways to overcome the problem – including fitting a small and very expensive plastic overflow tank that in the end, achieved nothing.
So it was with a heavy heart that, in the interests of economics, I finally decided to part company with my former love.
Realising the overheating problem would eventually lead to exorbitant repair bills, I figured another more competent (and hopefully, affluent) owner would find a way around the problem.
This turned out to be a Triumph-mad car dealer from West Perth who saw my ad in the Sunday Times and snapped up the Stag for a mere $9500 – an amount that not only covered my costs, but also left me with a few dollars over.
So in the end, my Stag experience was not all bad.
When I questioned one of the Triumph owners at the car day, he said that nowadays most Stags and Triumphs in general, had perfectly efficient radiators.
Oh well, had this been the case with mine, I am sure I would have had a much longer and more enjoyable association.