Urchin's Weblog

Every year I want to believe that Christmas can mean presents for myself, which generally means my cars. Surely, somewhere, wise men will look up at the sky and find a sign that leads them to an island 15 miles off the coast of Maine. There’s no room at the inn for them, but this Christmas season, they’d find my beloved ‘80 TR-7 Spider, my long-time companion, a ‘66 Land Rover Series II-A 88" SW, and a forlorn ‘87 Chevy Chevette. Please leave your gifts by the car doors.

Readers deserve an explanation here. The Spider came into my life in the fall of 2003 when I spotted it for sale at the annual British Invasion in Stowe, Vermont. I found myself strangely drawn to a car that I once derided as too radical and, when new, far too expensive. $10,000 for a Triumph? Back in 1980 my daily driver, a ‘72 MG Midget, had just about broken the bank when purchased used for $2,400.

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Yet in 2004, when a deer destroyed my then daily driver, ‘78 MGB, I found myself fixated on the TR-7. When I had a friend drive me 100 miles away to see the car, we found it in a barn with a dead battery. All we could do was jump start it and see if the headlights worked. I went through the motions of checking it out, but really, throughout the entire process I thought only of how I should take the insurance payment for the MGB and find the rest for the TR-7. And 45,000 miles later, I couldn’t be happier.

The Land Rover has transported me over 400,000 miles all over New England and the Canadian Maritimes. It has served as a mobile winch, hauled firewood, carried celebrity speakers to events, battled winter blizzards in remote areas and urban traffic jams, and delighted me off-roading. Randy Clark, a TR-7 racer from Maine, once called his Land Rover his “winter Triumph.” Unfortunately, another deer took out the front grill and radiator of the Land Rover.

When it went to a Land Rover shop for repair, I discovered that the frame and bulkhead were, as we say in downeast Maine, "pooched." It took nearly a year, but the tale of its revival is on www.eastcoastrover.com. You'll read how I was "Roverhauled"

But while the repair was underway the TR-7 became my winter driver, too. This brought me back to the days of the 60's and 70's, when sports car magazines advertised hardtops, ski racks and snow tires for British sports cars. They're a treat to drive in the snow, even the heavy amounts of New England.

The Chevette? Please forgive me, but I am the St. Francis of Assisi of automobiles and they gravitate for me. The saving grace of the Chevette was its purchase price of $0.00. That’s right, a local elder gave it to me when he had to give up driving. He purchased it new and tells one and all it was his “divorce car.” His ex-wife got the large house and he bought the Chevette. This late model version maintained all the clunky styling of the ‘70's original. Vauxhall and Opel got stuck with versions as did GM subsidiaries in Brazil and Australia; in the world of small cars, they’re as unloved and unappreciated as TR-7's at a British car rally.

My three cars will continue to lead me far this year. Each deserves some automotive version of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Apparently myrrh is an aromatic gum resin, sort of like pine sap. This will serve the Chevette perfectly as the resin can serve as the base for a sort of Bondo for the dissolving door skins. The aroma will help displace the gentle stench of accumulated garbage that permeates the car; by it’s last years, it had become the storage receptacle for plastic bags of trash destined for the weekly run to the local dump.

The frankincense will go to the Land Rover to celebrate the joy of driving it. The Rover will have it’s canvas top removed and replaced with its “deluxe” station wagon top. With its original “elephant hide” straw-and-spring seats, it has the delicious aroma of organic compounds from hypoid gear oil to antifreeze circulating through the heater.

Ah, the gold - well, that has to go to the Spider. That is, if I can afford the gold. Before I can get there I have to pay for the dross of the radial snow tires, the refurbished headlight switch, the rebuilt starter motor and the just-in-case NOS alternator. That doesn’t include the routine maintenance items like fresh oil, oil filter cartridges for the 3,000 mile changes, and antifreeze for the gentle, “somewhere” leak. Nor does it include the annual auto registration and insurance payments, all due in December.

I’ve perused the catalogues and internet offerings from Moss Motors, The Roadster Factory and Victoria British. What’s still affordable that I could buy for the Triumph? The previous owner had already recovered the seats in black leather. The steering wheel and gearshift knob, both original to the car, have a nice patina of daily use. It would be a shame to replace them now. My key fob reads “TR-7"; so, too, do my beer mugs and pipe ashtray. I can gaze upon TR-7's thanks the Wedge Calendar put out by an Englishman. And I already own enough T-shirts and caps.

One gift to myself was an inexpensive collection of Motor, Sports Car Graphic and Road & Track magazines from 1958 - 1971. Reading them reminds you of the strides forward and the steps backwards made by the British automotive industry and British car consumers. A Motor editorial urges the BBC to develop a channel for motorists with programming without controversy and music not intended to stimulate, both so as not to interfere with driving. Another issue of Motor devotes itself to the increased use of automobiles for winter transportation. As your car likely came without them, this issue features aftermarket heaters, windscreen washers, scrapers and tires for winter use. Both Sports Car Graphic and Road & Track have ads for aftermarket removable hardtops and ski racks to entice you to use your sports car year round.

Bingo! I’ve come to realize that the best gift I can give myself is daily use of my car, and the best gift I can give my car is care. So I’m going to enjoy my daily 30 miles of driving to work and my 300 mile end-of-week drives home every weekend. On Sunday afternoon, I take it to a car wash to rinse off as much salt as possible and forestall the inevitable. We had our first measurable snow in November and driving on snow and ice tests and enhances your overall driving skills. The TR-7, replete with the awful US hoses, air pump, twin Strombergs and low compression, nevertheless has started at near 0 F degree temperatures [as low as -20 F last winter]. It takes a bit to heat up the interior and keep it warm, but it works if I bundle up a bit, too.

My stretch of Maine features all two-lane roads, some wide, curvy and empty, encouraging 65 mph cruising on sweeping curves, some quite narrow through small towns that give your arms a great workout, and some traffic routes along the coast. Listening to the sound of the 2.0 liter wind up is my “Ode to Joy.”

If I can make it through the winter, then maybe I can entice attractive women to join me when we can put the top down, fulfilling the endless winter fantasy of sports car men. Jac’Kiye McCollett, a writer from Monmouth, Maine, took a 140 trip in the Spider this fall and insisted “I want one!” Now that will carry me through Christmas and well into the New Year.